The competition, launched by internet giant Google, challenged university teams on both sides of the Tasman to recreate their universities in the highest quality with the highest optimization so that it could be easily viewed by people across the globe logging on to the Google Earth phenomenon. Google Earth is a special freely downloadable programme that lets you view any given location in the entire world. You can even fly over your own backyard!
Led by the creators of the UWA Virtual Universe Project, Jay Jay Jegathesan (manager of the School of Physics), Chris Thorne and Wong Tzu Yen (both PhD candidates at the School of Computer Science and Software Engineering), the eight member UWA team went into overdrive for more than two months to create twenty-eight 3-D models, that comprised of more than 56 individual buildings. This far outstripped the number created by the next most prolific teams, with the University of Melbourne and the University of Southern Queensland, logging 8 and 7 models respectively.
The other members of the team, which includes both undergraduate and postgraduate students from Computer Science and Engineering & Architecture, are Evgeni Sergeev, Michael Huynh, Minh Tran, Bradley Curnow & Jonathan Knispel.
Just for being selected as finalists the team has won an all expenses paid trip to Google Australia's headquarters in Sydney, the opportunity to participate in a workshop with Google's 3-D experts, the prestige of being one of only three universities in Australia & New Zealand to have a direct 3-D presence on Google Earth, and of course everlasting on-line glory! The winner will be announced in February 2008 when the top three teams arrive at Google Australia headquarters.
"It has been an incredible experience working with this team. I have often dreamed of working on a large exciting project with fantastic outcomes, and it has actually come true. Words fail me," said team member Chris Thorne.
To view UWA on Google Earth:
- Download Google Earth from http://earth.google.com/.
- On the top left hand panel under 'Fly To', type in: 35 Stirling Highway, Crawley WA 6009, Australia.
- On the bottom left hand panel, tick the box that says 3D Buildings.
- The pan & tilt controls on the top right allow you to manoeuvre close in and change angles etc.
Related Website: UWA Virtual Universe Project http://www.csse.uwa.edu.au/virtual/
