Mentor: Dr. Afsaneh Doryab

Client:  Bruce Krogh, Director, CMU-Africa

Description: 
CMU-Africa is training master's students to be leaders in the development and application of technologies that will have sustainable impact in Africa. Imported solutions often languish for lack of connection to the local context.  Innovations that address the distinct opportunities and challenges in Africa need to be created and tested on the continent.  To explore possibilities for applying new a technology in Africa, the technology needs to available, engineers and technicians need to be trained to use the technology, and people familiar with the context need to be involved in generating ideas. Virtual reality and augmented reality (VR/AR) technology might have value in a number of sectors in Africa, including education, healthcare, tourism, and entertainment.  This project will put the technology in the hands of CMU-Africa students as well as technicians at the Africa Digital Media Academy (ADMA), to provide the opportunity for training and exploring concepts for using VR/AR in the African context.

Deliverables:
The final deliverable will be a working prototype of at least some aspect of an application that explores the use of VR/AR in the context of an application motivated by the African context.  The student project team will include MSIT/MS ECE students from CMU-Africa in Pittsburgh and Kigali, along with students from Pittsburgh with complementary skills and interests. During the first two-three weeks of the semester, the student project team will define the specific VR/AR application to be developed based on discussions of the group with the project advisors. CMU-Africa students will provide the insights for the motivating African context.  The goal will be to develop a VR prototype that leverages the production capabilities of ADMA. While they are developing the project concept, students will begin working with the VR technology so that they will have the basic skills needed to create the prototype system.  The project team will develop the production and technology development plan, using project management skills taught in the course.  The primary faculty advisers (Corbett & Bishop) will meet with the student project team throughout the semester. Other project advisers from the ETC and Pixel Corps. will participate in the project as needed to support the project.