Saturday SAVY, Day 3 – Building Virtual Worlds (7th/8th)
The final day of Building Virtual Worlds was a fun and educational experience for everyone–instructors included! We began with a discussion and demonstration by William Quackenbush, a Ph.D. student in our lab, of how and why our lab does body tracking and the specific hypotheses we are trying to explore using this technique. This was followed by a video from Hari Srinivasan, another Ph.D. candidate, on our lab’s research on autism and the unique challenges this disability involves.
Then, we worked on porting each of our student groups’ Unity projects into our lab’s unique cave environment. By the end of the day, each group’s project was working in the cave with basic camera and motion control and three-dimensional projection using our shutter glasses. The students had added unique visual elements, like mountain-sized monkeys and giant snakes. I think they were all very pleased to see their projects come to life in 3D. (If any students want further access to their projects, they can contact us through SAVY, and we will be happy to provide links.)
After lunch, we had a discussion with the students about what did and did not work over the course of the past three weeks. Our overall impression was that the students enjoyed themselves and learned a lot. We also learned about some of the issues students would run into in building their worlds. Students share their feedback with us regarding what worked well and what could be improved. We’ll keep this feedback in mind for future SAVY sessions, and we’re glad that the students felt comfortable in sharing it with us.
We’d like to thank all of the students and their families for making the effort to come each week, and for being such pleasant people to work with! We hope to see you and your families again in future SAVY sessions!
