The first uCampus Platform Release (version 0.01a)

The first trial version of the uCampus Plaform was released this morning. The Team (Darren, Panagiotis, Puja, and Chengzhi) did a presentation to a group of 25 taught masters students at the School of Architecture. The students working in four groups will be using uCampus to develop 3D design proposals for (1) Reuse of the Jessop Edwardian Wing as the University's new Learning Hub, and (2) Redevelopment of the Jessop East Site.

For the initial phase of data development, several types of 3D models in the X3D format have been made available through uCampus: (1) 100m x 100m Terrain blocks representing the campus lands and roads etc, (2) Non-university buildings of surrounding local cummunities, (3) University buildings, (4) Floors of selected University buildings.

The students were shown how to install the uCampus Client package, lastets Java platform and a choice of some free downloadable X3D viewers/players. The team then demonstrated how the various kinds of 3D models can be selected, combined to generate user-defined campus models all in-realtime.

All 3D models generated on uCampus can be downloaded to the user's own desktop/laptop that can be further used as the basis for developing 3D design proposals. Students were also shown the Uploading facility of uCampus for them to submit their own models to the server which can be further combined with other models generated/submitted previously.

The idea is that the students are asked to work on the uCampus platform in anger with specific design briefs to fulfill. The JISC project team will then collect questions, feedback and comments from the students as the first group of real users. We have organised regular weekly project reviews in which each student team will present their work in progress and their user experiences with uCampus.

The 0.01a release is a result of about 30 working days since the whole team were put together. In these 30 or so working days, the team also centended with relocation from the Arts Tower to the Crookesmoor Building, two weeks' snow/ice, and a late delivery of the Dell server rack cabinet.

In the next few weeks, the team will continue developing more datasets and interactive function as the students are developing their project works. This phase of platform development and working directly with the first group of end users will prepare us to better undertake the first major project workshop scheduled in late June or early July 2009.