GameLab, a Spring semester course led by Erik Sand, FIEA’s Director of Strategic Partnerships, explores games being used in non-traditional applications, such as medical and military simulations, education and research. Students use gaming technology to create prototypes and simulations to solve problems ranging from teaching history, training military personnel, and providing interactive personal experiences to understand problems better.
Cohort 20 students split up into seven teams, one for each partners organization. Each organization’s subject matter experts (SMEs) assisted the students along the way, providing valuable insight and guided the project along as the course progressed.
GameLab final presentations from Cohort 20 Spring 2024 teams:
Puppet Pals, led by Kyle Hand
Partner: Various UCF Alumni working in amusement and attractions
Puppet Pals is a digital puppeteering system prototype to make real-time puppet shows with actors using VR and explore high quality fur simulations in Unreal Engine 5. This prototype is aimed at teaching young kids numbers, letters, shapes and colors by allowing several digital puppet actors to interact with them in real time.
The Siege of Jerusalem: Another Story, led by Willow Rachels
Partner: UCF Judaic Studies
Journey to the past to explore Jerusalem during the year 70 CE as the Romans lay siege to the city. In this third person RPG, students will have the opportunity to interact first hand with both sides of the siege to better understand the context behind this historical event. By working with the virtual zealot leaders, students will have the ability to stop the Romans by learning their strategies and infiltrating their camp to change the course of history!
Dark Ride, led by Marissa Manley
Partner: Various UCF Alumni working in amusement and attractions
An experience that uses both AI and VR to prototype an attraction design, don a VR headset to embark on a journey through a haunted house dark ride to help a ghost remember their past. Use the details of the environment around you to ask questions and uncover lost knowledge within each room of the mansion. Keep your eyes peeled and your wits about you, and whatever you do, don’t upset the ghost!
Blue Jacket Park Junior Cadet Training Program, led by Sandy Ford
Partner: Central Florida Navy League
The Blue Jacket Park Junior Cadet Training Program’s goal is to create an interactive augmented reality (AR) experience for families visiting Blue Jacket Park that is both fun and educational. The project aims to teach about Navy Recruit training and bring the former Orlando Naval Training Center back to life. By taking on the challenges of running AR on Unity WebGL, the project aims to make the project more accessible for all park visitors.
The Parkinson’s Immersive Experience, led by Paige Thorsen
Partner: Veterans Health Administration
“The Parkinson’s Immersive Experience” is an interactive game-based learning module designed to assist healthcare professionals and caregivers with recognition and assistance of common symptoms of early Parkinson’s Disease with a focus on empathy and accessibility. This app serves as a prototype, or proof of concept, that will become the foundation of a larger scale immersive game-based learning module for the Veteran’s Health Administration’s Mobile App Library.
Cyber Siege, led by Jack Leavey
Partner: USAF 338th Cyber Training, 81st Training Wing, Keesler AFB
Cyber Siege is an educational tower defense game developed in partnership with the 338th Training Squadron at Keesler Air Force Base and FIEA. Players defend a medieval kingdom from cyber-attacks, using towers representing real-world cybersecurity tools and strategies. It serves as an educational supplement to the training curriculum for new Cyber Airmen, providing hands-on reinforcement of key cybersecurity principles.
LMCO JADO, led by Aniket Rajnish
Partner: Lockheed Martin
A virtual reality experience developed using Unreal Engine 5, designed to educate users on the publicly available information about Lockheed’s Joint All-Domain Operations (JADO) system through task-oriented gameplay spanning across terrains on land, at sea, and in the air.
