40 Hours for the Forty Acres Spring 2023

Who We Are

Texas Immersive Institute at Moody College of Communication is providing access to emerging technology and design-based research for artists, scientists, and humanists to use immersive storytelling techniques to share solutions to big problems that are responsive, responsible, and remarkable. Through innovative content that is interactive and experiential, we research, design, and develop immersive experiences with students, faculty, and corporate partners to help them imagine the future of media and how we engage with it. This requires a fundamental shift in how people live and interact with each other. We strive to ensure our community lives at the intersection of culture and commerce such that consumers can engage through a blend of physical, digital and voice environments with ease.

What We're Fundraising For

Do you know extended reality (XR) encompasses five distinct environments to enhance immersion? At Texas Immersive Institute, we dive into these unchartered spaces by exploring virtual reality, mixed reality, ubiquitous, recorded, and projected environments -- each offers a unique way to enhance immersion. Often, the XR technologies enabling these environments are often seen as inaccessible and expensive, turning people away.  TXI's Immersive Lab was established to break down these socio-economic barriers to provide access to and use of XR in learning and research. This is a physical experimental lab on campus for faculty and students to demo and play with immersive technologies.

Located on the 6th floor of the Jesse H. Jones Communications Center, the Immersive Lab has 150+ demos and 15+ technologies for all to break down their hesitation about these tools and use them to explore, play, and learn with different XR technologies (e.g. AR- Snapchat Spectacles, VR- Oculus Quest, MR- Microsoft Hololens). While many just drop in to play, we also host the D.I.V.E. immersive club every Thursday evening and teach biweekly workshops, where specific tools’ basics are covered, encouraging new media literacy and experimentation. TXI strives to cultivate a culture that explores a variety of spaces to solve real-world problems and to support UT Austin faculty and students by providing access to these new technologies.

Your Impact

The Immersive Lab provides everyone with accessibility to XR technology and resources, allowing them to play, imagine, learn, and create. You can help us improve the Immersive Lab to better equip the space, expanding the demo opportunities offered. Your gift will reach every UT Austin Faculty and student, including the immersive community. See testimonials below:

“TXI’s LAB lets me play with essential immersive technology I couldn’t afford on my own, while also connecting me with people from entirely different majors to create interactive experiences. I consider the Lab the heart of the Texas Immersive program - without it, Immersive gets a whole lot harder to understand.” 

-Arman Farsad | Texas Immersive Graduate 2022

“The Immersive Lab is integral to helping me accomplish my research agenda. I have several projects exploring environmental communication via immersive formats – AR, VR traditional video games – that would be almost impossible to carry out without the lab. XR technology opens up an entirely new avenue of research to explore environmental communication and means to make the issues more engaging, memorable, and motivating. I’m grateful for access to technology and expertise to make these projects come to life. The Lab is an excellent training ground for our graduate students, who are eager to conduct research in immersive media, and it helps establish SRS, Moody, and UT as leaders in this emerging field.”

-Lucy Atkinson | Associate Director of Research, Moody College