Engineering Clinic : Fall 2025

Engineering Clinic at Rowan is a multi-semester, design-centered experience where students tackle real problems in small teams. You’ll gather requirements, prototype, test, iterate, and deliver—gaining practical skills across systems engineering, documentation, and communication.

This semester we are seeking Electrical and Computer Engineering students who love systems thinking, real-time software, sensing, human-computer interaction, and applied R&D. Curiosity and initiative are a must.

Dr. George Lecakes
Director of Immersive Technology & Learning at Rowan University and Associate Director for Virtual Reality at MAVRC. He leads university-wide efforts to deploy VR for education and research, building production-grade interactive systems and mentoring cross-disciplinary teams.

Focus Areas

  • Virtual & Augmented Reality for training and decision support

  • Real-time simulation & human-in-the-loop systems

  • Technical leadership, pipeline design, and mentoring

Contact
Questions about enrollment or scope? Email: lecakes@rowan.edu

VR Crash Site Forensics

In partnership with the FAA Rotorcraft Group, students will design and develop a virtual crash site investigation in the Dreamscape Free Roam pod and VR classroom—an immersive training tool that simulates real-world rotorcraft accident forensics.

What we’ll build

  • Interactive, room-scale crash scene with evidence capture

  • Investigation workflow: survey → mark → sample → report

  • Data layers: debris fields, rotor systems, flight path cues

  • Instructor dashboard & session replay

Tech Stack

  • Unity (C#) with OpenXR for Free Roam & classroom

  • Dreamscape pod APIs & multi-user networking

  • 3D content pipeline (Blender, Substance) as needed

  • Git/Plastic for version control; CI builds to headsets

Roles

  • Interaction/Tools Engineer (evidence capture & UI)

  • Simulation/Systems Engineer (state, logic, data)

  • Performance Engineer (profiling, networking, QA)
    Teams of 2–3; mentored by three master’s students; coordination with FAA partners.

Milestones

  1. Work with FAA experts to learn crash site investigations and research past crashes

  2. Collaborate with story and narrative design specialists to transfer curriculum into an interactive VR experience

  3. Develop VR code to build crash sites, allow users to walk around and inspect, and assess performance

  4. Deliver prototype experience in the VR Free Roam pod and classroom by December

Outcomes

  • A working VR training module

  • Documentation of workflows and tools created

  • End-of-semester demo day with live walk-through

AI-Powered VR Game Pipeline

This project explores how AI can transform the way we build games and immersive worlds. The challenge: replace the entire development pipeline with AI models, from concept art to narrative design, storyboarding, 3D assets, textures, animations, and even real-time avatars.

Students will not just experiment with AI tools—they’ll connect them into a production-ready pipeline. The end goal is to deliver a prototype VR/interactive world where nearly everything has been AI-generated and engineered to run in real-time.

What we’ll build

  • Concept and narrative design using AI language and story models

  • AI-generated storyboards, environments, and assets

  • AI-based 3D model creation and texture workflows

  • AI-driven animation and motion capture alternatives

  • Real-time avatars generated and controlled by AI

  • A unified pipeline to integrate these outputs into Unity

Tech Stack

  • Unity (C#) for VR/real-time integration

  • Generative AI models (Stable Diffusion, LLMs, MeshyAI, Audio2Face, etc.)

  • Asset pipelines for AI → engine import (FBX/GLTF + textures)

  • Middleware scripts to automate generation and integration

Milestones

  1. Research & Evaluate AI models for concept art, 3D generation, storyboarding, animation, and avatars

  2. Design a Pipeline linking these AI models into a cohesive workflow

  3. Prototype World — generate environments, assets, and characters with AI and integrate them into Unity

  4. Final Delivery — present a working AI-generated prototype world in Unity/Dreamscape by December

Outcomes

  • A functioning AI-driven development pipeline

  • Documentation of models, tools, and workflows tested

  • A demo VR/interactive experience showing AI-generated assets and avatars

  • Insights into the future role of AI in engineering and creative industries