Representatives from AugMend Health Visit CIVS to Gain Insight on VR Projects

On June 9, representatives from AugMend Health visited CIVS to gain further insight on the VR-FUTURES project. VR-FUTURES is being developed by a team made up of researchers from CIVS, PNW Psychology, collaborators and clinicians from the Shepherd Community Center in Indianapolis, the Institute for Creative Technologies at USC, and others. The project is led by John “Jack” Moreland (CIVS Sr. Research Scientist). Co-PI Alicia January, Ph.D. (Associate Professor of Psychology) and CIVS graduate research assistants showcased the project.

The project title is short for “Virtual Reality For Understanding Trauma and Utilizing Regulation When Experiencing Stress” and provides a tool for clinicians to use when working with youth who have been affected by ACEs (adverse childhood experiences). The VR application is being developed to teach strategies for dealing with stressful situations and provide virtual scenarios to practice deploying those strategies when they’re encountered in daily life.

CIVS Director Chenn Zhou also presented an overview of CIVS & SMSVC research, and the group had hands-on demos of VR-FUTURES and CIVS projects in the immersive theater and visualization lab.