A bubbling love of technology, and a drive to create; students from the HyperX organization on UW-Madison’s campus, step up, and pitch their contemporary creations of technology at the HyperX Madison kick off meeting on February 3, 2020. Offering an inside look into their brains, these students muster up the courage to stand up in front of the group and explain what it will take to bring their projects to life.
Brandon, the CTO of Cockpit Mobile, a local startup sponsoring HyperX, explains the company’s premier product– Field General, offering a form of slack for physical workforces.
Projects range from all walks of technology life. Lost and Google Maps doesn’t seem to do the trick? With a new take on literally walking you through how to get somewhere, students are in the works of developing an Augmented Reality Navigation platform. This is a new form of technology in which individuals learn how to use AR more effectively as they are directed to various locations indoors.
Playing towards the increasingly more prevalent issue of mental health on campus, students are looking into the project: Virtual Reality and Mental Health, an idea that investigates how VR can help identify non-medicinal ways to address anxieties and other issues. Describing her personal struggles with mental health, Anna, who is developing the project offered an insight on how the technology being created within this organization is directly helping society as a whole. She explained the fascinating way in which the technology would analyze what makes people anxious, and develop a VR space of peacefulness, in which the person would immerse themselves in.
In addition to these fascinating emerging technologies, another project looks into VR and Shared Experience. The project tests multiplayer modes for theater and other group experiences to deepen engagement. To add to this impressive list of tech projects; Algorithmic Stock Trading, and the use of VR in Education and Training are two more projects being developed within HyperX. This project is sponsored by Holos, a local startup focused on bringing VR and AR into the classroom to create more interactive and engaging learning experiences. Through Cockpit Mobile, Brandom will be providing mentorship to students on web and app development. Another design being developed is a Trendspotters Forum, in which the individuals will identify and learn about innovative use cases for new technology with the potential to do research and share resources.
The students show their overt passion for their projects as they engage with the group, crafting a space that encourages advice and conversation. In the image above, Bryce Sprencher, a peer mentor and leader from the Emerging Tech Hub, discusses the VR and Mental health project with Anna, Linda, and Cecilia. This is a great representation of the raw creation of new thoughts, and ideas stemming off the students’ initial pitches.
HyperX is also in the works of creating two additional projects: AI and Predictive Analytics Platform and Data Immersion and VR. The latter project engages with a data immersion app in virtual reality, while the other takes part in a demo of Axicor’s AI platform. Axicor is an artificial intelligence company that specializes in predictive analytics with interesting use cases in athletics and healthcare. The company also works on player injuries for sports such as basketball and football, as well as predictions of an individual’s personal health given historical data. The students’ project titles were listed on a poster and other organization members that were interested in them wrote their name on a sticky note to be pasted underneath the project that sparked their attraction. This was a very hands-on type pitch session, as the students interacted with one another and allowed their shared interests to flourish in discussion.
Supporting and encouraging the emergence of innovative technology on the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus, and community at broad, Hyper Innovation has developed a competitive edge for a multitude of brands. Housed by the Wisconsin Institute for Discovery in the Emerging Tech Hub, and sponsored by Hyper Innovation itself, HyperX is a growing student organization on campus that provides students with a creative space to explore and innovate their own technological designs. Each open work session begins with a fifteen minute presentation from an area expert on some facet of emerging technology (VR/AR, blockchain, IoT, AI). Following this, team breakouts occur; where the different teams meet with mentors, get feedback, work on their project, and receive advice from local tech experts, mentors, and varying startup collaborators. In a pitch-like fashion, student groups describe their fascinating ideas to the organization in their open work sessions in hopes to take their designs to the next level.
Hyper Innovation, and HyperX itself, encourage the continual use of a sandbox-like creation space for aspiring tech developers. Where passionate individuals come together to share their flourishing ideas, as well as gain advice on them. With the opportunity to work with highly skilled graduate and undergraduate students, this organization is discovering groundbreaking student work, and bringing it to this ever changing modern world.
