1. WISRD Augmented/Virtual Reality and Computer Rendering Lab
By Will B., Remy W., Cameron S., Avery M., Kai S., Jesse B., and Jojo G.
Introduction
Examples of Our Work
Our Impact
The Wildwood Institute for STEM Research and Development’s Virtualization Group was established in 2014 by WISRD founding member Will B. as one of the original labs in the institute. The mission of the group is to create new and ingenious designs and programs towards the advancement of mankind in the field of Virtual and Augmented Reality. This cutting-edge group of researchers, designers, and thinkers consists of Will, Remy, Kai, Cameron, Avery, Jesse and Jojo. The lab maintains three workstation quality computers to produce high quality products. 
We use many skillsets to develop our projects, including coding in C#, creating environments in Unity and Unreal Engine, and sculpting our own 3D models. We have been involved in InnovatED as well as VR Day at Marlborough when presenting on some of the projects we have developed. This includes the Cancer Cell project, Theater Virtualization, and Gallery Virtualization. The goals of many of these projects were to demonstrate the virtualization of a space in reality with the addition of manipulating space to our choice. As of now these projects are still currently being developed with the addition of a historical RPG with an interactive storyline.
Future Projects
Figure 1: Metastatic colon cancer cell (displayed in the Unity Editor) traveling through a vein
The AR/VR will continue to refine and perfect our current projects and attend outreach events to inform the rest of our community about the research and projects developed in our lab. However, we will mainly focus on one large project through the remainder of the year. Starting at the beginning of November, the WISRD AR/VR group will embark on a culminating project that takes skills from all of the “regular” school classes in one single project. Unofficially called “WISRD RPG,” the project will test our skills in advanced coding, creating an emotionally driven storyline, writing an adaptive plot based on dialogue inputs from the player, designing a realistic environment, while still including historically accurate 3D models and communication between characters in the game.
Abstract
The AR/VR group at the Wildwood Institute for STEM Research and Development has worked on multiple projects during the first official school semester. So far, we have worked on the following projects: virtualizing a metastatic colorectal cancer cell floating inside a vein, virtualizing the Wildwood theater and the gallery space (that can). The purpose of the Cancer Cell Virtualization with USC is to give oncologists and students at USC a chance to interact with a cancer cell through virtual reality. WISRD’s Theater Virtualization project aims to virtualize the Wildwood School’s Theater creating a space for the theater department to plan out performances in VR, before having to do things like staging, prop placement, and much more in real life. The virtual space also has a central video displaying past performances of the Wildwood theater program.
Bibliography and References
Figure 2: Cameron adding the finishing touches on the Wildwood gallery, shown through the Unity Editor window