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INTERNATIONAL 22 February 2023

Read the story of Nikolay, who attended a Summer School at the University of Antwerp in Belgium during the summer of 2022

> Why did you choose this particular business school and/or this particular city/country?

My research interest lies in the field of VR. I initially was searching for specialized seminars or short-term courses. When I found out about Immersive Story-telling Summer School at University of Antwerpen, I was really amazed how much the program content goes in line with my research interests. Timing of summer school was perfect for me. Moreover, I was learning some Dutch several years ago, and for me it was a great opportunity to practice it.
 

> What is the benefit of attending a summer school according to you? What did you get out of this experience?

First, you have a chance to meet really well-known people from both industry and academia who works on the topic of VR. Renowned VR-film producers and directors, game-designers, artist, academic and philosophers were given the rounds of talks and sharing their ideas.

Second, you have an opportunity to try your hand in VR production and make a full-scale VR experience within less than a week. It might sound like I am making things up, but I was so much impressed with how easy and user-friendly production of VR experience might be.

For sure, all VR development process would be very challenging without help, advice and care of staff of summer school lab who were willing to share with us their experience and show us know-how and life-hack of programing, animation and motion capturing.

Third, the VR lab of Antwerpen University is definitely a place to be. It is a very-well equipped research facility suitable not only for a university-level research, but for a full-scale development of comprehensive VR projects. Lab is equipped with motion-capturing facilities, numerous head-sets of latest generation, professional equipment for 3D scanning and modeling and sound-recording equipment. So, if you were ever interested to create something in VR it is definitely place to go!

Last but not least, this summer school was a perfect place for networking. Fellow participants were all having different profile ranging from cartography and neural sciences to navy construction and game-design. It was very interesting and enriching to discuss our views and ideas about VR and know more about completely different applications of this technology.
 

> Can you share a telling anecdote from your experience?

Just imagine that our team of four people, within 4 days, and without any significant experience in game design or programing were able to make a very decent playable VR simulation which graphically and animation-wise was comparable to titles like GTA V.
 

> Why would you advise your fellow students to attend a summer school next summer?

You definitely should consider attending this summer school if you have interest in virtual reality, game-design, experiential marketing or digital technologies in general. Summer school provides a unique opportunity to understand and try latest VR advancements as well as to create your own VR project.

The summer school is very well organized and you would not feel yourself bored for a second. Also, after-class program is really interesting and diverse. It is full of rather unusual activities like boat trip to port of Antwerpen, graffiti tour or roof-top yoga.