How to use immersive technologies in a responsible way to foster inclusion and support innovative collaborations between academia and the outside world?

💡 Last Thursday, we welcomed Deputy Meindert Stolk of Provincie Zuid-Holland and Gemeente Rotterdam alderman Faouzi Achbar and their teams. The purpose was to discuss the societal impact of immersive technologies at the Immersive Tech Space, part of the Erasmus Data Collaboratory on the Erasmus University Rotterdam campus.

Diverse experts within the XR-human interaction realm gave insightful talks, including Deputy Executive Director at ECDA Marcel Van Oosterhout, Professor of Marketing and Innovation at Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University Yvonne van Everdingen, Innovation Manager at ERS Astrid Manden-Benneker, and quartermaster at SHINE Ilyaz Nasrullah.

Inspiring use cases were showcased by three impactful Rotterdam-based startup and scaleup founders: Mao Lin Liao from REBLIKA – The Character Company, Jan Verwoerd from 360Fabriek, and Martijn van Schaik from Metaseum. Presentations were followed by a Q&A session. The key takeaway was the importance of engagement with the public. Through interactive, immersive experiences fostering self-discovery, new innovative opportunities for learning, communications and awareness creation arise.

👓 After the plenary session, visitors had the opportunity to try out various technologies themselves, including interacting with “Digiderius Erasmus” (the avatar of Desiderius Erasmus), experiencing the André Kuipers’ space simulation to observe climate change effects on our planet, and engaging with VR and AR applications. The Immersive Tech Space also features a holography room, enabling teams to collaborate using 3D holographic images of cities, products, or organs with holographics technology by Tekle Holographics.

The Immersive Tech Space is an initiative realized by the Erasmus Centre for Data Analytics, ErasmusX, and researchers from various faculties of Erasmus University Rotterdam.

Press release can be found below:

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