Funded by the OfS and officially launched in September 2023, the learning centre at the School of Science & Technology goes from strength to strength.
By Mr Shamim Quadir (Senior Communications Officer), Published
In January 2023, the School of Science & Technology, City St George’s University of London, secured approximately £2.4m from the Office for Students (OfS) to develop its new Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality (AR/VR) Learning Centre, plus further laboratory functions at the School.
The School also entered into a three-year partnership with ARuVR, a multi-award winning end-to-end, enterprise-grade Extended Reality (XR) training platform to provide its award-winning technology and expertise in support of the Centre and our students.
The Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality Learning Centre was officially launched in September 2023, becoming the largest facility of its kind the UK.
One year on from its inception, we reflect on some of the exciting projects and events that have been hosted at the Centre.
First annual Immersive Design Sector Forum
On Tuesday 23 January 2024, City St George’s hosted the first annual Immersive Design Sector Forum, inviting an interdisciplinary group of professionals working in Immersive Design (AR/VR/MR/Spatial Computing) from across industries and roles to come together to learn from one another.
Sheriff Bronek Masojada (The City of London), provided the welcome address, urging participants to consider how order and fairness will be maintained in the emerging worlds of augmented and virtual realities. A series of expert talks followed, including Professor Rajkumar Roy, Executive Dean of the School of Science & Technology, setting the scene for what the assembled group could aim to achieve together.
The event included networking sessions, demonstrations in the University Building Pavillion and group tours of the University’s new AR/VR Learning Centre. The event closed with speakers participating in a panel exploring ‘Immersive Education’, covering requirements for training new Immersive creators and how Immersive can be applied within education.
Watch a short clip of the Urdang performance (motion-captured), and tour of the new Centre.
Launch of the VR Wellbeing Fair with Phase Space
On Thursday 4 April, a novel, virtual reality (VR) wellbeing fair was launched by the School of Science & Technology and School of Health & Psychological Sciences, and the University’s Students' Union.
The VR Wellbeing Fair launch began a series of weekly events, every Wednesday, at the Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality Learning Centre until the end of April 2024.
Each event consisted of bookable sessions to immerse oneself in bespoke VR wellbeing content, which offered positive mental health support for staff and students in the run up to the exam period or otherwise (e.g. workload related stress).
AR/VR in Action
On Tuesday 25 June, the School of Science & Technology hosted its ‘AR/VR in Action’ event at the Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality Learning Centre, in the Ethical Design Studio (CLG01).
The event explored how Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality (AR/VR) is currently being used in teaching and how these might be integrated further into teaching practice at City St George’s.
AR/VR in Action
Participants heard presentations from a range of internal and external speakers:
AR/VR@City – Professor Raj Roy
ARuVR Introduction - Matt Lawson, ARuVR
Demonstration of City/SST Modules:
- Flow Rig Test Module – Professor Christoph Bruecker, City St George’s
- (Read about how the this module was piloted at the School, incorporating an AR/VR training option)
- Grad Manufacturing Area – Keith Pamment, Senior Technician, City St George’s
- Use Cases & How to book The Design Lab – Keith Pamment, City St George’s
- Benefits of AR for aviation maintenance – Professor Ricky Curran, City St George’s
Industry Case Studies:
- Scot Rail – Tom DeFraine, ARuVR
- Construction Example – Tom DeFraine, ARuVR
- S&P Global – Tom DeFraine, ARuVR
MSc delivered within an AR/VR environment – Marc Lewis, School of Communication Arts
Education within the VIVERSE environment (HTC) – Nathan Gaydhani, HTC
Demonstration of Apple Vision Pro (spatial computing) and the future – Tom DeFraine, ARuVR
Hands on with Apple Vision Pro and HTC headset – Tom DeFraine, ARuVR
A questions & answers and discussion session followed the speaker presentations.
Further information
Visit the Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality Centre webpage.
On Thursday 1 August 2024, City, University of London and St George’s, University of London merged to become City St George’s, University of London. Read more about the merger agreement.