"VR (Virtual Reality) at UARK" will be held at the Cordia Harrington Center for Excellence room 349 from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. tomorrow, Sept. 24, organized by the World Languages and Digital Humanities and Student Success. The aim of the event is to highlight and share all the ways that virtual reality and augmented reality technology is being used for both teaching and research at the U of A.  

Brief presentations will be held by a diverse group of U of A faculty, students and staff, including:  

• Trevor Francis, Student Success Center 
• Dave Fredrick, classical studies and game design
• Michael Hall, doctoral candidate, comparative literature and cultural studies
• Mary Lacity, Sam M. Walton College of Business
• Vince Capps, application and workflow analyst
• Curtis Maughan, digital humanities, and director of the World Languages & Digital Humanities Studio
• Joomi Lee, communication
• Stephanie Kay Brown, outreach and programming coordinator, Mullins Library
• Lesley Speller and Alicia Estes, eLearn developers, Global Campus

This event will also feature a short presentation from Tricia Thrasher, director of research at Immerse VR, an educational technology company that builds digital environments with AI-driven NPCs for task-based language instruction.  

The event will feature an extended Q&A session, during which participants will respond to questions and discuss how they might collaborate with one another in the space of VR and AR for pedagogy and research. Lunch will be provided by Ozark Catering. 

If you have questions, please write the event organizers directly:  

• Curtis Maughan, cmaughan@uark.edu  
• Trevor Francis, tafranc@uark.edu