U.S. News & World Report contributor Linda Childers spotlights how the Sloan School of Management is integrating virtual reality tools into its curriculum. Prof. John Sterman explains that a climate simulation game “teaches our business students skills such as improvising, negotiating and public speaking,” adding that, “it reinforces how their decisions can have consequences that last for decades.”
Boston Globe columnist Scott Kirsner highlights the RealityVirtually event that took place at MIT, bringing together nearly 450 people from 35 countries around the world to create new software for virtual and augmented reality headsets. Kirsner writes that the event “offered an incredible glimpse into the nascent medium’s potential and possibilities.”
MIT researchers have developed a virtual reality system that can train drones to fly faster while also avoiding obstacles, reports Lauren Barack for Salon. Barack explains that the “researchers are programming the drones so they think they're in a living room or bedroom while they fly. They virtually see obstacles around them, but those impediments aren't really there.”
MIT researchers are using virtual reality to train autonomous drones to fly in a variety of environments, writes Steven Melendez for Fast Company. Future tests may train the drone to fly safely around humans “as if they were in the same area, enabling it to practice sharing a space without actually endangering any human lives,” Melendez notes.
Alexa Vazquez of WBUR writes about a new MIT Museum exhibit that uses virtual reality to place visitors face-to-face with fighters who have experienced lifelong conflict. “The aim was to go for more kind of intimate conversations that you wouldn’t normally have access to, with people from diverse sides of these diverse conflicts,” says Prof. Fox Harrell, who worked on the VR aspect of the exhibit.
PRI The World’s Lydia Emmanouilidou spotlights a virtual reality exhibit at the MIT Museum by photojournalist Karim Ben Khelifa that allows visitors to explore both sides of international conflicts. “What is the point of images of war if they don’t change people’s attitudes towards armed conflicts, violence and the suffering they produce?” says Khelifa of the inspiration for his work.
WBUR’s Rachel Zimmerman reports that Rendever, a startup launched by MIT graduates, has been awarded $40,000 by Pulse@MassChallenge, an accelerator aimed at supporting digital health startups. Rendever developed a virtual reality platform that aims to reduce social isolation and improve mental health, “through technology that allows seniors to relive and remember personal and family experiences and explore new environments.”
Research associate Matthias Winkenbach speaks with Wall Street Journal reporter Sara Castellanos about how augmented reality could transform how companies manage supply chains. Castellanos explains that Winkenbach “envisions a future where supply chain managers wearing augmented or virtual reality headsets could make quicker decisions, save money and maximize their productivity.”