Student Engagement

Previous projects with student clubs & societies

The eSolutions VARS team engages with students at the university by collaborating with clubs and societies to host workshops.

WIRED TechFest: VR Thinktank w/ eSolutions

The eSolutions VARS team was a part of the WIRED TechFest, which was a technology festival that included a week of workshops, employability tips and tech talks. VARS contributed to this festival by working with WIRED to host a VR thinktank. In this workshop, students were given the opportunity to speak to the VR Innovation Leads and MITI students and test out VR goggles, allowing them to learn more about these emerging technologies.

Work-Integrated Learning (WIL) Student Projects

Past Work Integrated Learning Students (WIL) have worked with the eSolutions VARS team to produce industry innovation in order to help researchers and academics push their content to the next level and secure grant funding. They have explored Augmented Reality (AR)/Virtual Reality (VR) solutions to a diverse range of issues, particularly surrounding the learning and development of students.

Exploring the Potential Use of Virtual Reality in the

Tissue Culture Training

Kayoung Cho - 2024

The project aims to explore the potential of using virtual reality (VR) technology in tissue culture training, an essential laboratory technique. Given the numerous benefits of VR, it is suggested that VR could be a valuable tool for teaching this significant technique. To examine this possibility, the project conducted a thorough review of current literature on the use of VR in educational settings. The resulting report offers insights into whether integrating VR into tissue culture training is feasible and effective, providing recommendations for its implementation.

Utility of Immersive Virtual Reality for Electron Microscopy Training

Adem Goktepe - 2024

'The project goal was to investigate whether immersive virtual reality could be used for electron microscopy (EM) training. Current EM training can be expensive, fragile and stressful, hence alternate methods like VR were examined. 3 studies were found, and suggest VR offers an engaging, safe and re-usable learning experience but further research is required to understand the nuances of using VR for EM training. This report also addresses the various current EM training strategies, and synthesises the effectiveness of VR for learning in general.

Modelling for Optimisation of Cloud Resources

Ted Love - 2023

Monash eSolutions provide many different online products and services. Being able to track the progression of these projects is imperative to efficiency and resource allocation. This project aims to estimate the performance of tasks using data science techniques. Namely, how long a task will take to complete and how difficult it may be.

Workflow Insights with Data Science

Jayden Tay - 2023

Model Based Operations Project

Tim Hoang - 2023

The project uses Neo4j (a graph database) to link up various pieces of data. The overall goal is to create a tool that can be used to create metrics and insights that were not visible without linking the data.

VR "Human in the Loop" Bias Modelling Project

Steven Hadiwidjaja - 2023

As part of VARS identifying potential uses of VR technology we are interested in ways that VR can be used to combat bias in the workplace. We have identified a proof of concept that we would like to build, which integrates a workplace gender bias model (referenced below), with VR interaction. The purpose of this proof of concept is to allow an interactive VR experience to be a data input into the model as well as an output. With this proof of concept we hope to be able to design interventions that have quantifiable reduction in workplace bias.

Improving Health Literacy to Reduce Patient Anxiety

before Cardiology Pretests

Linh Chu & Shivani Mohanty - 2023

Problematising health literacy in terms of language and communication differences in Australia in general, and as factors particularly affecting patient anxiety before CT coronary angiograms or cardiology stress-tests. Language and communication have been under-explored, both as causations of low health literacy, and as potential elements for patient anxiety.

The existing intervention methods, along with the scope of improved health literacy and effective communication for decreasing patient anxiety were examined. Apart from the suggested viable methods, the role and feasibility of VR as a possible solution was also analysed.

Several gaps in the currently available studies relevant to the problem context were identified for future consideration.

Reducing new students’ anxiety of new

learning environments using 3D design

Keqing Li - 2023

This project focused on the feasibility of developing a QR code that provided a student the opportunity to ‘walk through’ buildings they were to attend during their time on campus. Early orientation to these sites was considered to be helpful in reducing anxiety and stress for a student about to attend on-campus for the first time.

