Meet the Team

Every good project has a great team behind it, so in this blog post we introduce you to some of the key members of the inter-disciplinary project team.

The project team includes members from Urban Studies & Planning (lead Department), Computer Sciences, Engineering and Architecture.

	Ana Maria Monsalve, Student Ambassador (Urban Studies & Planning) As a student ambassador, I have been able to be part of the exciting process of testing 3D models in VR and AR. I have been in charge of exploring supportive software to improve the way we design the urban space. Thus, as a project assistant I have re-explored aspects of scale, proportion that before were not as approachable as they are with VR. Therefore, my purpose as ambassador consists of helping find new ways that will support students to present their ideas but also to encourage them to explore new tools that will make them more competent in their professional life.
	Bobby Nisha, Project Lead & MA UDP Programme Director (Urban Studies & Planning) As an Architect and Urban Designer, my approach to Design teaching begins from a position of respecting the self-expression and individuality of students to further inspire creative thinking. My research interest in Innovative models of design learning partnered me with Bryony Olney to explore the potential of virtual reality in Design learning and Teaching. As the programme Director/ module convenor my role is to embed the VR/AR technology in our design curriculum with learning tasks/assessment deliverables and create learning environments that acts as creative incubators in which learners are mentored, stimulated, provoked and engaged.
	Bryony Olney, Project Lead & Learning Technologist (Urban Studies & Planning) I ensure that the technical solutions we are employing are fit for purpose for teaching and learning, and offer students the best possible experience with virtual and augmented reality. This includes considering accessibility issues outside of the classroom, ease of functionality and use and maximum impact opportunities for learning. I have a hungry curiosity and interest in virtual reality, and my interest is very much grounded in the ease of usability and set up of any solution we use, as much from the teaching side as from the students!
	Chander Kant Aggarwal, Student Ambassador (Urban Studies & Planning) I am an architect and currently MA Urban Design and Planning student at TUoS with the dept. of Urban Studies and Planning. I have been working for the DDCF project as a Student Ambassador. It has been exciting to explore different interfaces of various virtual/augmented reality platforms to come up with their strengths and short comings. Experiencing architectural/urban design proposals in VR/AR helped me find generic problems a student could have while designing just in 2D plans. I am working with high hopes to upgrade the way consultants and clients visualize their projects.
	Mike Croucher, EPSRC Research Software Engineering Fellow (Computer Science) As part of Sheffield’s Research Software Engineering function I am providing a fully automated photogrammetry workflow which uses High Performance Computing facilities to turn a set of photographs of an area into a 3D model. Future developments will include making use of public cloud computing facilities and giving students more in-depth knowledge of what is possible when you combine simple computer programming with state of the art software and high performance computing facilities.
	Ralph Mackinder, Media Unit Manager (Architecture) My Role on the project has been both Technical and Strategic. I’ve worked to develop the concept of virtual environments, from capture all the way to delivery of user experiences utilising the latest VR technology.  I’ve worked with project team members to develop a fast and efficient workflow that allows students to create photorealistic modelling that can be interacted with in a virtual reality environment. This photogrammetry-based approach combines my background in photography with an emerging specialism in VR and AR.  A really fun and challenging project to be involved in!
	Rob Stacey, Teaching Technician (Multidisciplinary Engineering Education)  I have been responsible for the design and construction of a mobile virtual reality systems solution, enabling the virtual reality equipment to be used just about anywhere! I designed and built the entire system from scratch, from a rough sketch on a piece of paper to designing it in CAD, specifying the components required and, before making that virtual design a reality, building and piecing it together, making good use of the equipment available in the Diamond laboratories including the Laser cutters and 3D Printers.
	Samuel Dent, Project Manager (Strategy, Planning, Governance & Change) Samuel is a project manager in the office for Strategy, Planning, Governance and Change. Sam’s role is to support the project team to achieve their vision for the project, and maximise its impact, and support timely delivery. Sam has financial oversight of the project, supporting good governance and evaluation, and maximising the HE sector-wide impact and dissemination of the projects deliverables.

DDCF @ The Transport Systems Catapult (TSC)’s visualisation laboratory

The academia/industry divide is a much talked about issue and with the dawn of new age technology, along with the possibilities and opportunities they offer, it is important for the curriculum to embed and reinvent itself to serve the needs of our changing futures. The DDCF is seeking to revolutise the design curriculum by integrating and utilising Virtual Reality (VR) as a learning and teaching tool/enabler. Industry has been quick in realising the potential of VR and embraced the use of this immersive visualisation technology in stakeholder engagement. Immersive reality is growing in popularity and it has made its mark in the gaming sector, and with industries such as marketing, real estate, engineering and retail exploring its opportunities. With the aspirations to embed the potential of this technology in learning and teaching the DDCF project team reached out to the industry to get a glimpse of the innovations taking place. This is a blog piece on the project DDCF project team’s visit to the Transport Systems Catapult Innovation Centre in Milton Keynes (https://ts.catapult.org.uk/).

 

The Transport Systems Catapult (TSC)’s visualisation laboratory is the UK’s first facility dedicated to the research and development of virtual reality for transport systems, to meet the intelligent mobility needs of the future. As we were greeted by Ryan Johnston (Graduate Technologist and GIS engineer), he talked us through their interesting work on how their team is investigating the potential of  VR technology as a tool for strategic transport, planning and design. The simulations demonstrated to us how VR can facilitate transport designers and decision makers to make predictive simulations and make informed decisions. For DDCF, this further sparked ideas of potential collaborative student projects between our MA Urband Design & Planning and the MSc in Applied GIS students, and data mapping simulations in the urban design process. 

 

Bryony Olney our Learning technologist was first to interact with in the virtual reality environment. The technology enables the user to reach out and touch virtual objects (maybe, we shouldn’t mention the number of times she dropped that book on the floor! But those gestures with which she picked it up deserves a special mention!). The demos inspired ideas to engage students in learning activities set up in a virtual environment as it is a means by which the change they propose to built spaces can get experienced in an immersive way in real time. 

 

Bobby Nisha our Programme Director for the MA in Urban Design and Planning course experienced a demo of a walk around the simulated Milton Keynes environment with an HTC Vive. The omni-deck user’s movements are tracked with the Opi track system within the VR environment. This meant walking on the omni-deck and moving around (for real) in a virtual(ly) real Milton Keynes. Though cognition knows that bumping into someone or a car running into you is not possible in a virtual environment, it was quite a sight to see Nisha react on instinct to move away from the virtual person. Here is a short video of Nisha tialing the floor. There is immense potential to tap in to the domains of experiential learning especially when it comes to design. VR enables non-designers to understand and grasp the concept of shape/form/volume intuitively and for this reason immersive visualisation can be a powerful learning and teaching medium in design education. DDCF is working towards making this a reality by embedding immersive visualisation in urban design teaching. 

We take the opportunity to thank the Transport Systems Catapult for meeting us and helping inspire us to develop our ideas further in regards to collaborative opportunities for our students. DDCF would like to especially thank Ryan Johnston ( Graduate technologist, GIS Engineer), Martin Pett ( Visualisation Team lead) and Michael Calver ( senior technologist) for taking time to talk to us about their projects and applications of VR within industry.