“The Alternate Reality Initiative (ARI) is the first student organization at the University of Michigan centered around virtual, augmented, and mixed reality (XR) technology. After seeing a lack of hardware access and learning opportunities, we created ARI to provide opportunities for students to explore, learn, build, and connect with XR technology. Through weekly meetings, ARI is fostering a community of the next generation of XR innovators by hosting development workshops, discussing industry news, and connecting students to opportunities in the greater XR ecosystem.
Over this summer, our team worked with four key stakeholders: ARI members, XR student organizations, XR faculty, and XR companies. After interviewing past members, we learned that it was difficult to discover us, so we increased our marketing and recruiting efforts. From other universities’ student organizations, we learned best practices on supporting project teams and also gained a better understanding of our growth potential. From faculty, we learned that they’re excited about our student-led organization, and we are working with them to provide resources and research opportunities to more students. Finally, from XR companies, we’ve been able to hear their perspective on the XR industry, and we are working with them to invite them as speakers.
Our efforts this year led to an increase to over 500 members on our email list, and we’ve had an average attendance of 24 members per meeting. In addition, we are also launching a pilot program to support student XR project teams next semester. Finally, we will hosting the first ever XR Midwest Conference. We believe that there is enormous potential for more people to be involved in XR in the Midwest. This is why we want to highlight the XR industry professionals, XR faculty, and XR tech talent in the Midwest to create a greater industry presence.”
Check out their Capstone poster here!: ARICapstone Final Poster
Team members:
Michael Zhang, Business Administration, 2021
Matthew Kosova, Industrial and Operations Engineering, 2021