Visual Impairment Simulation Proof of Concept

David Pu - 2023

This project focused on the feasibility of developing a VR experience. The conclusion was that there are a number of limitations when it comes to simulating visual impairment. The current state of simulation technologies and frameworks is still relatively limited, and there is a need for further development in this area.

Online Simulated Group Work Teaching and Assessment Environment

The goal of the project was to find an online simulation environment that best matches the Collaborative Care Curriculum, including the sorts of collaborative issues that are experienced in the workplace. The online simulation environment will allow students to learn teamwork approaches and be assessed using the environment. Working as a team, 4 x BioMed students researched methods that could be applied to online games to help teach and assess better team work for health professionals. The project has been selected for further development through FIT student projects.

Virtual Augmented Reality for Pain Relief

As part of a research project, Joshua was requested to undertake a systematic literature review regarding the effectiveness of virtual reality in managing acute pain and anxiety for medical inpatients. The outcomes of this provided relevant data for recommendations to be offered of what VR platform would be most effective for the research project (VR for post laparoscopy pain relief) and what VR platform would be relevant for General Practice clinical procedures. This activity has helped in identifying the need to recruit a PhD person to be involved in the research project.

Immunity Cascade Learning

Holly identified that existing learning and teaching strategies about the classical pathway of the complement system (complement cascade) - part of the human immune system - were sometimes difficult for students to grasp. As a result Holly developed an POC animation that demonstrates this cascade process.

3D Human Anatomy and Physiology Concept

This project aims to offer a potential learning approach to help students understand complex concepts in the field of anatomy and physiology. This approach utilises the use of virtual reality to create 3D animations to visualise organs and structures as well as complex physiological processes. In this project, we will discuss current educational offerings at Monash University and a future approach to improve students' learning experiences in anatomy and physiology. The application of this potential learning approach would also be suitable for other fields of biomedical science taught under the Faculty of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences (FMNHS) at Monash University.

VR Microscope Lab Concept

This project aims to address a teaching gap in students' laboratory components by offering an additional resource to help students gain valuable lab skills. Using virtual reality as a platform allows students to experience the same environment and interactivity as in a physical lab. This can prove invaluable during this online study period as well to ensure students are well prepared to go back to physical classes or employment.

Applied Mathematics Applications of VR/AR

This project aims to address the current issues with the teaching principles within Applied Mathematics. Using virtual/augmented reality as a tool for displaying and interacting with partial and ordinary differential equations. This would prove as a valuable education source and concreting one's knowledge of differential equations.

OHS management with use of VR

This project aimed to dissect the current OHS policies around VR/AR use in the workplace and analyse its effectiveness throughout the current COVID-19 pandemic. This review of OHS and hygiene policy was used as an outline and support for the VARS team's current OHS guidelines.

VR for Engaging Lectures

The aim of my project is to address concerns tertiary education students raise regarding delivery of content for their respective degrees through integration of interactive and engaging VR/AR simulations and active recall of lecture content. Ideas include the integration of 360° and 3D videos for lab practicals to allow for an immersive and interactive experience for students and instead of having one single lecture recording is rather, dividing the lecture itself into three sections, with the integration of mid-lecture questions after each segment to allow for the active recall of lecture content.

Virtual Orientation to the Paediatric Operating Theatre Environment

The aim of this project is to provide new medical and nursing students a more easily accessible way to prepare themselves for working in the operating theatre. This is particularly important in light of the current COVID-19 pandemic and in preparation for future infectious disease outbreaks, in which access to the operating theatre is restricted to students. Through the use of VR technology, this program will introduce students to the standard infection protocols and procedures within the theatre environment in an engaging, informative and easily comprehensible format.

Evaluating the Use of Haptic Pens in Forensic Science

The main idea of this project was to test the use of haptic pens in the VR environment and evaluate how they can be beneficial in the learning of forensic medicine. A successful proof of concept project was developed. It involved studying how the force feedback in Virtual Reality can trigger the learning of tasks that requires repetitions and extensive practice in a more effective way than the conventional teaching methods used in the medical industry. It is evident that this technology can benefit students by increasing the practice time on their learning tasks and benefit the organizations spending costly physical resources before the students are ready to use them.