IMMERSE hosted its first event in the Building an immersive campus series on December 5, 2024. Around 50 attendees participated in the “Designing the IMMERSE research lab” workshop, hosted at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA).
“The goal was to understand better the various needs of people who are conducting research with immersive technologies (XR, motion capture, haptics, etc.)”, said IMMERSE Assistant Director of Infrastructure Jake Metz. “The input collected will guide the development of a shared immersive infrastructure for research in the IMMERSE lab".
As articulated in the IMMERSE white paper, IMMERSE envisions a first of its kind end-to-end testbed for immersive technologies distributed across multiple locations at the University of Illinois. The establishment of the IMMERSE lab is a steppingstone for this novel network of immersive nodes.
Introduced by IMMERSE Associate Director of Infrastructure Rachel Switzky, the event featured seven lightning talks by a diverse set of researchers from various background and research fields. Faculty, staff and students from the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences (LAS), the College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences (ACSE), the School of Information Sciences, the Carle Illinois college of Medicine (CI Med), the Gies College of Business and Grainger Engineering presented their infrastructure needs to support their research.
A visioning session followed in the IMMERSE research lab room NCSA 3103, where participants brainstormed and contributed their ideas both on-site and online via a Padlet link. The event concluded with a networking session accompanied by refreshments.
The workshop revealed key insights around shared infrastructure needs, such as support for data collection and multi-user environments, centralizing resources and streamlining hardware management, and considerations on the equipment's shelf life. "This feedback also greatly informs our broader efforts to support immersive infrastructure across campus”, Metz continued.
The next steps involve translating the collected input into an infrastructure plan and reporting back to the community. The first acquisitions are planned for early 2025.
The padlet link will remain open to contribute ideas or comments.
Look for more information about the next events in the Building an immersive campus series in Spring 2025, including XR for Learning and Instruction: Advancing Design and Assessment on March 28, 2025.