Eastern Iowa gets in on ground floor of Virtual Reality with EON Reality
As the first students of the new EON Innovation Academy at Eastern Iowa Community Colleges, the group is delving into the world of Virtual Reality, or VR, and Augmented Reality, of AR. For the next 11 months, they will learn to create VR and AR content and software applications — 3-D tools that will ultimately change how employees train, students learn and products are designed.
The program — a partnership of the college and the Irvine, California-based EON — will create a new skill set in the manufacturing-based Quad-Cities. Working with EON, identified as the world leader in VR/AR-based knowledge transfer for industry, education and edutainment, the newfound skills could serve as a future economic driver for the region.
Joshua Drake, Eastern Iowa's VR Training Initiatives project manager, said the students will spend the first four months in the classroom being taught by visiting EON professionals from around the globe.
"Phase Two is the project phase, where they will be working in teams on real EON projects," he said.
The projects will have the students working with EON's VR experts as mentors and the company's clients, many of which are Fortune 500 companies.
First announced in March 2016, the academy is a three-year partnership between Eastern Iowa and EON Reality. It was announced on the heels of the college unveiling its new Virtual Reality lab at its Advanced Technology Environmental and Energy Center, which also now houses the innovation academy.
The Quad-Cities is one of only four U.S. cities with an EON Innovation Center, joining Dallas, New York City and Tulsa, Oklahoma. Worldwide, the company has established more than a dozen sites, including Manchester, UK; Laval, France; Tshwane, South Africa; Ebene, Mauritius; Jeddah, Saudi Arabia; Melbourne, Australia; and Dubai, UAE.
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