On Tuesday, June 3, the UC San Diego Qualcomm Institute (QI) hosts a free, public showcase of student-created extended reality games through the “Serious Games for Climate Change” internship.
Led by Dr. Neil Smith, QI associate research scientist and co-director of the Center for Cyber-Archaeology and Sustainability, “Serious Games” teaches students to develop and apply games to complex global problems such as climate change. Thursday’s event will showcase the culmination of student work on topics that include:
- The Climate Games, a multi-player online game project funded by the CA CARES grant, focusing on areas impacted by climate change, such as the Salton Sea, San Joaquin, California Forests and Badu Islands Coral reef
- Cognitive Cities: Creation of urban digital twins, including twins of the UC San Diego campus and Hollywood’s Vinyl District and Modern/Ancient Haifa Tel Dor. (co-mentorship with Dr. Thomas E. Levy)
- VR Health: Virtual Environments for Human Research, Simulation and Immersion (co-mentorship with Dr. Erik Viire)
- Solar Weather: Simulation of Space Weather and its impact on the Environment  (co-mentorship with Dr. Bernard Jackson)
- NanoVerseVR, an immersive VR platform to explore and understand the nanoscale environment. (co-mentorship with Drs. Yves Theriault and Ivonne González-Gamboa)
Come see serious games developed at QI taken to the next level, delivering engaging and immersive applications that create tools that lead to climate resilient communities.
The event is open for walk-ins and student-led demos from 4-8 p.m.



