Exar Studios is a local startup that specializes in Augmented Reality. They have worked with the City and with Museums to create experiences that can be viewed using their Engage Art app. For their latest project, they have partnered with Western’s Centre for Environment and Sustainability (CES) to host a competition.
The Augmented Good Competition is the first of its kind. Exar’s Chief Growth Officer Ben Switzer spoke on how the competition got started.
“We were having discussions with Professor Mensink, he’s our partner there at the university. We were really discussing ways that technology can expand education in various ways. In particular, we were discussing how data that is telling a certain story about the environment can be conveyed in a way that’s beautiful, engaging, and different.”
In order to meet their goal, it was decided that they would run a competition and get Students involved.
“Were kind of asking the question, how are students thinking about this? How can this be an opportunity to get students thinking critically about the environment, but also translating science into art? Which has this multidisciplinary benefit of getting students to think outside of their faculty, and build relationships with other students that may come into the challenge and work together.”
Switzer explained that one of the main goals for the competition is to help people better understand data.
“When you look at pure research, oftentimes, making abstractions that are meaningful out of that data can be a challenge. So we were asking the question. Can we make this data understandable by someone, through this digital 3d storytelling medium?”
This year’s competition is only open to Western Students. Switzer says the idea to work with Western was made for a specific reason.
“We want to foster a culture of collaboration and innovation in London overall. Because Western is such a big part of London. That’s one of the big reasons we’re focusing there. Students and youth have this amazing creativity, and this ability to express new ideas. We want to draw on that creativity and encourage them to think outside the box.”
Switzer hopes the competition will be expanded to other schools in the future.
“I would personally like to see Fanshawe students involved, I would even like to see high school students that have an aptitude for this sort of thing involved. I feel that they have a lot to offer, as we’re starting out. Because this is such a new idea. We’re sort of learning as we go. We hope to include lots of bright young people who have ideas and give them opportunities to participate in the future.”
Entrants are required to submit a 250-word explanation of their idea and why it will translate well to augmented reality. They are also required to submit a 2-minute video explaining the chosen environmental issue. The winner of the competition will receive $1,000 dollars and have their idea produced by Exar Studios. For more information on the competition, you can click here.
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