Emerging Technologies Lab Making International Connections
On October 23, Northwestern IT’s Emerging Technologies Lab (ETL), part of the Media and Technology Innovation team, hosted guests Sebastian Gerling, chief digital officer, and Jan Frömming, deputy section head and team lead, strategy, and partnerships, from Universität Hamburg. The visit, sponsored by the Office of International Relations, was the first stop on the German delegation’s tour of some of Northwestern’s most highly admired research labs and facilities through the International Relations Office’s Bringing the World to Northwestern and Northwestern to the World program.
The visit represents a collaborative effort to exchange knowledge in key areas of digital transformation, emerging technologies, and advanced scientific research. In addition to ETL, the delegation visited several Northwestern research groups and institutions, including the Institute for Quantum Information Research and Engineering (INQUIRE), Northwestern Institute for Complex Systems (NICO), Center for Robotics and Biosystems, and others.
Joe Paris, associate vice president of IT Services and Support, welcomed the group and introduced the ETL team as an expert resource for requested support and leaders who proactively introduce new ways to transform and enhance learning, teaching, research, and collaboration across the University.
We caught up with Rodolfo Vieira, manager of emerging technologies, who leads the lab, to learn more about the visit and the innovative work his team performs.
"We showcased a range of projects that exemplify our work with emerging technologies," said Vieira. "This included photogrammetry collaborations with the Northwestern Library, featuring artifacts from the Herskovits Collection, and a digital twin 3D model of the historic Ryan Field stadium created in partnership with the University Archives."
"We presented a 360° immersive video capturing the final football game at the old stadium. In addition, we demonstrated an immersive 360° video case study developed for a Kellogg professor's course on market dynamics within diasporas, and a motion-capture project featuring music professors performing on the piano to develop tools for music students. We also demoed the Augmented Curiosities: Virtual Play in African Pasts and Futures VR/AR experience, a project led by one of our PhD Student Innovators in Residence; and lastly, we highlighted our new generative AI simulation for the School of Law, where student lawyers can practice advising early-stage startups on incorporation options."
More About the Emerging Technologies Lab
The Emerging Technologies Lab (ETL) is a part of the Media and Technology Innovation group, dedicated to pioneering innovative scholarship across academic, teaching, learning, and research environments. At this stage, the lab consists of a core cohort of members from the group, who are engaged in offering consultations, demonstrations, and creating experiences that span software design and development, augmented and virtual reality production, photogrammetry, motion-capture, immersive 360° video and photography, as well as generative artificial intelligence projects. ETL also provides opportunities for PhD Student Innovators in Residence, who contribute to lab activities and leverage emerging technologies for their own research.
If you are interested in learning more about the lab or working with the team, contact the group through their web page.