Recently, we hosted a class of second graders from Barkstall Elementary School to visit our innovation spaces and try out our technology. It was a great time for everyone!
Ramiro Ferrando, a Journalism student at the University of Illinois Champaign-Urbana, created a website about virtual reality in journalism. The website features a video where Jamie and Jim talk about virtual reality. Journalism & Virtual Reality Website
CITL is proud to announce the creation of a Flight Simulator Lab as part of the Virtual Reality Lab. In partnership with UIUC’s AFROTC Detachment 190, the lab will soon be available for cadets and midshipmen to practice flying aircraft in immersive Virtual Reality. The new simulator experience utilizes an Oculus Rift headset running on […]
Senior eLearning Specialist Jamie Nelson presented “The Power of Presentation: Making an Impact on your Audience through Intentional Design and Engagement”at the Kent Seminar Thursday, Nov. 29. Watch the video, below. Interested in having Jamie present to you own group? Contact him through the TechHub website.
The Stanford Ocean Acidification Experience (SOAE) is a VR program from Stanford’s Virtual Human Interaction Lab. SOAE is a Steam-based VR experience aimed at creating awareness and education about how climate change is effecting the world’s oceans. Throughout the experience, users participate in different roles, first learning about the chemistry of ocean acidification, then transitioning […]
Daily Illini staff writer Shreya Goel focused her recent story on an upcoming virtual reality workshop offered through the TechHub on November 27th. “The purpose of this workshop is to expose visitors to the basics of virtual reality and how to dive into it in different ways,” Chapa said. “This relates to our series in […]
CITL and the VR Lab are excited to be partnering to support alpha testing of a virtual cave dig experience with Laura Shackelford, Anthropology. Her course, Virtual Archaeology, is scheduled to debut in Spring 2019. More information about this project from the University of Illinois News Bureau is linked below. https://news.illinois.edu/view/6367/717299
CITL’s VR Lab participated in the conference imaginarium session that provided a space for 375 conference attendees to experience a place where their minds can expand and soar, where innovation, curiosity, and creativity are encouraged and where learning and problem solving can occur.
In this video, I talk about why TIME’s 360° Rio Pollution Video wasn’t effective, and what they could have done to make the experience more enjoyable and educational overall. Link to the Experience (YouTube)
Professor Anna Kasten returned to the Innovation Spaces this time with her class of 16 Saudi students.
CalcFlow is an immersive environment that puts you front and center with tough topics such as 3D calculus and electromagnetism. This tool can help to teach and visualize topics from surface integrals to electron orbitals to vector fields. CalcFlow is a valuable resource for anyone working with 3D phenomena. https://nanome.ai/calcflow/
Professor Charles Linville sent students studying biostatistics to the VR Lab to explore Sharecare VR and Google Earth.
Students of all majors are invited to compete in the Big Ten Student Design Challenge. Win $2000, network with industry professionals, and remake a space on your very own campus. Here’s how it works: each school has chosen an informal space to be re-furnished, and are now accepting designs from student teams. The best proposal from […]
The 360° Battle of Waterloo experience proves how informative and captivating VR videos can be. In these 2 minutes, you are taken through a reenactment of this historical battle, all through an up close and personal view, and you can see first hand what war looked like 200 years ago. The 360° footage enabled a wider […]
1943 Berlin Blitz is an immersive VR experience narrated by an original BBC recording of a bombing run on Berlin in 1943. This experience puts you front and center in one of the tensest times in recent history as you witness the dramatic reality that was aerial warfare in World War II. https://www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/latestnews/2018/berlin-blitz-vr
Digitally-empowered Learning: Teaching Archaeology through Virtual Reality and Game-Based Learning Professor Laura Shackelford discusses her NSF-sponsored project to develop an immersive, interactive, room-scale virtual reality (VR) archaeological site. The technology and curriculum enable faculty to teach the physical methods of archaeological excavation by providing the setting and tools for a student to actively engage in […]
Link to the Experience (YouTube)
Andy Wilson discusses how he has introduced VR in his freshman World History class at Uni High. Read more here.
Law students explore the legal applications of virtual reality during the Law Library Research Expo on October 30th at the College of Law.
Sharecare|VR lets you explore human anatomy in an immersive environment. Here, you can interact with the different organ systems and examine their internal structures and operations. This application even shows the effects of different health conditions on the body and can put you up close as you get a first person view from inside […]
Representatives from the Career Center visit the TechHub and VR Lab to learn about 3D printing and explore VR.
