Students at Arizona State University are getting an unexpected added extra for their tuition money this semester: A virtual reality headset for the duration of their course. Building on its reputation as one of the U.S.’ most innovative schools, the decision to embrace virtual reality is proof of how VR is no longer simply a novelty for gamers, but a valuable educational tool, as well.
At present, Arizona State is targeting its VR initiative at biology students, who will use the technology to complete assignments. For one part of the curriculum, students will use virtual reality to analyze fictitious plants and animals on other planets. For another, they must work out how to build a space station without causing harm to a planet’s biodiversity. The use of VR is available to both students on campus and also those who are accessing Arizona State’s learning modules online.
“We are introducing the ability for students to access the simulations we use in the courses in virtual reality,” Philippos Savvides, manager of Learning Technologies for EdPlus at Arizona State University, told Digital Trends. “The simulations are available to all students who take BIO 181 General Biology, BIO 394 Cell and Molecular Biology, BIO 321 Ecology, and BIO 361 Animal Physiology. BIO 394, 321 and 361 are lab courses required by the fully online degree program in Biological Sciences. In addition to the browser, the simulations are available to Daydream-ready headsets and phones, and we are currently loaning the Lenovo Mirage Solo to students.”
The decision to embrace virtual reality comes about as part of a partnership with Google and VR company Labster. Arizona State has worked with both organizations for several years, although this marks the first time that VR has officially been used as a core component of the university’s classes.
“The online Biological Sciences degree is appealing to STEM degree-seeking students all over the world, and offering the lab requirements using virtual simulations is a solution that is both accessible and scalable,” Savvides continued. “Pedagogically, the simulations provide on-demand unlimited practice to experiences that are not possible in a physical space.”
If these classes prove to be a success, hopefully it won’t be long before VR is introduced to other courses. After all, from medicine to music creation to ancient history, there are plenty of virtual reality scenarios that would be great for learning. Plus the possibility of a virtual keg party or two!
San Francisco startup Dimensional advertised for people to walk robot dogs through city streets. The New York Times reported that the job could include carrying a roughly 33-pound robot back to the office if it overheated. A lift home is an awkward requirement for a labor-saving machine.
Keeping the hardware running is only one challenge. Anthropic's robotics tests found that language models mostly failed when controlling joints directly, but did better when directing trained controllers. Giving an AI agent a body doesn't teach it to handle ordinary household objects.
Soon, a mattress protector may be more than a bed cover. Australian medtech company Sleeptite and researchers at RMIT University have received a US patent for FlexiSense, a smart bedding technology that tracks body position and posture to help caregivers identify when older residents may be at risk of falling.
The technology is being developed for Sleeptite’s in-bed monitoring system, REMi, and was recently on display at The MedTech Conference in Boston. A peer-reviewed study in Flexible and Printed Electronics says the sensors can also be made at scale without sacrificing performance or durability.
AI companies spend enormous amounts of time convincing us their technology is safe and secure. But what happens when those same companies become targets of increasingly sophisticated AI-powered attacks? Anthropic, the company behind Claude, is now facing that question. According to a Washington Post report, cybersecurity startup Cathedral discovered vulnerabilities that let its researchers access sensitive information in Anthropic's internal systems.
The researchers used AI agents to identify potential entry points in less than 12 hours. Interestingly, they didn't need to crack Claude itself. Instead, they exploited weaknesses in third-party business applications that Anthropic uses for everyday operations. Anthropic's security testing program disclosed the findings, which allows outside researchers to identify and report vulnerabilities.