Tyler Bell, a University of Iowa associate professor of electrical and computer engineering, contributed to research on AI-integrated virtual reality training for teacher preparation that won an award for contributions to Iowa education.

The Iowa Academy of Education granted the Thomas N. Urban Research Award for the paper "AI-integrated virtual reality training for teacher preparation on functional communication training: a randomized controlled trial," which was published in Virtual Reality, a journal of the Virtual Reality Society. Bell was one of eight authors of the paper. 

The Thomas N. Urban Research Award recognizes outstanding research or scholarly contributions to Iowa education. Urban was the chairman and former chief executive officer of Pioneer Hi-Bred International, Inc.