Emerging Technologies Institute

Welcome to the Foothill College Virtual Reality (VR) Lab

The Virtual Reality (VR) Lab, along with the Artificial Intelligence (AI) Lab, and the Emerging Technologies ProtoLab are part of the Foothill College Emerging Technologies Institute.

The VR Lab is a workspace for VR User Group meetings, demos, exhibits, and a visitor stop.

VR Lab Location & Hours

STEM Center Room 4220
Tuesday and Thursday, 10 a.m.-4 p.m.

VR Student Club Information

President: Juan Bello
Emai:l bellojuan@fhda.edu
Advisor: Konstantin Kalaitzidis
Weekly Meetings
Tuesdays at 3 p.m. in Room 4220 (VR Lab)

Join via Discord

Scope of the VR Lab

The VR Lab is used as a space for the following activites:

Explore VR technologies
Test both VR hardware and VR software
Share information across campus
Provide training for all Foothill College faculty, staff, and students
Support early adopters of VR curriculums
Provide VR exhibits and VR demos in both the Los Altos Hills and Sunnyvale Foothill College campuses
Provide VR exhibits and VR demos for Foothill College events, such as Day On The Hill and Possible Self
Provide VR exhibits and VR demos for Foothill College Science Learning Institute (SLI) sponsored events, including events for youths from various local organziations.

Foothill College VR Lexicon

Various sources provide variations of what terms such as Virtual Reality (VR), Artificial Intelligence (AI), and Metaverse mean, as these technologies are fluid and rapidly evolving. Simpler and higher-level, flexible descriptions of these terms are preferred.

Below we provide Foothill College definitions of what these terms mean, according to our agreed interpretation here at Foothill College, so we all have a common understanding, as we build the foundational components of our Metaverse Institute, which includes VR, AI, and Emerging Technologies.

High-level Definition

Virtualy Reality is a computer-generated interactive environment.

Virtual Reality Types

For purposes of communication at Foothill College, we propose four basic types of VR.

Non-Immersive VR: User engages with a computer-generated environment using VR-external controls only. An example is a video game.
Semi-Immersive VR: User engages with a computer-generated environment using both VR-external and VR-internal controls. also referred to as Augmented Reality (AR).
Fully-Immersive VR: User engages with a computer-generated environment using VR-internal controls only. Currently, requires a headset.
Holographic VR: User engages with a computer-generated 3D projected environment using both VR-external and VR-internal controls. Degree of VR immersiveness depends on the level of interaction driven by VR-external and VR-internal controls.

VR Communities

VR Student Club

The Virtual Reality Student Club is managed exclusively by students, under the supervision of a Faculty Club Advisor. Students run all club-related event, work on projects, and assist with the campus-wide communication efforts.

VR User Group

The Foothill College VR User Group consists of staff, faculty, and students. The User Group holds weekly meetings every Wednesday, in a VR environment.

The VR Lab, along with six other technology labs, plus the ProtoLab (Prototype Lab), make up the Emerging Technologies Institute (ETI).

Learn about all the ETI labs here.