Univalle Engineers Create Virtual Worlds to Comunicate Science

In a world where face-to-face interactions remain complicated, Univalle engineers are creating virtual worlds to showcase where research is being done, for an audience throughout the Valle del Cauca region and around the world.

Together with a science communication project called Apropiate and funded by the Vice-Rectory for Research of the Universidad del Valle (Univalle), a platform that was developed  to combine IT technologies with geopositioning to show virtual versions of the campuses of Univalle, research centers and even science fairs.

"Today, most people are close to these technologies, seeking to learn more, seeking to know more," says Robin Alexis Olaya, a faculty member from the Remote Sensing Research Group (GIPER) and the geopositioning laboratory, adding that this is a great opportunity within the brand of social appropriation of knowledge.

 

Photo: The Visorapropiate team. Credit: Robin Olaya

A Virtual World for Kids 

A great example of the work of Olaya and his team was to create a virtual world in parallel with the Melquíades Tent, based in Ciudad Alegría in Cali, Colombia, during December 27, 28 and 29, 2021.

In this year's version, Univalle and Corfecali came together to present the exhibition during the Cali Fair, with professors and students from the Faculty of Natural and Exact Sciences of Univalle organizing 50 exhibitions that included themes such as Biodiversity, Sound Experimentation, Mathematical Riddles, Waves, Electromagnetism, Optics and Mechanics.

"This was a great opportunity for boys and girls of school age," Olaya said.

For those families who couldn't make it in person, Olaya and his team built a permanent web exhibition.  Olaya said that to explore it, a visitor can click the mouse and move the computer cursor to navigate to different planets that represent different science topics, such as chemistry, physics, mathematics, and biology.

Showcasing Research

Another example of showing interesting elements of research to a mass audience began with a journey from space.

A visit to one of the other VisorApropriate web sites descends through the clouds to see the geography of the department of Valle del Cauca, in southwestern Colombia. Within seconds, a visitor can access 360-degree aerial views of different Univalle locations.

"Through these platforms, anyone can take a tour of the university since 2020 when we were impacted by the pandemic and the virtual platform emerged as a solution to continue enjoying our university community virtually," Olaya said.

“Today, people are returning to the campus, but given this momentum there are still many people who are still outside the university… the added value of the platform is that, for example, first-year students can tour the campus before they arrive," he said.

LEE OTRA NOTA DE LA ESCUELA DE INGENIERÍA CIVIL Y GEOMÁTICA: 

Millones en nuevos recursos y tecnología lunar son "un pequeño paso" para construir casas en Colombia

Other than visualizations of the campuses, the team also made videos to show researchers, their laboratories and the work of these laboratories at the same time.

“Here at the School of Civil Engineering and Geomatics we did a lot of things with drones, with laser sensors, motion capture and modeling, but often outsiders don't know what we do,” Olaya said.

The Importance of Science Communication

Ana Jaramillo, a specialist at the Univalle Vice-Rectory for Research, said that the Apropiate intiative is designed to better coomunicate science and research to the general community.

She said that the COVID-19 pandemic clearly showed the need to use information and communication technologies for the communication of science.

"Let's say that this sped up this kind of initiative and work on the development of content," Jaramillo said , adding that one of the reasons for making a portal was to contribute to the overall institutional goal of connecting communities with research.

If you would like to contact the researchers or learn more about the projects, write to the Communications Office of the Faculty of Engineering at Univalle: comunicaingenieria(at)correounivalle.edu.co.

Banner Photo: Sede Virtual de la Carpa de Melquiades (izquierda) y sede de Ciudad Alegría. Credito: https://visorapropiate.univalle.edu.co/visor/melquiades/Andrew James/NCC/Univalle