Our Team
VRPlants’ team is made up of NC State staff and students from across several departments and colleges. Our respective expertises in botany, education, design, technology, etc allow us to amplify one another’s abilities and create the most exciting work possible.
PAST DEVELOPMENT TEAM MEMBERS
Mitchell Dunning mtdunni@ncsu.edu
Technical & 3D Artist
Mitchell is a student in Computer Science at NC State. Mitchell works with Blender and other 2D and 3D art tools to create representative botanical 3D models for use in VRPlants games, tools, and other releases. This workflow and Mitchell’s skillset are present in VRPlants projects such as the VRPlants Makers’ Pack and other ongoing curricular projects.
Adam Rogers asroger2@ncsu.edu
Co-Investigator
Adam Rogers is the Head of Making & Innovation Studio at North Carolina State University Libraries. In 2018, Adam’s work was key in the development of VRPlant’s premise and initial grant proposal and he served as a Co-Investigator with VRPlants for the duration of our work under the American Society of Plant Biologists’ BLOOME Grant. During this time, Adam was instrumental to our workshop programming on campus at NC State, in Durham at the 2019 Moogfest, and at Capitol Hill.
Urvish Vasani uvasani@ncsu.edu
Web Developer/Technician
You’re already familiar with some of Urvish’s work because you’re currently looking at it! Urvish joined the VRPlants team in the spring of 2020 to contribute web development expertise and build out a project website that highlights our past and ongoing work. Urvish worked efficiently to build this website from the ground up in just a few weeks—all while working 100% remote in collaboration with our graphic designer.
Jack Wingo jackwingo@gmail.com
Immersive Media Developer & Interaction Design Technician
Jack is a graduate of the Computer Science program at NC State, with a minor in Art and Design. He contributed to design for VRPlants experiences and programmed initial builds for Ram’s Horn and the Naturalist’s Workshop experiences, respectively demonstrated at ASPB Southern Section 2019 and NC Museum of Natural Sciences “Darwin Day”. Other VRPlants projects include developing a LFD model viewer and addressing the digital workflow for the Moogfest 2019 workshop.
Victoria Gerson victoriargerson@gmail.com
Graphic Designer & Project Manager
Victoria is a recent graduate of the Master of Graphic Design program at NC State. Victoria utilized project management tools, organized documents and assets, branded all materials for VRPlants—presentations, signage, banners, and custom cardboard VR viewers, and worked with Urvish, our web developer, to create the website. She also co-led workshops on the basics of VR for educations and demonstrated work at several conferences and events.
Alexandria Szakacs adszakac@ncsu.edu
Plant Anatomy Subject Expert & Teaching Lab Developer
Dr. Szakacs provided subject matter expertise for each of our four plant anatomy instructional virtual dissections. Working hand-in-hand with a technical and 3D artist, Alexandria guided our week towards the greatest botanical accuracy and instructional utility possible.
Mikhael Vasquez-Kool mvasque@ncsu.edu
Technical & 3D Artist
Mikhael is a student in Aerospace Engineering at.NC State. Mikhael worked extensively with 3D scans, turning them into game ready models along with creating VR optimized assets for the Naturalist’s Workshop and Ram’s Horn.