UCLA XR Initiative

UCLA XR Initiative (XRI) serves as a hub for UCLA faculty and students to meet, discuss, and practically experiment with VR/AR/MR and related technologies. XRI provides a space to explore imaginative ways of teaching, learning, and creating knowledge with and along XR. UCLA XRI aims to both catalyze and facilitate transdisciplinary conversations and collaborations surrounding XR to generate innovative research, artistic practices, and discovery of creative solutions to our world’s grand challenges.

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XRI On Campus

The Bionics Lab at UCLA is a research group aiming to develop science, technology, and human resources at the interface between robotics, biological systems, and medicine.

Location: Engineering 4 Building, Rm. 18-111

Website: http://bionics.seas.ucla.edu/index.html

Contact: Jacob Rosen Ph.D. (jacobrosen@ucla.edu)

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UCLA Samueli Makerspace is a 9,000-square-foot student makerspace equipped with 3D printers, a virtual reality system, and electronics fabrication tools.

Location: Boelter 2808

Website: https://samueli.ucla.edu/makerspace/ 

Contact: Jacob Schmidt (schmidt@seas.ucla.edu)

The laboratory seeks new ways to treat psychiatric and neurological disorders through invasive and non-invasive neuromodulation techniques.

Location: UCLA Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior, Room 48-136.

Website: http://lonn.semel.ucla.edu/

Contact: Nanthia Suthana, PhD. (thelnnlab@gmail.com)

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The UCLA Makerspace on the Hill specializes in providing support for student projects. Equipped with 3D printers, laser cutters, sewing machines, and woodworking and metalworking tools. 

Location: Olympic Hall

Contact: Steve Greim (steve@orl.ucla.edu)

The Lux Lab is a collection of emerging technology services offered by the UCLA Library. Some of these services are 3D printing, mapping and scanning, as well as laser etching and cutting.

Locations: Powell Library room 331 & Charles E. Young Research Library Research Commons 

Website: https://www.library.ucla.edu/use/computers-computing-services/lux-lab

Contact: Doug Daniels (dougdaniels@library.ucla.edu)

The Scholarly Innovation Lab (SIL) is the home base for Digital Humanities Research Accelerator and related capstone courses. SIL provides the space, resources, and community needed to stimulate innovative and collaborative scholarship.

Locations: Charles E. Young Research Library Research Commons 

Website: https://drc.ucla.edu/labs/sil/ 

Contact: Anthony Caldwell (acaldwell@humnet.ucla.edu)

The DMA fabrication lab facilitates physical construction across several different media, including wood, metal, and plastics. The shoot room is a dedicated studio used for professional photography and video production. 

Location: Broad Art Center Floor 2

Websites: http://support.dma.ucla.edu/fablab/ https://support.dma.ucla.edu/shootroom/

Contact: Jonathan Cecil (jonathancecil@ucla.edu)

The UCLA Art|Sci Center is dedicated to pursuing and promoting the evolving “Third Culture” by facilitating the infinite potential of collaborations between (media) arts and (bio/nano) sciences. The Art|Sci Studio Lab is where brainstorming and meeting occurs, and where the Art|Sci team maintains an extensive digital and physical archive.

Location: Broad Art Center Room 5250

Website: http://artsci.ucla.edu/home

Contact: vesna@arts.ucla.edu

The Media Arts Research Space (MARS) provides faculty and graduate students access to hard to find audiovisual material and literature from the fields of media arts and design.

Website: 

Contact: Steve Anderson, PhD. (sfanders@tft.ucla.edu)

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The OARC Technology Sandbox is an interdisciplinary computing facility open to UCLA students, researchers

Current Location: Math and Sciences Room 4328

Website: https://idre.ucla.edu/technology-sandbox

Contact: Lisa M. Snyder (lms@idre.ucla.edu)

EliXR is a private place for students, staff, and faculty to experiment with and create XR content.

Location: Public Affairs Room 1045

Website: https://humtech.ucla.edu/labs/elixr-lab/

Contact: Thomas Garbelotti (tom@humnet.ucla.edu) or Andrew Jessup (andrew@humnet.ucla.edu)

The UCLA Game Lab fosters the production of games and game-related research within an experimental art and design context.

Location: Broad Art Center

Website: http://games.ucla.edu/

Contact: Tyler Stefanich (tyler@games.ucla.edu)

The English Digital Media Lab is a collaborative environment to invent new approaches to literary objects and media technologies. 

Location: Kaplan Hall 211

Contact: Chris Cabrera Thompson (ccthompson@english.ucla.edu)

The Digital Archaeology Lab (DAL) is equipped with technology  for building and rendering intricate three-dimensional models and environments, run complex statistical analyses on large datasets, and geospatially reconstruct archaeological and cultural sites in GIS.

Location: Fowler Room A163

Website: https://ioa.ucla.edu/labs/dal

Contact: Deidre Whitmore (dal@ioa.ucla.edu)

The BRIDGE Innovation Studio encourages students and faculty to explore cutting-edge technology and how one can incorporate them in research and instruction across the Social Sciences.

Location: Public Affairs Room 2035

Website: https://computing.sscnet.ucla.edu/services/innovation-studio 

Contact: Joy Guey (joy@sscert.ucla.edu)

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This channel connects colleagues at every UC and is used to promote campus-specific XR events, share resources, participate in conversations, and more