Virtualware has partnered with the Faculty of Engineering at McMaster University to bring VIROO to students. This initiative will be inaugurated in early 2023 with the unveiling of a 100m2 custom-built ‘immersive room’ at the university. The facility will provide access to students, faculty, and businesses. All are welcome with the singular goal of pushing boundaries and exploring the use of VR tools and technologies in the region.
Leveraging one another’s strengths, the initial four-year partnership will foster initiatives to facilitate access to VR. The intention is to promote the adoption of VR in education and research through the blending physical and virtual workspaces.
Virtualware and McMaster Engineering are suggesting that the facility will make a global impact not only in education, but also in the enterprise. The partnership will be led by Ali Emadi’s research group focused on smart mobility applications.
The immersive room will be located at McMaster Innovation Park (MIP), Canada’s premier research and innovation park. This strategic location acts as a bridge between academia and industry, becoming part of Hamilton’s innovation ecosystem.
“This is an exciting partnership that will not only lead to new technologies to solve the world’s biggest challenges but will also attract new strategic partners in Canada and internationally,” says John Preston, Associate Dean, Research, Innovation and External Relations, McMaster Engineering.
Powered by Virtualware’s VIROO platform, the tool will help professors and researchers guide their students. Citing more innovative and complete learning experiences, the immersive room will prepare them for the next generation of future-workforce skills. VIROO is compatible with a number of VR headsets, including Meta Quest 2.
VIROO provides a no-code solution. As such, The Faculty of Engineering at McMaster University will now have the ability to create content without the need to write a single line of code. The immersive room will also offer functionality to deploy multi-user VR autonomously. The 100m2 free-roam immersive room will allow up to six users to connect and interact in the same physical room. Users can communicate and collaborate in real time with unlimited remote users in the same VR environment.
“The collaboration will help companies start their VR journey, giving them the opportunity to incorporate the VR platform in their daily operations, so they can be more competitive and improve their processes,” says Ali Emadi, engineering professor and Canada Research Chair in Transportation Electrification and Smart Mobility, McMaster Engineering.
For more information on McMaster University’s Immersive Room, check out the McMaster Innovation Park website.