Deutsch

All projects

Digitalise SÜDWESTFALEN

Digitalise South Westphalia

The Virtual Institute for Virtual and Augmented Reality (VI VR/AR) is a collaborative network of experts from South Westphalia University of Applied Sciences and Hamm-Lippstadt University of Applied Sciences, specializing in immersive media. As part of the Digitalise_SWF project, the institute aims to strengthen digital competencies across the South Westphalia region by transferring knowledge and expertise in VR and AR to industry, education, healthcare, and the wider community. Its activities include workshops, training, collaborative research, and the development of customized VR/AR solutions. In the long term, VI VR/AR seeks to drive innovation, foster digital transformation, and create added value for all regional stakeholders through immersive technologies.

  • Funders Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), Ministry of Culture and Science of North Rhine-Westphalia (MKW.NRW)
  • Funding program Innovative Hochschule
  • Funding amount 3.41 Million Euro
  • Duration 2023 - 2027

Funding

  • Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF)
  • Ministry of Culture and Science of North Rhine-Westphalia (MKW.NRW)
  • Innovative Hochschule

Partners

  • South Westphalia University of Applied Sciences
  • Economic Development Agency Soest District GmbH

Team

Project website →

The Virtual Institute

As part of the Digitalise_SWF project, which aims to strengthen knowledge transfer and drive digital transformation in South Westphalia, the Virtual Institute (VI) VR/AR in Product Development brings together the expertise of researchers from Hamm-Lippstadt University of Applied Sciences and South Westphalia University of Applied Sciences in the field of immersive media. Its goal is to foster innovation in the region through the use of immersive technologies such as Virtual, Augmented, and Mixed Reality and to enhance collaboration between academia, industry, and society.

The VI closely collaborates with small and medium-sized enterprises, municipalities, schools, and other partners to develop practical solutions in areas such as digital twins, virtual learning environments, AR-supported remote maintenance, and predictive maintenance. Through workshops and demonstrations, the VI for VR/AR showcases the potential of immersive technologies and highlights their value for work, education, and everyday life.

In addition, the VI examines how the effectiveness of transfer activities can be systematically assessed and evaluated to ensure that the formats meet the needs of the target groups and to support the continuous improvement of future measures.

An image showing the outside of the Lab on Tour.

The project "Digitalise SWF" is a joint initiative of the Hamm-Lippstadt University of Applied Sciences and the South Westphalia University of Applied Sciences. This comprehensive transfer project aims to strengthen digital competencies across the entire South Westphalia region through strategic knowledge and technology transfer to diverse target groups, including industry, education, healthcare, and the wider community.

As a specialized, cross-institutional component of this larger initiative, the Virtual Institute for Virtual and Augmented Reality (VI VR/AR) functions as a dedicated collaborative network of experts specializing in immersive media. The VI VR/AR's primary role is to consolidate expertise in Virtual and Augmented Reality (VR and AR) to enable targeted knowledge transfer to regional stakeholders. The Institute's core research and activity areas include the development of immersive media technologies, Extended Reality (XR) (including VR, AR, and CAVE systems), games and mobile applications, technologies for health and education, recording of physiological data, usability and user studies, and media pedagogy and personnel management. Its activities include offering workshops and training, conducting collaborative research, and developing customized VR/AR solutions. Ultimately, the VI VR/AR seeks to drive regional innovation, foster digital transformation, and create sustainable added value for all stakeholders through immersive technologies.

Publications