EAGER: US IGNITE: Collaborative Exploration in Networked VR Environments, and Application to Remotely-Guided Classroom

University Of Louisiana At Lafayette, Lafayette LA

Investigators

Abstract

This project focuses on taking advantage of emerging virtual reality (VR) technology and high-performance networks for collaborative exploration of 3D environments, and on the application of such environments to education. The project is developing an immersive networked collaborative VR environment for education about energy technologies. As part of the project the system will be deployed to assess the value of its tools for high-school STEM education. The overall goal is to explore, and to help spark, the transformative potential of high-performance networks and emerging VR devices for innovative educational and other beneficial uses. The project leverages the City of Lafayette's innovative "Fiber-to-the-Home" project that has brought high-speed fiber optic internet access directly to every school and home in the city, including the David Thibodeaux STEM Magnet Academy, the target high-school for the project. The project also leverages an existing non-collaborative VR tour of a "Virtual Energy Center" that was developed to explain solar thermal power and other alternative energy concepts to high school students. It models a real-world facility, the UL Lafayette Pilot Concentrating Solar Power (CSP) Plant in Crowley, Louisiana, a research facility for alternative energy sources.