Nicholas Zambas, ’17, and Asante Asiedu, ’17, sit with the components of their new virtual reality app, Vetra, in Williams Hall on Tuesday, Feb. 9, 2016. Vetra has the potential to be used by Lehigh Admissions to create a 360 degree virtual tour of campus. (Courtesy of Sasha Rubman)
Vertra, a new virtual reality streaming app created by Lehigh students, is designed to advance the admissions process by giving prospective students a realistic taste of life at Lehigh.
Asante Asiedu, ’17, Nicholas Zambas, ’17, and Jessica Spiezio, ’18, are working with the Baker Institute to offer potential students an inside peek of Lehigh and its surrounding environment. The app allows potential admits to see 360 degree visuals of Lehigh’s campus, facilities, footage of athletic events and popular surrounding restaurants both on the North and South sides of Bethlehem.
Nicholas Zambas, ’17, pilots a drone used to capture footage for the virtual tour in Williams Hall on Tuesday, Feb. 9, 2016. The virtual tour would make it easier and more affordable to tour campus. (Courtesy of Sasha Rubman)
“We want to give those kids who can’t afford to travel or don’t have the time to travel to the school of their dreams an opportunity to walk on campus while sitting on their couch,” Zambas wrote in an email. “From there, all it takes is design and recording to bring it together.”
The students are awaiting feedback from the university on the app but plan to develop it alongside the Lehigh Admissions and Recruitment offices. They hope that the app will provide convenience within the recruitment process and act as an extra tool to increase admission applications.
Admissions has yet to make any decisions regarding the app, but Enrollment Support Coordinator Anna Marie Luchini wrote in an email that the app has been brought to the attention of J. Leon Washington, the vice provost of Admissions and Financial Aid.
The students became involved with the idea of virtual reality through a project in business professor Joshua Ehrig’s Hustle Hard entrepreneurship course. Given an open-ended assignment to explore the avenues of future entertainment, they chose to focus on virtual reality.
The students conducted their own research and interviewed high school seniors and juniors participating in the college search and concluded that the admissions process could use some aid.
“What we are really trying to stress in the initiation of this project is that students aren’t getting everything they need out of the current admissions process at a large majority of colleges,” Asiedu wrote in an email. “A standard tour is a great way to look around an academic campus but as any current student can tell you there is much more to every institution than solely its academia.”
According to Asiedu, the app is nearing completion. Using a Ricoh Theta 360 degree camera, the app will be able to capture and show extremely high quality images. The students hope to institute the first version of the app this summer and to receive feedback from incoming students.
“What is planned in the creation of Vertra is to take modern day design concepts and apply them in an area of technology where not many developers and even fewer designers have set foot in,” Speizio wrote in an email. “The idea itself is incredibly useful and will change the way students think about colleges. Combine that with a great user interface and easy to use controls and high quality virtual reality can be available to any future college student.”
Once accepted into the app store, the app will be usable for students at Lehigh. The longest part of the construction process will be the collection of 360 degree photos and videos. The students are also designing a headset to accompany the app and have a 3D print of its design.
The creators stressed the costly nature of traveling to visit universities, and they aspire to ease the cost for potential students and the overwhelming feelings of making college decisions. They hope that their app will prepare prospective students to acclimate into their own college experience.
“This will put Lehigh on the map as the first university to offer a complete virtual tour of campus, athletics and more, which will inevitably attract a lot of attention,” Zambas said.
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