EAGER: US IGNITE: Collaborative Exploration in Networked VR Environments, and Application to Remotely-Guided Classroom

该项目的重点是利用新兴的虚拟现实（VR）技术和高性能网络进行3D环境的协作探索，并将这些环境应用于教育。该项目正在开发一个沉浸式网络协作VR环境，用于能源技术教育。作为该项目的一部分，该系统将被部署以评估其工具对高中STEM教育的价值。总体目标是探索并帮助激发高性能网络和新兴虚拟现实设备在创新教育和其他有益用途方面的变革潜力。该项目利用了拉斐特市创新的“光纤到户”项目，该项目将高速光纤互联网接入直接带到该市的每一所学校和家庭，包括大卫蒂博多STEM磁铁学院，该项目的目标高中。 该项目还利用了一个现有的非协作VR参观“虚拟能源中心”，该中心是为向高中生解释太阳能热发电和其他替代能源概念而开发的。它模拟了一个现实世界的设施，路易斯安那州克劳利的UL Lafayette试点聚光太阳能发电（CSP）工厂，这是一个替代能源的研究设施。

This project focuses on taking advantage of emerging virtual reality (VR) technology and high-performance networks for collaborative exploration of 3D environments, and on the application of such environments to education. The project is developing an immersive networked collaborative VR environment for education about energy technologies. As part of the project the system will be deployed to assess the value of its tools for high-school STEM education. The overall goal is to explore, and to help spark, the transformative potential of high-performance networks and emerging VR devices for innovative educational and other beneficial uses.The project leverages the City of Lafayette's innovative "Fiber-to-the-Home" project that has brought high-speed fiber optic internet access directly to every school and home in the city, including the David Thibodeaux STEM Magnet Academy, the target high-school for the project. The project also leverages an existing non-collaborative VR tour of a "Virtual Energy Center" that was developed to explain solar thermal power and other alternative energy concepts to high school students. It models a real-world facility, the UL Lafayette Pilot Concentrating Solar Power (CSP) Plant in Crowley, Louisiana, a research facility for alternative energy sources.