UW Hosts Second Immersive Reality Training Conference for Wyoming Innovation Partnership

The University of Wyoming hosted an immersive reality training conference last week as part of the Wyoming Innovation Partnership (WIP).

The three-day event brought together educators from Wyoming community colleges and secondary education institutions, as well as workforce service professionals from across the state to learn about integrating virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) resources.

Created at the request of Gov. Mark Gordon, WIP is a collaboration to align education and workforce development and support innovation, entrepreneurship and research to help drive Wyoming’s economy.

“WIP has grown and flourished beyond what anybody’s wildest imagination thought it could be, largely because people saw the potential,” Gordon says. “It is amazing what can be accomplished when people are asking ‘What can we do?’ instead of ‘What shouldn’t we be doing?’ This program represents the very first of its kind, and the fact that we can provide people with tools to further their educations and reskill themselves will allow Wyoming citizens to continue participating in new opportunities for growth.”

Led by Kyle Summerfield, program manager for the 3D Visualization Center in UW’s School of Energy Resources (SER), the VR subcomponent of the WIP consortial infrastructure program works to expand the capacity of Wyoming’s higher education institutions to integrate VR technology into courses and programs; develop and create VR applications; and coordinate the deployment of these resources to maximize return on investment.

During Phase 1, Summerfield spearheaded multiple initiatives to broaden applications of VR use in education across a spectrum of disciplines and fields of study. Seventeen programs under four different tracks in development, nursing, information technology and immersive video production received funding for integrating VR and AR technologies in their educational and training programs to engage students in learning.

“Phase 1 was largely focused on getting devices and software into the hands of our most engaged partners at institutions around the state,” Summerfield says. “While the total funding distribution was relatively small compared to the second phase, the first request for proposals was invaluable in establishing the groundwork for future projects and programs.”

Phase 2 of the VR subcomponent is now focused on the implementation of that investment, making sure that the programs have what they need in terms of training and helping them make decisions about the technology to best implement VR in their programs.

While last week’s event was open to all educators, it was directed at those programs funded under Phase 1 for some initial training on the technology. Activities included discussion panels; immersive workshops; live demonstrations with technology vendors; field trips to interactive learning facilities on the UW campus; and keynote remarks by the governor and UW President Ed Seidel. 

“The event was incredibly successful, and we had a huge turnout from all over the state,” Summerfield says. “We are especially grateful to our partners at the community colleges; Ricky and Jeremy, of Chocolate Milk & Donuts; and Emily Sorenson, of Em-Powered Solutions, for helping us organize and execute this event. We hope to see everyone back again next year and will be working diligently in the meantime to ensure the success of this technology both in the classroom and the workforce.”

VR will continue to play a major role in the subsequent phases of the WIP program. Phase 3 is poised to begin in July and will focus on providing the long-term sustainability to the developed programming and further coordinating efforts for long-term culture change.

For more information about WIP, visit https://wip.wyo.gov/home.