1. NeuroAlert – During surgery, specialists monitor the function of a patient’s brain and nerves using techniques such as EEG and EMG to provide feedback to the anesthesiologist and the surgeon, which helps mitigate the risk of damaging the nervous system. This process is called intraoperative neurophysiological monitoring, or IONM. In partnership with Neuro Alert, a leading provider of IONM, AR/VR students will identify and map out biological markers in the brain using augmented technology in order to help technicians more easily determine where to place probes that help guide the surgeon.

2. JMU – Students designed and built a virtual reality tour of JMU’s campus called “Experience JMU 360: A Virtual Tour”. In partnership with the JMU Office of Admissions and University Marketing & Branding, the tour became part of a recruitment exhibit in the newly renovated Madison Hall, and this semester, students will have the opportunity to make key updates to enhance the virtual experience for prospective students and their families.

3. Dynamic Aviation – Teams created a K-12 student experience to teach them about careers that are available in the aviation industry, giving them exposure to jobs they may not have heard of before.

4. Smart Biology – Students developed visual renditions to accurately represent biological functions on a macroscopic level for Smart Biology’s 3D animated biology textbooks.

In the spring of 2021, JMU X-Labs hosted its fifth H4D class where transdisciplinary student teams pursued solutions to the following challenges:

1. During surgery, specialists monitor the function of a patient’s brain and nerves using techniques such as EEG and EMG to provide feedback to the anesthesiologist and the surgeon, which helps mitigate the risk of damaging the nervous system. This process is called intraoperative neurophysiological monitoring, or IONM. In partnership with Neuro Alert, a leading provider of IONM, AR/VR students will identify and map out biological markers in the brain using augmented technology in order to help technicians more easily determine where to place probes that help guide the surgeon.

2. Students designed and built a virtual reality tour of JMU’s campus called “Experience JMU 360: A Virtual Tour”. In partnership with the JMU Office of Admissions and University Marketing & Branding, the tour became part of a recruitment exhibit in the newly renovated Madison Hall, and this semester, students will have the opportunity to make key updates to enhance the virtual experience for prospective students and their families.

3. Students are often pushed towards college pathways when many alternative, well-paying careers exist that do not require a university level of education. This team’s goal was to showcase manufacturing career pathways to students in grades K-12 to give them exposure to, and pique their interest in, jobs they may not understand and allow them to have fun in the process by creating a VR tour of the Shickel factory floor.

In response to COVID-19, the AR/VR class pivoted from planned projects to explore how immersive technology could address the impacts of the public health crisis. Several teams developed games and relaxation apps (for VR and desktop users), to address stress caused by social isolation. Another team developed a COVID-19 AR app for better visualizing the risks and transmission of the disease.

This semester students developed solutions for the following projects:

1. JMU VR Tour (JMU Admissions) – Enhanced the student-created VR tour by reorganizing content, creating strong user experience design, and involving intuitive usability
2. Bon Voyage (Center for Global Engagement) – Created a virtual reality experience that captures a day in the life of JMU’s London and Salamanca study abroad experiences to immerse the user into the daily life of a student studying abroad and inspire a desire to travel in all
3. Gopher – Brought live data and pre-construction models to augmented reality, creating a gateway towards incorporating live data and CAD visualization in AR in more complex ways for architectural designers, contractors and other clients.
4. MediSim (Communication Sciences and Disorders) – Created a laboratory simulation for online graduate students who are in need of an immersive lab experience

During this semester, students developed solutions for the following projects:

1.  Use of mobile devices with augmented reality in the classroom to teach the constituents of chemistry molecules.
2. Using motion capture to accurately represent dance movements using VR technology with real dancers from the School of Theatre and Dance.
3. Version 3.0 of the JMU Campus VR Tour in Madison Hall.
4. Creation of a mobile version of the JMU Campus VR Tour in partnership with the Center for Global Engagement for international student recruiting.

Students from seven different majors designed and built a virtual reality tour of JMU’s campus using the latest technology in 360° media and VR. They incorporated videography, coding and user experience design to develop “Experience JMU 360: A Virtual Tour”. In partnership with the JMU Office of Admissions and University Marketing & Branding, the tour became part of a recruitment exhibit in the newly renovated Madison Hall.