For the second year [View a year one recap: “I+R team highlights #Innovation Ecosystem at the #RHShowcase“], GVSU celebrates the work by faculty, staff, and students whereby projects and initiatives actively execute the University’s strategic plan. At the Reach Higher Showcase, poster sessions highlight a variety of innovations and emerging technologies.
See also highlights from GVNext: “Reach Higher Showcase elevates GVSU’s innovative projects” capturing the I+R team’s work on leveraging STING (Student Technology and Innovation Guilds) in support of attacking pedagogical challenges with emerging technologies. Specifically, an Occupational Therapy app was highlighted with Professor Scott Truskowski.
See also: “Five innovations we saw at the Reach Higher Showcase” capturing the I+R team’s work on experiential learning in the virtual courtroom in support of Professor Courtney Topic along with exploration and experimentation around the emerging technology digital twins space.
Specifically, the IT Innovation and Research team has pioneered and collaborated to participate in the 10 presentations this year around key themes including:
DIGITAL TWINS, DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION, EXTENDED REALITY,
EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES, AI, IMMERSIVE LEARNING,
EXPERIENTIAL EMPOWERED EDUCATION, and INNOVATION!
- GVSU Digital Twin – Joseph Van Harken, Eric Kunnen, Hunter Bridwell, Jacob Fortman, collaborating with Jeff Staub
- What is a Digital Twin? A Digital Twin is a dynamic, virtual representation of a physical object like a campus or a human. It can be used for campus planning, student orientation, improving learning environments, personalized education, and much more. In this exhibit we feature two use cases: The Digital Doppelganger, where we use an 8-camera depth capture array created by private our sector partner, Soar Streaming, to create photo realistic digital human avatars, which can be used in immersive XR experiences like campus tours. The other use case features the capability of prospective architectural renderings of future inspiring projects such as the Blue Dot Lab presented in AR. Users can place the Digital Twin onto the surface using their phone and walk around the experience to explore.
- Digital Skills Workshops – Hunter Bridwell collaborating with Justin Melick, Justin Melick, Noah Campbell, Abbey Diller, Mattee DeMott, Kira Breitenwischer, Joey Shotts, Brooke Spradlin, Tai Johnson, Matthew Nolan
- The digital skills workshops are a cross departmental effort between IT Innovation and Research, The Knowledge Market, and eLearning to provide students opportunities to both share knowledge and build their repertoire of skills including but not limited to using a sewing machine, ethical usage of artificial intelligence, and digital storytelling. These student lead workshops are geared toward the general student body as their primary audience who may have interest but not expertise in these subjects.
- Atomic Object Technology Showcase Expansion – Hunter Bridwell collaborating with Brook Spradlin, Joey Shotts, Abbey Diller, Mattee DeMott, Tai Johnson, Kira Breitenwischer, Jackson Busch, Chloe Spradlin, Ivan Bishop, Tara Barnett, Rayleanna Hayward, Sam Schwallier
- Since last summer the Technology Showcase has occupied both LIB012 the original space as well as LIB040. This physical expansion has allowed myself and my team to expand in scope of what we provide the GVSU community including laser cutting and engraving, sewing, and embroidery. Furthermore, it’s allowed us to show and demonstrate VR and more walk-up approachable technology in LIB040 as well.
- Accelerating Digital Transformation through Innovation – Eric Kunnen collaborating with Milos Topic, Ben Rapin, Luke DeMott, Emil Delgado, Melissa Cunningham, and Elizabeth Joyce
- Through the Digital Transformation (DX) Strategy, the Information Technology (IT) Division collaborates to enhance and extend GVSU’s academic, research, and collegiate experience by establishing new opportunities, modern services, innovative approaches, and supporting technologies. This presentation focuses on the success of the past, while pioneering a grand future through a focused effort to accelerate innovation.
