UAPB professor receives grant to upgrade 3D lab

Dr. Sederick Rice

Dr. Sederick C. Rice, assistant professor of biology at the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff (UAPB), was recently awarded a $265,000 grant from the National Science Foundation’s Major Research Instrumentation (MRI) Program to upgrade the Immersive 3-D Visualization, Teaching, Research, and Outreach Laboratory, known as the Lion CAVE.

“The Lion CAVE 2.0 project will extend UAPB’s focus on how instructors teach and students learn STEAM Content at our university and throughout the Arkansas Delta,” Rice said. “We are excited to have an opportunity to purchase cutting edge equipment through the grant that will be available for use by faculty, staff, students, and K-12 teachers.  Our ultimate goal is to be in a better position to train the next generation of innovators, critical thinkers, and STEAM professionals.”

Located in Rust Technology Hall, the Lion CAVE 2.0 project will add to the body of knowledge related to how educators translate data into visual displays and help identify instructor and students’ strengths and weaknesses for using and benefiting from immersive 3-D spatial orientation and visualization in classroom and research settings.  The project will also support professional development and training opportunities, in Immersive 3-D visualization, for UAPB faculty and staff in the departments of industrial technology and applied management, nursing, art, math and computer science, biology, and chemistry and physics.  Research generated from the project aims to highlight data on how K-16 teachers teach and students learn STEAM content using enhanced virtual reality equipment.