In Illinois, Adve said, it’s “in our DNA” to redefine the future.
This includes Adve’s own research lab, ILLIXR, which conducts extended reality (XR) hardware and systems research and maintains the first end-to-end open source extended reality (XR) system of its kind used in industry and… science is used.
New hires in haptics and computer vision complement existing research in these and other immersive technologies such as graphics, audio, generative AI, robotic telepresence, networking, distributed systems, hardware, programming systems, and security and privacy.
Adve also noted that the campus offers many courses that leverage XR capabilities. A long-running attempt is a course from ECE in electromagnetism that uses VR capabilities.
Carle Illinois College of Medicine is enthusiastically using VR technology to educate physicians and help prepare and deliver care in the surgical setting.
This and other on-campus efforts provide real-world testbeds to recognize the limitations of today’s technology and inspiring research and assessment methods for needed advances.
The Siebel Center for Design is poised to launch an Immersive Experiences Certificate, which will include courses based on design thinking for immersive experiences and provide prototyping facilities that integrate research from Industrial Design and the Colleges of Education, Media and others systems to evaluate the quality of immersive experiences.
The Grainger Engineering Library’s IDEA Lab provides teaching and consulting services, as well as state-of-the-art facilities and equipment for faculty, students, and staff who wish to integrate immersive technologies into their research and teaching.
The studio, which grew out of the Game Studies and Design bachelor’s minor founded at the Faculty of Information Sciences, is a student institution dedicated to innovative and unique methods for the development of immersive applications, following the standards of the gaming industry.
Gies College of Business trains students to use technology in their specialty and has an exciting “Disruption Lab” program that includes immersive technologies.
Adve also noted the National Center for Supercomputing Applications’ long history with VR through the second CAVE deployment and award-winning visualizations. And here at CS, Professor Steve LaValle’s experience as founding director of Oculus VR led to Meta’s acquisition of the company for $2 billion and sparked a consumer VR revolution.
IMMERSE leverages all of these efforts and seeks to catalyze the intellectual inspiration needed to advance the field through research, education, and physical and virtual infrastructure.
That process took its next step on Monday, May 15, when IMMERSE leaders led a workshop for faculty and staff at the Siebel Center for Computer Science. Joining the conversation were university leaders such as Rashid Bashir, Dean of Grainger College of Engineering, and Susan Martinis, Vice Chancellor for Research and Innovation.
