On 27th October one of our Alumni (Lucas Howes) and his colleague Julian were the guest speakers at one of our lunchtime events, open to Grades 10-12. They visited FIS in order to demonstrate the work they have been doing in the field of Virtual Reality (VR) with the German Auto-manufacturer Volkswagen (VW). Our students were given the chance to try out the high-end VR experience and then learn more about the work Lucas and Julian have been doing with VW.
Lucas and his colleague have been working on simulating ‘experiencing’ various VW cars in VR. In essence, one can walk around and sit in each of VW’s range of vehicles, load in different specifications and environments to view the cars in.
The ways to view the car are endless: whether it's opening the roof, turning the key on the ignition, checking details, changing the body color, or the style of the rims. Offering the opportunity to virtually display new cars in full size from a VR Headset (and later a smartphone) is an Augmented Reality innovation which Lucas and Julian are taking beyond the limits of technologies.
Perhaps the most engaging part of the session was when students asked our guests how they came to work in this field. Their route to VR came from various technical and artistic experiences and challenges, but the common thread was that both our speakers had great passion for what they were doing. We also learned that at the frontiers of technology you can’t always ‘Google search’ your way out of a problem.
This visit is part of a continuing series of talks we are running, to hopefully inspire our Gr10-12’s to aspire to engage with our world in complex and interesting ways.