Link to the experience (YouTube)
Professor Brakke brought his architecture students to tour the TechHub and VR Lab as part of this studio course called Museum of Future Pasts. His students are working on a cultural center that incorporates tradional notions of a museum program, but also new media with technologies like VR and AR.
CITL’s VR Lab staff is involved in a grant proposal with faculty members Cory Pettijohn and Matt Browning to tell the story of climate change using 360-video. If awarded, we will provide student teams the opportunity to create a 360-video project focused on issues of sustainability pertinent to the midwest. We’ll also make GoPro Fusion […]
Professor Oyallon-Koloski brought her Media and Cinema Studies students to the VR Lab to explore 360 video.
Funded by the UI Student Sustainability Commitee (SSC), the Gadget Garage is a collaborative repair center for student and staff owned electronic devices, in order to: extend the useful life of products provide experiential learning for student through associated classes, volunteering, and participation in the iFixit Technical Writing Project; and empower people to see do-it-yourself […]
It was great to have Monika Dressier from the University of Michigan stop by to check out the Armory Innovation Spaces.
The Center for Innovation in Teaching & Learning sponsored the 2018 Heartland Maker Fest, an annual event celebrating the amazing makers in Urbana-Champaign and the surrounding communities. Heartland Maker Fest strives to: Inspire By searching for creative and unique makers to exhibit at the festival we hope attendees are inspired by the creative projects of others. Empower By focusing on […]
80 freshman education students in EDUC 101 toured the Innovation Spaces to explore how emerging technologies are being used in education.
Professor Randy Sadler and his students visited the VR Lab to explore applications for language learning in virtual reality ImmerseMe – https://immerseme.co/ Mondly Languages – https://www.oculus.com/experiences/gear-vr/1272636489423125/ VirtualSpeech – https://virtualspeech.com/language . . . and play some Kitty Rescue.
Members of the Illinois Business Council RSO stopped by to take a look at the technologies available at the TechHub and VR Lab.
Student teams from Phil Anderson’s business administration course stop by to play Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes.
Visitors from the Data Analysis and Systems Services team stopped by the VR Lab to try out a variety of VR Experiences.
The VR Lab is currently assisting in early testing of a virtual cave dig for Professor Laura Shackelford. Students are encouraged to sign up for a 30 minute session to complete a short VR lesson and respond to survey questions. Sign up here to participate.
We’re pleased to continue hosting MakerGirl workshops in the Innovation Studio. See a list of upcoming workshops here.
CITL Innovation Spaces took part in Pygmalion’s Learn Demo for the second year.
Guests from Zhe Jiang University visit the Innovation Spaces to explore the use of emerging technologies and virtual reality in higher education.
CITL’s VR Lab assisted with the rendering of 360º videos taken by grad student Haley Cabaniss several hundred miles on the coast of Oregon at the Axial Seamount.
Kinesiology professor Susan Aquinaga is using CITL’s VR Lab to give her students the opportunity to see firsthand what it’s like to have Alzheimer’s disease, macular degeneration, and other age-related health conditions. Learn more about Embodied Labs here.
Illini eSports started up their open gaming hours for the Fall term. Join them every Thursday from 5 – 9 in the Innovation Studio.
Staff from CITL’s VR Lab accompanied the Vet Med Anesthesia team to the Exotic Feline Rescue center in southern Indiana. We shot several 360º videos that allow viewers to experience these procedures first hand. See the entire YouTube playlist here
Students from Saudi Arabia visit the TechHub in August to explore emerging technologies like Sony VR.
CITL Staff met with new faculty at the campus-wide new faculty orientation held at the iHotel each semester. It was great to meet the new faculty interested in using emerging technologies within their courses.
CITL Innovation Spaces has partnered with the Women’s Resource Center to loan 12 iPads for the FYCARE program. What is FYCARE? The First Year Campus Acquaintance Rape Education (FYCARE) workshop is an interactive discussion on campus sexual assault, required for all first-year undergraduates. National studies have shown that 1 in 5 women and 1 in […]
Professor Laura Shackelford, working with campus colleagues, has developed an educational VR experience for students. CITL’s VR Lab will support alpha testing of this experience during the Fall 2018 term.