Every weekend VRFocus gathers together a number vacancies from across the virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR) and mixed reality (MR) industry, in locations around the globe, to help make finding the ideal job easier. Below are a selection of roles that are currently accepting applications across a number of disciplines, all within departments and companies that focus on VR, AR and MR.
Don’t forget, if there wasn’t anything that took your fancy this week there’s always last week’s listings on The VR Job Hubto check as well.
If you are an employer looking for someone to fill an immersive technology related role – regardless of the industry – don’t forget you can send us the lowdown on the position and we’ll be sure to feature it in that following week’s feature. Details should be sent to Peter Graham (pgraham@vrfocus.com).
We’ll see you next week on VRFocus at the usual time of 3PM (UK) for another selection of jobs from around the world.
The Freshman Convocation at West Texas A&M University (WTAMU) will be taking place next month, and the University has chosen UK-based expert Sarah Jones to address the 1,200 students expected at the welcoming assembly on the topic of virtual reality (VR).
Sarah Jones is the Head of the Birmingham School of Media at Birmingham City University. Jones was chosen to address the students since the ‘common reader’ book chosen for the WTAMU students for this year was Ready Player One by Ernest Cline, in which VR plays a central role.
Taking inspiration both from the book and the recent film adaptation by Steven Spielberg, Jones will speak to the students about VR as well as addressing some of the central themes the book explores, such as perseverance and teamwork.
The ‘common reader’ is a book that all new WTAMU students are asked to read before they arrive on campus, as an attempt to give new students something in common that can be used to start a discussion or make new friends.
Ahead of her keynote at West Texas A&M University, Sarah Jones said: “It’s a great privilege for me to be able to address the WTAMU freshman at the start of their university journey and I hope I can inspire the students to make the most of the opportunities that will come their way over the next few years. My work across journalism, academia and tech has taken me to some fantastic places – both real and virtual – and I have met incredible people from all over the world as part of this. Just like Wade in ‘Ready Player One‘, I’ve only been able to achieve my dreams through perseverance, and I hope to be able to convey this as integral to the student’s personal development as part of my speech.”
For future coverage on VR and immersive technology, keep checking back with VRFocus.
Throughout 2017 VRFocus has talked at length about the developments in virtual reality (VR) throughout the whole spectrum of industry and public services, and yet the message way back when we began in 2014 is exactly the same as it was as we approach the end of 2017. There is far more to VR and immersive technologies than videogames and videogames alone.
The field of healthcare for example has seen a number of developments, including in recent weeks surgeons using mixed reality (MR) and Microsoft’s Hololens in order to consult during a procedure. You can find out all about that here in our interview with those involved.
One thing we have definitely seen gathering pace is the influx of VR, MR and augmented reality (AR) into various fields of education. Particularly when it comes to colleges and universities embracing the possibilities of the technology and introducing new courses in the subject as well as new ‘virtual labs’. This year alone there’s been projects from Singapore and China to Norway. Facilities opened in Kingston University in London, Beuth University in Berlin, whilst in American there’s been heavy investment by the University of Nebraska, the University of California, Berkeley, the University of Maryland, Oakland University and many more. Even within Sunday’s weekly rundown on VRFocus of available roles relating to immersive technology, The VR Job Hub, we’ve seen a steady increase in academic roles in the teaching, administrative and research areas.
Another UK based institution that has invested in immersive technology is Birmingham City University which recently welcomed a delegation from two of India’s leading creative companies to learn more about how the university is training the next generation of VR professionals, and with the hope of exploring potential partnerships in the future. It was Birmingham City University that announced, back in June this year, the development of new AR medical software that’ll help doctors view patient data among other items.
Members of mobile network operator JIO Studios, the world’s biggest data start-up company and animation studio philmCGI spent time at the campus this week, Digital Media Technology (DMT) Lab as part of a visit that was organised by the UK’s Department of International Trade. Both companies are interested in what doors the new technology can open with philmCGI in particular is looking to expanding its services to offer both VR and AR.
Anand Bhanushali, Founder and Managing Director of philmCGI, said:
“Birmingham City University has state-of-the-art media facilities; it is no wonder so many Indian students want to come to the UK to study!” Exclaimed Anand Bhanushali, Founder and Managing Director of philmCGI. “Today we have discussed a number of opportunities for collaboration, such as STEAM-based problem solving. Lots of innovative solutions can be developed when applying fresh minds to companies such as ourselves.”
“Birmingham City University and indeed the wider West Midlands is at the forefront of digital media technology and our active researchers ensure our students are best equipped for future careers in image and audio processing, digital media distribution and mixed reality systems.” Said Deputy Vice-Chancellor Professor Julian Beer, “At the same time, we are enabling our industry partners, who benefit from the new knowledge we are generating in this rapidly growing field. We are delighted at this opportunity to share knowledge and experience with our friends from India and we hope that from this visit we are able to build further institutional links with the country.”
(left to right) Ankit Sharma, Creative Director, JIO Studios; Professor Julian Beer, Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Birmingham City University; Aditya Bhat, Head, JIO Studios; and Anand Bhanushali, Founder and Managing Director, philmCGI
The event was hosted by the University’s recently-established India Innovation Group, comprising academics and staff who have a direct connection to or an interest to India in terms of collaboration, industrial and educational links, or who have joint projects currently in development.
The platform of VR education continues to develop at pace and VRFocus will no doubt be bringing you more updates regarding it very soon.
We’ve already seen many incredible and potential uses for virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR) and mixed reality (MR) in medical and health fields, and yet more advancements are being made in the field. Now, Birmingham City University has developed a new mixed reality system that’ll help doctors view patient data and more.
The AR and MR hybrid will project diagrams, patient information, virtual replicas of patients’ organs, bones and more.
The interface will allow practitioners to easily view data and organise it in a 3D space using hand motions and gestures. The hopes is that it’ll allow doctors to easily showcase a variety of things, medical procedures, lifestyle choices, etc., quickly and conveniently.
Being easily able to pinpoint certain location on a 3D representation of a body, for example, to a small audience will be much less uncomfortable for the person having the surgery than actually having to be there in person. It can also be used to discuss areas on a patient’s body directly with the patient with the diagrams giving accurate and important information.
Birmingham City University’s Dr Ian Williams hopes this will make things easier on practitioners; “We are developing this system as a platform to allow medical professionals to interact with genuine patient data and manipulate it by hand to educate and inform patients.”
Dr Williams continues; “The real advantages this brings are being able to visually demonstrate parts of the anatomy, using virtual models which can be customised for each patient and show how they have been impacted by lifestyle choices or how they may be changed following treatments or surgery.”
University staff are still looking at other MR and AR projects, and as soon as we hear about them, you’ll be able to read all of the latest developments on VRFocus.
Members of mobile network operator 
