NZVRARA Student Chapter Inaugural Exhibition Planned

Wednesday 22nd November 2017

NZVRARA Student Chapter Inaugural Exhibition Planned

The New Zealand VR/AR Association will be hosting its first NZVRARA Student Chapter Exhibition at PROJECTR® Wellington on Wednesday 6th December 2017.

This showcase of work comes from a selection of the 44 student members who joined during 2017 and demonstrates the extensive breadth of work being undertaken by undergraduate and post-graduate students, primarily sourced from the Wellington region.

The NZVRARA Student Chapter was formed in mid-2017 and is driven by NZVRARA Executive Director, Courteney Lomas, who is also the Student Chapter President.

“Our student members primarily come from the two on-campus VR Clubs we’ve formed this year at Massey University (VRTX) and Victoria University (Looking Glass),” says Ms Lomas. “The concept of forming on-campus interdisciplinary clubs and supporting these students with NZVRARA Student Membership has worked extremely well and the NZVRARA is proud to support their work.”

Ms Lomas encourages commercial users and the industry’s creators of virtual and augmented reality solutions to take the necessary time to come and see what the students have been working on this year.

“These students are the future of our industry; our interns, graduate employees and a deep pool of ideas to fuel the growth of New Zealand’s VR/AR sector,” stated Ms Lomas.

“In 2018, we expect to bring in members from other New Zealand centres, particularly the Auckland institutions of AUT, Media Design School and Auckland University. We’re really excited about the idea of hosting a nationwide exhibit this time next year and are on track to have over 100 student members by the end of March 2018,” Ms Lomas stated.

Local VR company, Blackeye, has stepped up to cover the costs of this foundation event. Blackeye Managing Director, Michael Gregg is highly supportive of the exploratory work undertaken by the graduates.

“We’re delighted to step in and play our part to support our sector,” says Mr Gregg. “A recent survey identified an approaching VR/AR skills shortage, so it’s important we encourage undergraduate students from across disciplines to access these new immersive technologies and build strong capability with a range of cross reality applications,” said Mr Gregg.

The 2017 Student Chapter Exhibition will open at 5:00pm at PROJECTR® Level 2, NEC House, 40 Taranaki St, Wellington. Please register attendance at http://bit.ly/2z84z1O .

© Scoop Media