Four middle school students from the Hot Springs Junior Academy Environmental and Spatial Technology led a presentation last week about a computer they recently built to operate the National Park College Innovative Technologies Center's Oculus Rift virtual reality equipment.
Ethan Abel, Carter Cazenave, Jackson Evans and Eben Sanders explained how they built the computer and led a demonstration of the equipment Tuesday at the ITC. The students discussed how they chose each component of the project and the importance of virtual reality in industry.
"We have built a very powerful computer that is capable of running virtual reality at peak performance, but, how we got to this position, we originally started building a computer for one of our group members," Sanders said.
"When we caught wind that the Innovative Technologies Center stared implementing Oculus and they were going to use a prebuilt computer to run it, we consulted with Dr. Julian Post. We asked him if we could build a computer of our own that would be at the same price, but outperform the prebuilt."
About two weeks passed from the time the students inquired about the project to the time they were able to select, order and receive the parts to construct the computer. Their EAST facilitator, Aspen Ham, posted a time-lapse video from their two and a half-hour build at the ITC on her page on YouTube.
"I want to thank the ITC and National Park IT Department for the opportunity for my students to partner with them on such a unique project," Ham said.
"My students learned so much throughout this project. I can't wait to see what they come up with next. I am looking forward to continuing to grow the partnership between Hot Springs Junior Academy and the ITC."
The minimum specs for operating an Oculus device include an i3 6100 central processing unit or higher, a GTX 960 or higher graphics processing unit, at least eight gigabytes of random-access memory and parts that are compatible with 1.3 HDMI.
A prebuilt computer with these specs would have cost $1,300 or more. The students were able to complete a custom-built unit with a faster processor and more RAM for $1,150.
The students explained builders can tailor a computer to their needs. They used a faster Intel Core i5-7600K Processor and further boosted its performance.
The group ran a systems check after the build was completed and reported the computer ran "extraordinarily." The ITC plans to use the Oculus technology to build custom models that can be exported and printed with 3-D printers.
"It was a fantastic experience working with these EAST students," said Post, ITC education coordinator. "They made the virtual reality computer build as entertaining as they were impressive."
Those on hand for the presentation and demonstration were Hot Springs Mayor Pat McCabe, Hot Springs School District Superintendent Stephanie Nehus, Hot Springs Junior Academy Principal Natasha Lenox, National Park College President John Hogan and Morgan Aldridge, administrative assistant to Gov. Asa Hutchinson.
Local on 12/11/2017