XR Courses at Stanford

CS 11SI: How to Make VR: Introduction to Virtual Reality Design and Development
In this hands-on, experiential course, students will design and develop virtual reality applications. You'll learn how to use the Unity game engine, the most popular platform for creating immersive applications. The class will teach the design best-practices and the creation pipeline for VR applications, and will include tangents that explore sister fields such as augmented reality and 360 video. Students will work in groups to present a final project in building an application for the Oculus Go headset. Enrollment is limited and by rolling application only. Prerequisite: CS 106A or equivalent.
Terms: Aut | Units: 2 | Grading: Satisfactory/No Credit
Instructors: Borenstein, J. (PI)

ARTSTUDI 169: Virtual Reality: the possibility and peril of immersive artwork
How can we use virtual reality systems to create powerful, beautiful and socially engaged artworks? Is it possible to use technically sophisticated (and sometimes frustrating) tools to share our unique personal visions? What can working in virtual reality teach us about our embodied reality and sense of presence? How might we question the hype and techno-utopianism surrounding VR, by using the medium itself? What is left out of the current conversation around VR that you would like to explore? In this introductory studio art course, students will learn to create artworks using virtual reality systems. We will use the HTC Vive, Oculus Rift, and Daydream VR headsets, as well as more accessible phone-based augmented reality systems to explore this medium. Through lectures and research presentations, we will familiarize ourselves with the artistic history of VR - from foundational works from the 1990¿s through current examples - in order to inform our own work. Students will become familiar with the fundamental studio art practice of analyzing and critiquing their own and others¿ projects. Learning to analyze artwork in turn helps students create works with more emotional and conceptual impact. While there are no official prerequisites for this course, familiarity with any kind of scripting language or coding environment will be helpful as Unity will be used as the main authoring environment.
Terms: Aut | Units: 4 | Grading: Letter or Credit/No Credit
Instructors: Utterback, C. (PI)

COMM 166: Virtual People (Graduate students register for COMM 266.)
The concept of virtual people or digital human representations; methods of constructing and using virtual people; methodological approaches to interactions with and among virtual people; and current applications. Viewpoints including popular culture, literature, film, engineering, behavioral science, computer science, and communication.
Terms: Aut | Units: 4-5 | UG Reqs: WAY-SI | Grading: Letter (ABCD/NP)
Instructors: Bailenson, J. (PI) ;

COMM 280: Virtual Reality Journalism in the Public Sphere
The immersive space (cinematic VR and virtual reality) is journalism's newest and most exciting reporting and storytelling tool. We survey best practices and methods in this emerging medium and learn 360-degree video production and postproduction. Teams will illuminate issues and provoke conversation in the public sphere. Prerequisite: Preference to Journalism M.A. students. Please contact instructor for permission number to enroll.
Terms: Win | Units: 4 | Grading: Letter or Credit/No Credit
Instructors: Migielicz, G. (PI)

CS 213: Creating Great VR: From Ideation to Monetization.
Covering everything from VR fundamentals to futurecasting to launch management, this course will expose you to best practices and guidance from VR leaders that helps positions you to build great VR experiences.
Terms: Spr | Units: 1 | Grading: Satisfactory/No Credit
Instructors: Borenstein, J. (PI)

​EE 267: Virtual Reality
​OpenGL, real-time rendering, 3D display systems, display optics & electronics, IMUs and sensors, tracking, haptics, rendering pipeline, multimodel human perception and depth perception, stereo rendering, presence. Emphasis is on VR technology. Hands-on programming assignments. Final project: create your own virtual environment. Prerequistites: strong programming skills. Helpful: basic computer graphics / OpenGL.
Terms: Spr | Units: 3 | Grading: Letter or Credit/No Credit
Instructors: Wetzstein, G. (PI) ; Konrad, R. (TA)

ARTSTUDI 267: Emerging Technology Studio
This course is an upper level studio course featuring different invited guest artists each year. Advanced subject material will be based on instructors¿ skills. Prerequisites will be based on the specific topic, but might include one of the following Intro to Digital/Physical Design, Embodied Interfaces, Media Archaeologies, Making it with Arduino, Digital Art 1, Electronic Art or permission of instructor. For spring 2019, Emerging Technology Studio will be taught by Jesse Fleming (www.jessefleming.com) Jesse is an artist and filmmaker innovating at the convergence of media art and mindfulness. In his course, he will work with students to develop artworks using VR technologies. The goal will be to create VR experiences which allow people to explore their world, perception, consciousness and relation to others with the potential outcome of lowering the perceived boundary between self and other.
Terms: Spr | Units: 4 | Repeatable for credit | Grading: Letter (ABCD/NP)

RAD 206: Mixed-Reality in MedicineEmerging Technology Studio
Mixed reality uses transparent screens to place virtual objects in the user's field of vision such that they can be aligned to and interact with actual objects, which has tremendous potential for medical applications. This course aims to teach the basics of mixed-reality device technology, and to directly connect engineering students to physicians for real-world applications. Student teams would compete two projects (1) developing new mixed-reality technology and (2) applying mixed-reality to solve real medical challenges. Prerequisites: (1) Programming competency in a language such as C, C++. or Python. (2) A basic signal processing course such as EE102B (Digital Signal Processing). A medical imaging course, while not required, will be helpful. Please contact the instructors with any questions about prerequisites.

Terms: Aut | Units: 3

Instructors: Daniel, B. (PI) ; Leuze, C. (PI)