Science in virtual worlds: Research, Education, Outreach, and More

 

Date: Friday, June 12
Time: 11.00
Location: Twente Univiversity, Citadel T100
More information: Tom Schooltink, m.j.schooltink@utwente.nl

 

Piet Hut is professor of astrophysics at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, NJ, USA. He is also the Head of the Program in Interdisciplinary Studies at IAS, a program which he founded in 2002. Within astrophysics, his mean area of research is stellar dynamics, with an emphasis on large-scale simulations. While half of his research is concentrated in astrophysics, the other half covers areas ranging from computer science, mathematics and particle physics to geology, palaeontology, cognitive science and philosophy. During the last two years, he has extensively explored the use of virtual worlds for both research and education, in astrophysics as well as in more broadly interdisciplinary studies.

 

He started with Videoranch, using ActiveWorlds software, and has since moved on to Qwaq Forums. Most recently, he has been exploring Second Life. In this virtual world, he has co-founded two virtual organizations: MICA, the Meta Insitute for Computational Astrophysics (http://www.mica-vw.org) and Kira (http://www.kira.org) as a virtual branch of a real-world interdisciplinary institute. Both organizations are involved with more traditional activities such as research and education, but there are also novel components like an enhanced emphasis on outreach and a switch away from teacher-student interactions towards more peer-based learning and research.

 

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