Digital Dog VR Project

Visualization Lead
Virginia-Maryland College of Veterinary Medicine, 2018 – present
Funded by The Open Education Faculty Initiative Grant Program of the University Libraries, Virginia Tech

In practice clinical exams, veterinary students are expected to apply their anatomy knowledge to live animals. But it can be hard to visualize exactly where organs are in a live, standing animal when that knowledge is based on 2D illustrations and cadaver study. To solve that problem, our team created a 3D, virtual reality dog to enable students to really get inside the structure of the animal as it would be in a clinical exam—standing, three dimensional—and to see exactly where the organs are in relation to each other, the layers of tissue, and the skeletal system.

As the visualization lead on the project, I supervised SOVA undergraduate and graduate students translating canine CT scans into 3D objects. We then used game engines to program an innovative VR learning experience that provides a powerful bridge between study and application. The VR Dog is so successful as a pedagogical tool that the veterinary schools at two European universities—the University of Ghent and the University of Nottingham—have already requested that they be allowed to incorporate it into their own curriculum. We have also received additional funding to build a similar VR educational tool for bovine anatomy simulation.

Adding virtual reality to the teaching of veterinary clinical skills adds a new and untapped dimension for enhancing student learning. As an open-education resource, VR Dog brings that dimension to the world. Students at veterinary schools across the globe can use VR Dog to further their anatomical understanding. As VR Dog’s use grows, research can also be done on the effectiveness of the new techniques as compared to traditional teaching methods.

Collaborators: Michael Nappier, Bonnie Smith, Sterling Nesbitt, Daniel Monzel, Huy Ngo, Julie Von G, Brendan Casey and Anita Walz and over 120 first-year students at the Virginia-Maryland College of Veterinary Medicine.

Featured in: Virginia Tech Daily News
https://vtnews.vt.edu/articles/2018/10/univrel-vrdogproject.html