Grant: Collaborative Research and Training Experience

In recent years, augmented reality, virtual reality and other data-driven advanced visualization tools - collectively referred to as immersive technologies - have been rapidly developed and adopted across the world. These technologies are opening up a multitude of opportunities for information-based decision making, telecommuting, automation, safety enhancement, and many others. In this surge of innovation and technology diffusion, the province of British Columbia in Canada is playing a key role and is recognized as a global hub for immersive technology. The sectors that are seeking to leverage immersive technologies are rapidly expanding and this is generating exciting challenges and opportunities for innovation. These conditions create the need for interdisciplinary collaboration that link sector domain experts with those that have practical understanding and competency in immersive technology development and implementation. The team of faculty and their partners in this CREATE Immersive Technologies (CITech) aim to offer a unique program to enable interdisciplinary research, training and skills development for the rapidly growing job market in immersive technologies. The proposed training program has incorporated rich industry support and a comprehensive plan to accelerate job-readiness and employability of undergraduate and graduate students in various industrial and service sectors in Canada that are increasingly integrating virtual reality, augmented reality and advanced visualization techniques into their practices. The projects anticipated for participating students are application-driven and will foster interdisciplinary collaboration among students, faculty members and external partners towards solving real problems in manufacturing, health, education, and community-engagement sectors. The course and workshop modules of the program - with an emphasis on equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI), entrepreneurship, peer mentorship and industry involvement - will offer trainees unique opportunities for both personal and team-based professional development.