SAN DIEGO (KGTV) — San Diego State University students are finding themselves in outer space and saving lives, all from their augmented reality classrooms. Now, the university is making a major investment in the exploding technology.
On Wednesday, SDSU launched the Virtual Immersive Teaching and Learning Research Center, or VITAL.
With $500,000 of seed money, the center will build on the augmented reality already playing a role in 70 classes at SDSU, taught by 56 professors. In those courses, students have interacted with virtual patients going into anaphylactic shock, explored the deep sea, created virtual lab specimens and seen how the brain reacts during driving simulators.
“What this virtual simulation enables us to do is put students into situations that would otherwise be out of reach, impossible, or in the case of anaphylactic shock a very dangerous situation,” said Sean Hauze, SDSU’s Instructional Technology Services director.
With the new institute, faculty and staff will involve students in projects to design, develop, research and engage with extended reality using the latest technologies. The university will also seek public-private partnerships to expand career opportunities and invest in the latest equipment.
SDSU said the center will involve faculty, staff and students from both its main campus and SDSU Imperial Valley.
