A laboratory for teaching software development skills for building virtual reality applications and simulations.

A great deal of research being performed in undergraduate and graduate programs in the sciences and engineering, centers around collaborative scientific projects and the visualization of the results. With so much activity in the scientific and engineering community today comprised of collaborative projects which include and require software engineers, a logical step at this time is to expose students to the hardware, special devices, and software techniques of virtual world modeling. This paper describes a virtual world modeling laboratory for undergraduates in software engineering and computer science. Specific hardware, devices, software techniques, project specifications, and laboratory experiences will be described. Projects include a virtual backhoe simulation system, a virtual hang gliding simulation, a virtual pool table game, and a star wars flight simulator.