Get Ready for a (Virtual) Reality Check

Pictured: At the February 23 meeting of the VR Interest Group, students Dylan Carmichael and Ivan Bandovic demonstrated the virtual reality environment they created to explore the human kidney.

NYIT has a new VR Interest Group in the Old Westbury and Manhattan Innovation Labs. The group was founded by Aleksandr Vasilyev and Randy Stout, assistant professors in the Department of Biomedical Sciences at NYIT College of Osteopathic Medicine. “I have had a long-standing interest in using 3-D graphics for teaching and research,” says Stout. “Dr. Vasilyev and I had a nice brainstorming session following a presentation he did last fall on the use of VR for 3-D modelling to make educational materials. That discussion led us to reach out to any faculty at NYIT who we thought might also be interested in VR, augmented reality, and related digital technologies.”

At the group’s first meeting on February 23, NYIT students Suzanna Shermon, Dylan Carmichael, and Ivan Bandovic demonstrated virtual environments they had created to study the brain and kidney using VR technology. That session, also held in the Innovation Labs, connected groups in NYIT-Old Westbury and NYIT-Manhattan via live HD monitors located within each lab. “We want future meetings to communicate new ideas and discuss developments in technology applicable to VR and related areas, not only as it applies to medicine but also 3-D scanning, game design, and artificial intelligence,” adds Stout.

Any interested student, staff, or faculty member is welcome to participate in the group on the last Friday of every month. The March 30 meeting topics include 3-D scanning and photogrammetry technology for creating 3-D materials for education and research. Both Stout and Vasilyev hope to see more interdisciplinary topics discussed at the group’s next meeting on April 27.

“At our March meeting, we will focus on a new VR setup I created for scanning specimens for neuroanatomy teaching, followed by applications of new augmented reality technology,” Stout says. “But then we plan to discuss any other topics that members of the NYIT community would like us to cover in areas related to virtual reality.”

NYIT students, staff, and faculty are invited to join the next meetings on March 30 and April 27 at 3:30 p.m. at the Innovation Labs located at NYIT-Old Westbury and NYIT-Manhattan.

Anyone interested in presenting at a future meeting of the VR Interest Group should contact Stout at rstout@nyit.edu and include a title as well a few sentences describing the topic.