- Conceptions of Authentic Learning with Virtual Reality – Jacob Fortman, Ruth Yeboah (GA)
- The perceived value of emerging educational technology is shaped by a range of media narratives. Such media narratives include corporate marketing material, independent journalism, blogs, and other media outlets. In this study, we analyze articles from two major education technology companies to understand how and why authentic learning in virtual reality (VR) is valued. Findings from our study show that these companies value learning in authentic places and engaging in authentic practices. These authentic places and practices were seen as improving teaching practices, memory retention among students, and fostering safe spaces for learning.
- Charting the course of the future with the Laker Learning Futures and the Faculty Futures Team – Robert Talbert, Eric Kunnen, Jacob Fortman
- Laker Learning Futures brings together faculty with inspiration to experiment with innovative pedagogies and technologies in teaching. The Faculty Futures Team is focused on accelerating and incubating ideas as well as beta testing new tools for education, while providing valuable feedback as the university designs the next generation of teaching and learning environments. Throughout the year, this initiative has brought together early adopter faculty and staff who have explored a variety of emerging technologies with opportunity in contributing to the transformation of education.
- Discovering AI at GVSU – Eric Kunnen, Joseph Van Harken collaborating with Morgan Hamlin, Luke DeMott
- Grand Valley State University has been exploring the dynamic world of Artificial Intelligence and its potential to revolutionize how we learn and research. Over the past year, AI has advanced exponentially, uncovering ways we can enhance our academic and research experiences. Here at GVSU, we plan to use AI not just as a tool, but as a collaborator, reshaping how we think, learn, and innovate. Join us, as we discover AI and discuss the possibilities.
- XR Faculty Learning Community – Jacob Fortman collaborating with Paul Hillman, Paul Hillman, Chandresh Baid, Anton Fenik, Kevin Barrons, Chris Hinsch, Thuy Simpson, Tim Syfert, Dawn Brackman, Ben Walsh
- In this year-long faculty learning group, we have gained a preliminary understanding of the capabilities and potential applications of AR/VR in education and business. We have explored real-world examples of successful AR/VR implementations to inspire creative thinking for our classroom activities. We have discussed the ethical and social considerations associated with the use of AR/VR and developed strategies for responsible implementation. Finally, we have discovered tools, resources, and platforms for creating AR/VR experiences tailored to specific educational or business needs.
- Experiential Learning inside a Virtual Courtroom Jacob Fortman collaborating with Courtney Topic, Adrian Copeland, Joshua Sheffer
- Virtual Reality (VR) offers exciting opportunities for new forms of experiential learning in authentic, immersive environments. Traditionally, Legal Studies students view courtrooms through 2d imagery and videos of proceedings. While courtrooms are generally open to the public, it can be challenging for students to accommodate an in-person courtroom observation into their academic and personal schedules. Our presentation showcases an innovative and more inclusive way for students to interact with a courtroom through a newly created VR courtroom. Designed to facilitate a stronger connection between theory and practice, the VR courtroom supports students’ understanding of the court system, courtroom layout, and roles of the courtroom workgroup. Users of the VR courtroom will experience an interactive, 360-degree tour of a courtroom in the 61st District Court in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Audience members may engage with the VR courtroom through a VR headset or observe the VR courtroom on a monitor.
- Using VR Modules to Augment Student Learning of Traditional Lab Skills – Hunter Bridwell collaborating with Scott Truskowski, Annette Odingo, Priyadarshini Chadalawada, Mia Endo, Devon Vachon
- We will demonstrate a virtual reality (VR) based learning tool developed through collaboration of OT faculty and the IT Innovation and Research team. Early in their program, OT students learn how to complete patient transfers to and from a variety of surfaces. These seemingly simple transfers involve several pragmatic steps related to equipment setup as well as patient and therapist/student safety measures. Students without direct patient care experience tend to omit pragmatic elements of a transfer as they attend to patient safety throughout the transfer, or they work through their checklist of pragmatics with decreased attention and monitoring of patient and student safety. The VR learning space was designed to provide a low-stakes environment for students to carry out the pragmatic preparatory steps of a transfer with the hope of improving the transfer of skills from lab to real-world settings.
Here are a few photos from the event!
GVSU Innovate 