REU Site: Research in Interactive Virtual Experiences

交互式虚拟体验中的本科生研究体验（REU）网站旨在每年夏天在南加州大学创意技术研究所吸引10名本科生，这是一个独特的多学科研究社区，结合了计算机科学，心理学，教育，电影艺术和医学方面的领先学术研究人员。学生将被嵌入到研究所交互式虚拟体验核心主题的合作研究团队中，参与自然语言对话，虚拟人，叙事，混合现实，医疗虚拟现实，视觉和图形以及学习科学的具体项目。这些研究活动将与每周一次的互动研讨会相结合，以培训最佳研究实践，导师支持和同行反馈。REU网站教授研究人员和学生开发的自然语言，视觉和图形技术，这些技术将推动引人注目的合成环境和人物的创造。这些技术与广泛的应用领域直接相关，包括培训，教育，娱乐，康复和医学。该项目将强调从计算领域代表性不足的人群中选择参与者，将使本科生参与跨学科研究，并将使学生获得科学和工程研究生课程的机会。这一努力有可能为本科生进行独立研究做好准备，从而扩大参与度，提高计算机博士课程的入学率和保留率。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并被认为值得通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估来支持。

The Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) Site in Interactive Virtual Experiences seeks to engage 10 undergraduate students each summer at the University of Southern California's Institute for Creative Technologies, a unique multidisciplinary research community that combines leading academic researchers in computer science, psychology, education, cinematic arts, and medicine. Students will be embedded in collaborative research teams working on the institute's core theme of interactive virtual experiences, with specific projects in natural language dialogue, virtual humans, narrative, mixed reality, medical virtual reality, vision and graphics, and learning sciences. These research activities will be combined with weekly interactive seminars for training in best research practices, mentorship support, and peer feedback.The REU site teaches techniques and technologies developed by the researchers and students in natural language, vision, and graphics that will drive the creation of compelling synthetic environments and characters. These technologies have immediate relevance to a broad range of application domains including training, education, entertainment, rehabilitation, and medicine. The project will emphasize selection of participants from populations that are underrepresented in computing, will engage undergraduate students in interdisciplinary research, and will expose the students to opportunities in science and engineering graduate programs. This effort has the potential to prepare undergraduates to perform independent research, thereby broadening participation and increasing enrollment and retention in computing doctoral programs.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.