Emergent Interdisciplinary STEM Education Systems: XR and Applied AI Perspectives

Dear Colleagues,

STEM education is increasingly shaped by interconnected human, digital, and physical components that function as complex, adaptive systems. Rather than viewing learning environments as a collection of instructional tools, this Special Issue frames STEM education as a socio-technical system in which learners, educators, intelligent technologies, and institutional structures interact across multiple levels and time scales.

From a systems perspective, artificial intelligence (AI) introduces capabilities for sensing, feedback, adaptation, and decision support, enabling learning environments to respond dynamically to learner behaviour and contextual change. Extended reality (XR) technologies further support this evolution by coupling physical and digital experiences, allowing learners to engage with complex systems through immersive, experiential, and simulation-based approaches. Together, AI and XR reshape information flows, feedback loops, and system dynamics within STEM learning ecosystems.

This Special Issue invites contributions that address the design, modeling, analysis, and management of adaptive STEM education systems. Topics of interest include system dynamics, agent-based and data-driven modeling, digital twins, feedback and control mechanisms, and governance strategies that support resilience, scalability, and effectiveness. By emphasizing systems integration and emergent behaviour, this Issue seeks transferable insights that extend beyond education and inform the broader study of engineering human–machine systems.

Prof. Dr. Magesh Chandramouli
Prof. Dr. Jose Sanchez
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-anonymized peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Systems is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.