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| The atmosphere of the visit of the UMM Informatics Study Program to MIXPRO. (Photo: Istimewah) |
Not only creating a new era of web 3.0, but the metaverse is also driving the immersive virtual world and easy access in the future. Seeing these developments, the Informatics Study Program (Prodi) of the University of Muhammadiyah Malang (UMM) moved quickly to participate in the research and development of the metaverse in Indonesia. At the beginning of last June, UMM Informatics Study Program visited MIXPRO to develop UMM Metaverse.
Head of UMM Informatics Study Program, Ir. Galih Wasis Wicaksono, S.Kom, M.Cs explained that this metaverse technology breakthrough was born from the amalgamation of Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR) technology which is then widely known as Extended Reality (XR). With this breakthrough, the global community constantly talks about the metaverse. To keep up with technological developments, the UMM Metaverse project was born, aiming to create a UMM landscape in a virtual world.
"The visit of the UMM Informatics Study Program to MIXPRO is not without reason because this company engaged in the entertainment sector has a special division in developing metaverse technology. During the visit, apart from developing the UMM Metaverse project, we also plan to pioneer the establishment of a Center of Excellence (CoE) for the Metaverse School," said Galih.
Furthermore, Galih explained that later the UMM Metaverse project would be developed by two departments, namely the Informatics Study Program from the Faculty of Engineering and the Communication Studies Study Program from the Faculty of Social and Political Sciences (FISIP). The implementation also involves lecturers and students from the two study programs. "Broadly speaking, Informatics will handle the development of the metaverse from the software side, such as unreal or support from the programmer side. Meanwhile, the Communication Studies Study Program will be on the side of the narrative, scenario, Metaverse concept, and also the 3D artist. However, other study programs can collaborate," explained Galih.
Galih hopes that the development of the UMM Metaverse project can be displayed at the 48th Muhammadiyah Congress in November 2022 at the University of Muhammadiyah Surakarta. The project is also expected to provide positive vibrations for its follow-up projects. Regarding pioneering the CoE Metaverse, Galih said that the CoE exists as an additional competency for students interested in developing the metaverse.
"The system that was initiated is in the form of a one-semester training to strengthen the programming, virtual reality, and augmented reality sides, called Metaverse Academy. Then students will participate in an internship in the metaverse project, which is currently partnering with MIXPRO. The hope is that later students who have experience in developing products in the metaverse field or other fields such as SandBox can be absorbed by the industry even before graduating," he concluded. (apg/Will)
