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Prototyping and Design with Extended Reality

How do emerging technologies such as Augmented Reality meet digital fabrication tools like 3D printers? And how might these tools be used to create immersive experiences and meaningful artifacts that tell an individual's story? In this class, students will learn novel and traditional technologies in The Cooper Union’s Makerspace to prototype solutions for the needs of communities in rural and urban settings. Students will be introduced to interactive app development and create 3D assets for virtual and physical environments by completing a series of design challenges in teams. Throughout the course they will develop an iterative making practice by rapid prototyping their ideas starting with cardboard & paper and progressing to 3D modelling & worldbuilding. By engaging in research activities that pull from human-centered design and systems thinking, they will gain the critical thinking skills  to see the “target users” of their projects as people with real needs and question the effectiveness of technology as a way to answer them. 

Students will learn:
•    Computer aided design for 3D printing, lasercutting, and digital assets,
•    Augmented and Virtual Reality development software,
•    Human-centered design.

Instructors: Isa Vento, Cooper Union Engineering staff, and Cooper Union student teaching assistants

Participants: Students in 10th or 11th grade in the 2022-2023 school year. 

Session information: This six-week program offers one session starting Monday, July 10, 2023. Classes meet Monday - Thursday, 9 am to 3 pm.

Prerequisites: none

Teaching method: In person.  The instructor and teaching assistants will lead students through daily scheduled lectures, discussions, field trips, guest speakers and project work. 

Materials: All materials are included. Students can opt to bring a personal computer.

Cost: $3995

Apply now: https://connect.cooper.edu/apply/
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Credits: 0.00

Course Code: STEM 22-6

  • Founded by inventor, industrialist and philanthropist Peter Cooper in 1859, The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art offers education in art, architecture and engineering, as well as courses in the humanities and social sciences.

  • “My feelings, my desires, my hopes, embrace humanity throughout the world,” Peter Cooper proclaimed in a speech in 1853. He looked forward to a time when, “knowledge shall cover the earth as waters cover the great deep.”

  • From its beginnings, Cooper Union was a unique institution, dedicated to founder Peter Cooper's proposition that education is the key not only to personal prosperity but to civic virtue and harmony.

  • Peter Cooper wanted his graduates to acquire the technical mastery and entrepreneurial skills, enrich their intellects and spark their creativity, and develop a sense of social justice that would translate into action.