SMARTlab Virtual Campus

Putting inclusivity into practice is difficult. Issues span across gender, race, physical and mental capabilities, religion, location, and economics separate many. Technology could be a method of closing the gaps that currently exist. Specifically, that technology is virtual reality.

​

Research shows that when a person engages in a virtual space their minds and bodies learn and respond the same is if they were in the real world. This knowledge opens significant opportunities for engagement by many who had previously been shut out.

​

SMARTlab’s virtual campus will provide a space for global users to interact and learn. This world will be infused with nature and all the benefits associated with biophelia. Wonderous architecture and awe filled experiences will create accommodation for creative thinking. Exploration and experimentation will have no boundaries and experiences will be created for equal access.

​

Imagine having a coffee with a friend in Nigeria when you live in Alaska? These spaces transcend the limits of a 2D computer screen.  After coffee walk together to your next class where you choose your seat in the outdoor amphitheatre beside the waterfall. In this space a wheelchair has no barriers to access, it can jump, fly or traverse any landscape and that’s even if you still choose to use one. Have you ever wanted to experience what its like at the summit on Mount Everest, here you can? What is you could learn about our marine wildlife by being underwater with them?

​

The metaverse is not a movie. There are no preplanned scenes, and you are not a spectator. You decide without limitations where and what you want to do. You will step out of the room you are in and into …well everything. Here the sky is not the limit.