Marketing MADE@UF Samuel Putnam, Joe Baca, Matthew Daley, Barbara Hood, Ariel Pomputius
Introduction Mobile App Development Environment (MADE) @ UF provides students with the necessary equipment and training to develop mobile, virtual reality, and augmented reality applications. Students register to use the space Students can borrow circulating VR/AR equipment
Problems The space is used by students as a more exclusive study space, not for development The VR/AR equipment doesn’t circulate regularly Some faculty are aware of the space, but many who teach relevant classes are not
Marketing Plan Focus on increasing user engagement through community involvement Partnerships with faculty and student groups Emails to faculty Events and workshops that utilize the space Update website and create newsletter
Messages Faculty Benefit statement: Made@UF: supporting research and exploration outside the classroom. Give your students free access to virtual and augmented reality technology in an open collaborative space. Students Benefit Statement: Made@UF: Innovate @ your own pace. Students! Use your Gator 1 Card to check out and explore virtual reality technology in a collaborative space by yourself or with the GatorVR club
Partnerships Ben Lok and “VR for the Social Good” TRACE faculty and Marston internships Gator VR Student group V-Space
Emails Targeted toward faculty and grad students invested in VR/AR research Statements of support from partners
Ben Lok, Ph.D. “The Made@UF laboratory is a valuable resource Professor for classes and student groups that focus on Computer Science emerging technologies. The Made@UF lab provides space, hardware, software, and support for the latest in Virtual Reality and Human-Computer Interaction and the GatorVR student group (who I faculty advise). This configuration and usability of Made@UF is unique in its ability to support the goals of the classes and student group. The resulting benefits include a dedicated space to create virtual experiences and to speed up the development of students learning and developing virtual reality applications”.
Stephen Arce, PH.D. Lecturer Biomedical Engineering “I chose Made@UF because Marston is a common resource for all students, located centrally on campus, and the Made@UF space is visible to everyone passing through to a study in the bottom floor. The space was also equipped with the tools I needed to demonstrate the process of coding and compiling apps for mobile devices. In the future, I plan to focus the workshop on only a few students and do more one-on-one instruction with each student at their own workstation”.
Alec Hoffman Gator VR VP “VR is one of those rare breakthroughs in that presents a clean slate of opportunity waiting to be tapped. Thanks to the Made@UF program, UF students have access to industry grade hardware that enables us to get an invaluable head start in an industry that didn’t exist just a few years ago. I am immensely grateful for Made@UF’s investment in us students, and it has been a great help in Gator VR’s efforts to grow a VR community here at UF”.
Email Stats 3 promotional emails were sent to 90 different people 49 opened the email 5 clicked on the links within the email
Events and Workshops 2 open house events Faculty and grad students Undergraduate students 4 workshops on using the software available in the MADE@UF space Swag and coffee at events
Stats on Open Houses Faculty & Graduate Student Coffee & VR: 7 Undergraduate VR Open House: 40
Evaluation How we are measuring success
Updated Website and Newsletter Cleaned up website • Added Google Analytics to website • 39 newsletter subscribers since launch at beginning of Fall 2017 •
Evaluation 4 workshops Oculus Rift Circ Counts 75 participants Spring 2017 - 78 Events shared on FB and Twitter through Fall 2017 as of 11/14 - 81 Library and GatorVR accounts
Proposed Evaluation Evaluation is planned for the future to Track circulation/reservations of the space and equipment Reservations of Equipment and space Track faculty involvement Newsletter subscriptions
• Partnerships are key • Activity = excitement Lessons Learned • Assessment at all stages What we are taking away
The Team Joe Baca, Nancy Dowd, Barbara Hood, Matthew Daley, Samuel Putnam Not Pictured: Ariel Pomputius Questions? Email srputnam@ufl.edu
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