Research Opportunities

Undergraduate Research Internships at U of I

Students in our Virtual Technology and Design Program have the opportunity to build their capacities and portfolios through research internships and projects. These offer students the opportunity to meet an interdisciplinary group of people, to be exposed to a wide range of possibilities and challenges and to create state of the art productions inside a collaborative environment. Examples of recent research projects by students include:

• The development of bio-chemistry apps for high school students using augmented reality.
• The development of the Dynamic Virtual Protein Builder, a tool to help visualize proteins virtually from anywhere in the world.

Funded Research Internships

Students also have the opportunity to work with faculty on nationally funded grant projects. Recent examples include:

• VTD undergraduate students have been working with Brian Cleveley on the National Science Foundation RII Track-2 FEC: Using Biophysical Protein Models to Map Genetic Variation to Phenotypes grant. One contributes to the project’s outreach group and the Protein Explorer module. Both of these projects are focused on engaging K-12 students in exploring science through the use of Augmented Reality – expanding graphic novels and 3-D printing into participatory interactive storytelling mediums. Other students have been involved with developing online video tutorial for people using the new visualization tools.
• Several VTD undergraduate students have been conducting research with Jean-Marc Gauthier on the Amazon Catalyst grant. They have been developing a multi-player virtual reality environment and user testing protocols to evaluate the impact of virtual reality on empathy between players and to develop informal ways of communication.
• Graduate research assistants have been working with Roger Lew and Steffen Werner to design and evaluate human machine interface displays for a Nuclear Power Plant/High Temperature Steam Electrolysis Integrated Energy System for Idaho National Laboratory. The work utilizes the Rancor Nuclear Power Plant Microworld Simulator.