Eng 477 / NA 477 -- Principles of Virtual Reality -- Fall 2006
Faculty Advisors
Motivation
Faculty Advisors from many UofM schools and colleges have played an instrumental role in the past offerings of course Eng 477 "Principles of Virtual Reality" and have added expertise, diversity, and assistance that was highly appreciated by students and teaching staff. You may be motivated to become involved in this course as a Faculty Advisor by the following benefits:
- Learn about Virtual Reality (VR) and its usefulness in a variety of areas.
- Explore the application of VR in your area of expertise.
- Build a body of knowledge that allows you to introduce VR in education and research.
- Use this knowledge to open up new proposal opportunities (we have many success stories to tell).
- If you have a great idea, you may find a student team willing to implement your idea in virtual reality as an Eng 477 group project (we will provide you with several opportunities to advertise and present your idea).
- Work with highly motivated students from diverse backgrounds and disciplines.
Role of a Faculty Advisor
The course emphasizes cross-discipline collaboration and teamwork in group projects. As part of the course, each group (3 to 5 students) will develop a complete virtual reality application in an area of their choice.
The major role of a Faculty Advisor is to link up with a group, assist the group in proposal development, provide discipline specific expertise, help with background information (literature, data sets, etc.), guide and support the group in the creation of a convincing VR application, and motivate the group all the way through to their final project presentation at the end of the term.
As a Faculty Advisor, you may attend lectures, laboratory sessions, demonstrations, project presentations, and any other event that is scheduled for this course.
If you sign up as Faculty Advisor, you will be informed about all events and you will be given access to the password-protected course Web site with lecture notes, laboratory notes, time schedules, student roster, collection of project ideas, useful material, and much more.
Expected Involvement
Once an advisor has linked up with a group, he or she is expected to meet with the group on a regular basis. Time, place and frequency of these meetings is up to the group and the Faculty Advisor.
In the past, some advisors have become heavily involved in a group project because of their personal interest in the outcome of the project and/or their enjoyment of an extremely creative and highly rewarding process.
Other advisors just visited the course from time to time out of interest, but never became involved in a group project.
Faculty Advisors are not expected to attend lectures and laboratory sessions on a regular basis. However, many advisors have done so in the past.
Sign up as Faculty Advisor
If you are interested in becoming a Faculty Advisor for Eng 477 during Fall 2006 (no prerequisites!), please e-mail the following information to the instructor :
- Name, title, school, and department
- e-mail address and phone number
- Optional: Virtual reality applications you are interested in (a few keywords only).
We will publish this information on the course Web site so students can contact you.
Events for Faculty Advisors
There will be an Informal Meeting for Faculty Advisors (mainly to answer questions) on
Tuesday, September 19, 2006, from 6:15 to 6:45 pm
in #1504 GGBL (Lee Iacocca Lecture Hall)
right after the lecture.
Feel free to attend the preceding lecture (starting at 4:30 pm) on the topic 'VR Applications & Application Development'.
A most important event for Faculty Advisors is the Project Fair where students and Faculty Advisors present project ideas to the class:
Tuesday, October 10, 2006, from 4:30 to 7:30 pm
in #1504 GGBL (Lee Iacocca Lecture Hall)
Links
Other Relevant Facts
- During the initial weeks of the course, we will emphasize on the creation of project ideas, group formation, and the linkage between student groups and Faculty Advisors.
- At the Project Fair on October 10 (4:30 to 7:30 in #1504 GGBL), students and Faculty Advisors will be given the opportunity to present their project ideas to the class. Groups and project topics should be finalized two weeks later with the submission of a project proposal.
- The students of a project group choose the project topic and their Faculty Advisor.
- Project groups are allowed to proceed without a Faculty Advisor.
- A project group may have more than one Faculty Advisor.
- Project ideas can be proposed by students and by Faculty Advisors. We encourage early discussion and dissemination of ideas as well as early group formation and provide the following avenues:
- Advertise your idea by using the various e-mail groups provided on the course Web site.
- Create a Web site describing your idea, mail the URL to the instructor, and we will post it on the course Web site.
- Present your idea at the Project Fair on October 10 to the entire class.
- Talk to students during lectures or laboratory sessions.
- Contact individual students by e-mail. A student roster with areas of interest for each student will be available on the course Web site.
- Any member of the UofM in a teaching, research, or administrative position is welcome as Faculty Advisor. In addition, experts from outside the university have often served as Faculty Advisors in the past.
Last Update: June 21, 2006, kpb
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