‘A whole other world’ opens up
Students experience virtual reality with help of $150,000 donation from 1997 Atholton graduate Brendan Iribe, a co-founder of Oculus VR
A $150,000 donation from a graduate of Atholton High School is allowing students in the county to use state-of-the-art virtual reality technology for visual arts and architectural design.
Brendan Iribe, who graduated from Atholton in 1997, is a co-founder of Oculus VR, a technology company that develops virtual reality technology and devices.
His donation has helped the county school system’s Applications and Research Lab in Ellicott City purchase 22 Oculus Rift virtual reality headsets and controllers, as well as computer hardware used to run the program. The equipment is being used by students in the lab’s visual arts and architecture academies.
For Iribe, 38, the donation pays back a school system where he says he got his start in computer programming as a Clarksville Middle School student in the 1990s. A video game fanatic, Iribe graduated from Atholton and then attended the University of Maryland, College Park with plans to major in computer science.
After two semesters, he dropped out to work as a freelance programmer and later co-founded Scaleform, a user interface technology company based in Laurel. The California-based software firm Autodesk acquired Scaleform; then Iribe joined a company called Gaikai that provided technology for high-end streaming games.
That firm was bought out by Sony Interactive Entertainment in 2012.
That same year, Iribe and others launched started a Kickstarter campaign to create Oculus Rift, raising $2.4 million. The company was founded by Iribe, Palmer Luckey, Michael Antonov, Jack McCauley and Nate Mitchell.
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg acquired Oculus VR for $2.3 billion in March 2014.
“We dove into this thing because we were excited about it,” Iribe said. “We had no idea what it would really turn into. … I feel very lucky to have been a part of it.”
Iribe has made other donations to school systems that he touched along the way of his educational career. He donated $31 million to the University of Maryland in 2015 to aid construction of the Brendan Iribe Center for Computer Science and Innovation. In addition, the Brendan Iribe Scholarship in Computer Science was created with $1 million of the donation.
Iribe joined state and Howard County officials, teachers and students at the Applications Research Laboratory Nov. 27 to celebrate the technology’s use in the visual arts and architectural design academies.
Among those attending were County Executive Allan H. Kittleman, school system Interim Superintendent Michael Martirano and former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley, who was invited by Iribe.
John Cservek, an animator and interactive media instructor, said the Oculus Rift headset, which looks like high-tech goggles, “essentially [put] students inside a video game.”
“The hand track controllers allow you to sense your own hands in that virtual space and you can interact with objects and throw things,” he said. “It gives students and other users a much greater sense of presence in the game.”
Instructor Tina LeBaron said that before receiving the new technology, students viewed their 3D work on a computer screen. The two-dimensional outlook and lack of equipment limited students’ abilities to interact with the program.
The academies were familiar with Oculus technology, she said, but previously only had one set available to students.
“Most of our game development was done with a standard-issue control, like when you play Xbox or PlayStation,”
LeBaron said. “You’re always playing it on a screen and seeing it that way. Now, we can put students in a physical VR space. Their ears and eyes are connected, so instead of looking at it on a screen, they’re looking at it in a reality.”
Theo Jack-Monroe, a student in the animation and interactive media academy,
Brendan Iribe, who graduated from Atholton in 1997, is a co-founder of Oculus VR, a technology company that develops virtual reality technology and devices.
His donation has helped the county school system’s Applications and Research Lab in Ellicott City purchase 22 Oculus Rift virtual reality headsets and controllers, as well as computer hardware used to run the program. The equipment is being used by students in the lab’s visual arts and architecture academies.
For Iribe, 38, the donation pays back a school system where he says he got his start in computer programming as a Clarksville Middle School student in the 1990s. A video game fanatic, Iribe graduated from Atholton and then attended the University of Maryland, College Park with plans to major in computer science.
After two semesters, he dropped out to work as a freelance programmer and later co-founded Scaleform, a user interface technology company based in Laurel. The California-based software firm Autodesk acquired Scaleform; then Iribe joined a company called Gaikai that provided technology for high-end streaming games.
That firm was bought out by Sony Interactive Entertainment in 2012.
That same year, Iribe and others launched started a Kickstarter campaign to create Oculus Rift, raising $2.4 million. The company was founded by Iribe, Palmer Luckey, Michael Antonov, Jack McCauley and Nate Mitchell.
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg acquired Oculus VR for $2.3 billion in March 2014.
“We dove into this thing because we were excited about it,” Iribe said. “We had no idea what it would really turn into. … I feel very lucky to have been a part of it.”
Iribe has made other donations to school systems that he touched along the way of his educational career. He donated $31 million to the University of Maryland in 2015 to aid construction of the Brendan Iribe Center for Computer Science and Innovation. In addition, the Brendan Iribe Scholarship in Computer Science was created with $1 million of the donation.
Iribe joined state and Howard County officials, teachers and students at the Applications Research Laboratory Nov. 27 to celebrate the technology’s use in the visual arts and architectural design academies.
Among those attending were County Executive Allan H. Kittleman, school system Interim Superintendent Michael Martirano and former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley, who was invited by Iribe.
John Cservek, an animator and interactive media instructor, said the Oculus Rift headset, which looks like high-tech goggles, “essentially [put] students inside a video game.”
“The hand track controllers allow you to sense your own hands in that virtual space and you can interact with objects and throw things,” he said. “It gives students and other users a much greater sense of presence in the game.”
Instructor Tina LeBaron said that before receiving the new technology, students viewed their 3D work on a computer screen. The two-dimensional outlook and lack of equipment limited students’ abilities to interact with the program.
The academies were familiar with Oculus technology, she said, but previously only had one set available to students.
“Most of our game development was done with a standard-issue control, like when you play Xbox or PlayStation,”
LeBaron said. “You’re always playing it on a screen and seeing it that way. Now, we can put students in a physical VR space. Their ears and eyes are connected, so instead of looking at it on a screen, they’re looking at it in a reality.”
Theo Jack-Monroe, a student in the animation and interactive media academy,
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