Who we are, what we do: The VITAL Lab @ OU

The Virtual Immersive Technologies and Arts for Learning Laboratory (VITAL Lab) is a multidisciplinary research and development facility at Ohio University in Athens, Ohio. We specialize in creating realistic virtual environments and synthetic worlds for educational purposes (such as Second Life programming and software used in the classroom). Our belief at the VITAL Lab is that new technology can improve the age-old processes of teaching and learning.

In addition to being part of OU's Russ College of Engineering and Technology, the VITAL Lab is also associated with OU’s College of Education, OU's College of Fine Arts and Ohio University Without Boundaries. Our staff is comprised of talented Ph.D, graduate and undergraduate students, as well as hardworking professors and professionals.

We provide the following services:

Educational Game Development
The VITAL Lab is a national leader in building immersive, interactive educational games using virtual world technologies. We have vast experience building educational games on Second Life's main grid and teen grid as well as Flash, our own 3D engine called STEAMiE, and most recently Unity 3D.

Scripting
As a part of Ohio University’s Electrical Engineering and Computer Science department, The VITAL Lab has access to almost unlimited computer programming capabilities and can quickly turn your 3D world vision into a virtual reality.

Content Creation
The VITAL Lab has a full-time graphic designer who is very capable of rapidly building immersive virtual architectural designs.