Hybrid Experience Lab (HexLab) (CDM-022)
Summary 🟡 ✓
- Owner Unit: Jarvis College of Computing and Digital Media
- Sub-unit: School of Design
- Content Type: center
- Campus/Location: Loop
- Last Verified: July 1, 2026
Description & capabilities
Faculty research lab exploring hybrid games and experiences at the intersection of digital and physical media—games with a purpose beyond entertainment, VR with strong physical components, AR in outdoor environments, and board games with digital elements. Part of the Game Labs / XR research cluster.
Access status
- Level: yellow (
Negotiated Access) - Rationale: HexLab website documents hybrid XR/game research focus; no published open-access policy for lab development hardware.
- Access URL: www.depaul.edu/faculty/richard-wetzel
- Contact name: Richard Wetzel
- Contact email: richard.wetzel@depaul.edu
- Verification date: 2026-07-01
- Source URLs:
- www.depaul.edu/faculty/richard-wetzel
- hexlab.cdm.depaul.edu
Verification
- Status: confirmed (
âś“) - Confidence: 90/100
- Rationale: Legacy evidence aligned with kernel provenance (depaul/XTR-000077); primary source: https://www.depaul.edu/faculty/richard-wetzel
- Last verified: 2026-07-01
- Evidence:
- At DePaul, Richard is the director of the Hybrid Experience Lab (HexLab). (https://www.depaul.edu/faculty/richard-wetzel)
- Supplementary lab reference: https://hexlab.cdm.depaul.edu/
Equipment
Find this resource from the Equipment catalog or site search (e.g. “3D printers”, “laser cutter”, “NMR”).
| Category | Specific equipment |
|---|---|
| VR, AR, and XR | Hybrid VR/AR/physical game and experience development prototypes |
| Electronics benches and prototyping | Tangible-digital and hybrid board-game interaction testbeds |
Related equipment categories
Taxonomy bridges to related capability elsewhere on campus (search these terms or open the catalog anchors):
Equipment access (via linked resources)
| Resource | Notes |
|---|---|
| CDM-012 | Virtual & Augmented Design Lab — Game Labs cluster |
| UNI-015 | BETA XR / biometrics — related human–technology interaction adjacency (capability bridge) |
| CDM-001 | IRL electronics benches — related tangible / physical-computing prototyping |
Source: HexLab website and Game Labs context (May 2026). Last verified: July 29, 2026.
Contacts (resource-level)
- Website: Hybrid Experience Lab (HexLab)
- Email: Richard Wetzel
Last verified: May 30, 2026.
People & contacts
Named contacts from the people registry when publicly documented.
- Richard Wetzel (Director) — richard.wetzel@depaul.edu · Profile
Source URL
Official links and email are listed under Contacts above.
Documented Relationships
Complements Virtual & Augmented Design Lab (CDM-012) and Instructional Game & Innovation Lab (UNI-006) within the Game Labs cluster. Related human–technology / electronics adjacency: UNI-015 BETA Hub, CDM-001 IRL.
Linked Relationship IDs
- CDM-012 - Virtual & Augmented Design Lab
- UNI-006 - Instructional Game & Innovation (DIGI) Lab
- UNI-015 - Business Education in Technology & Analytics (BETA) Hub
- CDM-001 - Idea Realization Lab (IRL)
Notes
Faculty research lab profile split from CDM-012 aggregate (May 2026).