Karp Library Fellow, Ayiana Crabtree ’22 joined the Studio X team in February 2021 as our inaugural XR Research Fellow. For her first research project, we asked Ayiana to focus on XR and the humanities. Immersive technologies share a natural connection with STEM fields, and the planned Studio X space will also be located on the first floor of Carlson Science & Engineering Library. However, Studio X supports all faculty and students on campus and fosters an interdisciplinary community of practice.

Introduction

As a proud alumnus of the African Leadership Academy, an esteemed institution in Johannesburg dedicated to cultivating the next generation of African leaders, my recent trip to Nairobi, Kenya, for the Networks Conference held a special significance. My name is Tamuda, and I am currently a computer science student at the University of Rochester.

Understanding how experience and exposure to trauma changes the brain could improve diagnosis and targeted care for conditions like anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Benjamin Suarez-Jimenez, Ph.D., assistant professor of Neuroscience, has been studying this topic for the past several years and was awarded a new $3.5 million grant to use virtual reality and MRI to look into the circuitry of threat, reward, and cognitive mapping in 

Ten projects supported with seed funding from the Goergen Institute for Data Science this year demonstrate how machine learning, artificial intelligence (AI), and augmented and virtual reality (AR/VR) are transforming the way University of Rochester researchers—across all disciplines—address challenging problems.

Ben Frisch, Ph.D., assistant professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine and Biomedical Engineering at the University of Rochester, and colleagues have been building what is known as a modular bone-marrow-on-chip to enhance the investigation of leukemia stem cells.

Located on the first floor of Carlson Library, as the hub for extended reality at the University of Rochester, Studio X fosters a community of cross-disciplinary collaboration, exploration, and peer-to-peer learning that lowers barriers to entry, inspires experimentation, and drives innovative research and teaching in immersive technologies.

There aren’t many academic libraries that offer a space like Studio X. What is it, and how did the project begin?

The project began in fall 2017 when Lauren Di Monte joined our team and learned from the faculty that there was a lot of research activity in extended reality and other immersive technologies. We thought it was something the library could get involved in since we had close to 50 researchers engaged in XR technologies.

Imagine you are in a meadow picking flowers. You know that some flowers are safe, while others have a bee inside that will sting you. How would you react to this environment and, more importantly, how would your brain react? This is the scene in a virtual-reality environment used by researchers to understand the impact anxiety has on the brain and how brain regions interact with one another to shape behavior.

3D modeling can seem like something for just the professionals with fancy equipment, expensive programs, and hours upon hours of time. What if I told you that you could do 3D modeling using Blender on your own laptop, for free, and create a starter project in under an hour? Blender is a free and open-source 3D computer graphics software tool set used for creating a wide variety of things. With the models you create in Blender, you could go on to create animated films, 3D printed models, computer games, and even things in virtual reality.

After being a concept in our minds for so long, Studio X’s physical space is finally beginning to come to life! Starting the week after graduation, construction started on the first floor of Carlson. Some of our staff had the opportunity to visit the space and see how the progress is coming along. We were amazed by how large the space felt after staring at the rendering provided by our architects, CannonDesign for over a year.