Dive Brief:
- Virginia Tech’s four-story Cube has been used since January for performing arts as well as virtual reality demonstrations, giving students and researchers immersive opportunities to study big data.
- Campus Technology reports the Cube is 50 feet wide, 40 feet deep, and full of speakers, giving researchers the opportunity to combine aural and visual data into a full virtual environment while positioning them to make new discoveries by getting closer to their work than previously possible.
- The Cube is expected to attract new students to research, and planned projects include bridging virtual and physical worlds, exploring the formation of a tornado, and virtually designing the future American home.
Dive Insight:
High-quality virtual reality opens the door for research that, in many cases, has been imagined but not made possible yet. Scientists know they would be able to learn more about tornadoes if they could be close to them, watching them form. Now the Cube has let scientists replicate an environment using National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration data. Beyond research, the Cube can be a recruitment tool, for students as well as faculty, offering the opportunity to engage in cutting-edge work.