Magic Leap Projects to Bolster Learning & Research

The U Experience Magic Leap

Magic Leap Projects to Bolster Learning & Research

Three Magic Leap/mixed realty project ideas have been approved by the Magic Leap Leadership Council. The Office of the Provost has awarded the teams $10,000 each for projects that will harness Magic Leap technology to bolster learning or research. Beginning on January 1st, the proposed projects must be completed by April 30, 2020. The grant money may be used only to support students, purchase materials and supplies, and/or get technical support from mixed-reality software experts. Software support systems available to the project teams are (a) their own,  (b) Center for Computational Science, (c) IT Innovate, or (d) Gordon Center.

Sebastian the Ibis using Magic Leap One setTeams must present midpoint and final results at two Magic Leap events:

(1) A grantee meeting at the beginning of March 2020
(2) A showcase event at the end of April, where teams will present their demos on Magic Leap headsets.

These events will give the Magic Leap Leadership Council the opportunity to provide feedback to the Provost about the progress of the Magic Leap Initiative. Also, a series of Magic Leap workshops will be held in January-February 2020. Project team members attend at least one of these workshops.

A total of 24 proposals were funded.  CCS is excited to be working in collaboration with these funded projects:

  1. “Mixed Reality Visualization of Aortic Aneurysm Diagnosis Results”  | Liang Liang collaboration with Amin Sarafraz
  2. “Peri-Operational Experience (POE)” | Lee Kaplan MD, Chief, UHealth Sports Medicine; Petra and Stephen Levin Endowed Chair in Sports Medicine, Medical Director and Head Team Physician for Miami Hurricanes and Miami Marlins
  3. “Tiling the Magicverse” | Tim Norris CCS/Richter Library; Amin Sarafraz and Chris Mader CCS Software Engineering; Kim Grinfeder, Associate Professor and Director, Interactive Media, School of Communication
  4. “Wish” Mixed reality performance of the composition for flute and piano | Jeffrey M. Buckman, Assistant Professor and Stage Director for Opera at the Frost School of Music
  5. “ARtXP: Experiencing Historic Architecture with Magic Leap” | Karen Mathews, PhD, Associate Professor of Art History, College of Arts & Sciences; Amin Sarafraz, PhD and Chris Mader CCS Software Engineering
  6. “South Florida Mixed Reality Field Trips” | Art Gleason, Physics; Amin Sarafraz, CCS; and Sam Purkis, PhD and Frederick  Hanselmann, PhD, RSMAS -MES

“We are looking for clever ideas that will bring digital worlds from the arts, humanities, sciences, and medicine into our physical world and enhance discovery and learning in our community,” said Jeffrey Duerk, UM Provost and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs.

Founded by UM alumnus Rony Abovitz, Magic Leap’s mixed reality technology allows users to blend digital content with their own physical environment. Last fall (2018), Magic Leap and UM entered into a collaboration where the University would serve as a pilot location for the company to experiment with its first-generation headsets, called “Magic Leap One”.

 

Magic Leap University of Miami partnership

 

As part of the collaboration, each college was given some of the headsets for faculty and students to use with the goal that the UM community would develop Magic Leap applications. So far, several ideas have been developed, but the Provost hopes this latest round of grants will generate more. “Faculty have responded enthusiastically to the information sessions,” said Jean-Pierre Bardet, Vice Provost for Strategic Projects and Dean of the College of Engineering. “That will undoubtedly lead to great successes.” 

UM Information Technology’s Director of Innovation, Max Cacchione, leads the XR Garage on the fifth floor of the McArthur Engineering Building, which is one of the places faculty, staff and students can experience Magic Leap’s technology, in addition to the Magic Leap Lab on the third floor of the Otto G. Richter Library. Cacchione and his team of seven student programmers have been helping faculty and students develop their own ideas for how to integrate mixed reality. “We hope to see applications for prototypes that can be later leveraged for grant applications,” Cacchione said. “These are prototypes that would be part of scientific publications for future grants.”

Magic Leap University of Miami College of Engineering students

 

 

To learn more visit: https://innovate.it.miami.edu/rfp | SOURCE:  NEWS@TheU | Innovative Ideas Wanted
https://news.miami.edu/stories/2019/10/innovative-ideas-wanted.html