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About Us
Learn about the team that helped create and deliver VOISS.
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Partners
VOISS began in 2013 at the University of Kansas with a simple question...
How could we use technology give students with disabilities a safe place to learn and practice the social skills that matter in everyday life?
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Our Story
Dr. Sean Smith and engineering doctoral student Justin Ehrlich created AViSSS, an early virtual reality prototype that started to answer this question. With funding from the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP), Dr. Smith, Dr. Amber Rowland, Dr. Maggie Mosher, Dr. Bruce Frey, and a team of students, researchers, developers, school partners, and experts began to transform that early prototype into VOISS, the solution that students and practitioners are using today.
Adolescents, educators, and caregivers helped inform the design and testing of a solution intended to work in the real world. Research remained central throughout its development. Three randomized controlled studies examined VOISS across different technology platforms (2023), compared VOISS with PEERS (2025), and studied VOISS, VOISS Advisor, and their combined use, with researchers finding statistically significant improvements on selected social skill outcomes.
VOISS INC. was created and secured an exclusive worldwide license from the University of Kansas to commercialize the technology and extend its reach to more students, educators, and caregivers. VOISS Inc. operates independently, with Paul Epp serving as Co-Founder & CEO and Amber Rowland as Chief Science Officer, while KU researchers continue federally funded research and development related to the next generation of VOISS, including AI-enhanced innovations.
The vision that guided VOISS from the beginning continues today as VOISS has become available to students, educators, parents, and practitioners everywhere while the research continues at the #1 Special Education program in the nation and the mission remains the same:
Develop innovative solutions that serve youth and the adults who support them, test these solutions using rigorous research, and create sustainable pathways for delivering these solutions.
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