If you are interested in VR/AR and joining the reality lab, here is a bunch of information:
Research application form: https://goo.gl/forms/
Once you submit this form, you will be added to our database of undergraduate researcher candidates. We will then contact you via e-mail when a matching position is available.
In the meantime, some of you had asked what you could do to learn more about VR/AR and here are some pointers to get you started:
1) Learn more about AR/VR, terminology, current research and products. A simple web search should reveal lots of news and information! You can read research papers published in conferences like SIGGRAPH, ISMAR, IEEE VR, ICVR etc.
2) Familiarize yourself with the tools/frameworks: VR/AR software, generally involves computer graphics and computer vision, so familiarizing yourself with these areas is helpful. Unity is a popular framework for VR/AR development and has several good tutorials. OpenCV is a computer vision framework to process images/3D data. Blender is a 3D modeling tool to create content. TensorFlow is a popular library for robust machine learning.
Here’s a nice comprehensive “Getting started guide“, that covers more about AR/VR tools and terminology.
3) Take a course – on Coursera, Udacity, Unity or right here at UW CSE (457, 455, 481v, 446)! We will offer a 400-level VR Capstone in the Fall 18 and Spring 19, so look out for that if you’re eligible!
4) Develop an application: Best way to gain experience is to get your hands dirty and build something. Think of a cool problem that you could solve, or a novel user experience, or a game idea — and then build it! If you have access to a VR headset, great! Otherwise GoogleVR, ARKit and ARCore a mobile VR/AR frameworks that allow you to build applications on your own mobile phone!
Hopefully that’s enough to get started. Having a strong foundation will increase your chances of succeeding at research.
Looking forward to receiving your applications for the undergraduate research program!
Thanks,
Aditya Sankar