50 years ago, on 12th April, Yuri Gagarin made history as the first cosmonaut. The School of Engineering and Digital Arts (EDA) at the University of Kent is celebrating this momentous event to coincide with its own launch in Second Life!
The School has just established its presence in Second Life on a virtual island known as EDAKent not far from NASA, and will be hosting a 24 hour ‘in-world event’ starting at 8 pm GMT on 12th April, the annual international celebration of Gagarin’s historic flight known as Yuri’s Night.
EDA’s connections with Space go back a long way – in fact to its very inception as the Electronics Laboratory at the University of Kent in 1966. The Laboratory was founded by Professor Roger Clifton Jennison who made a number of discoveries in the field of radio astronomy, including the discovery of the double nature of the radio source Cygnus A. For many years the Electronics Department was a centre of world leading research in Radio Astronomy and associated Electronic Instrumentation. Now, as the School of Engineering and Digital Arts, internationally recognized activity continues in the frontiers of Instrumentation, Communications and Information Engineering. However, the School has also expanded its reach to include the Digital Arts, where exciting teaching and research takes place covering Digital Animation, 3D Modelling and Virtual Worlds.
EDAKent is a new initiative to present the work of the School in the rapidly expanding online virtual world, Second Life. The ‘island’ where EDAKent is situated was previously known as Space Destiny, and it was the first to register an official party destination in Second Life! EDAKent will expand on the original space builds that were previously developed to showcase the range of skills and offerings of its students and staff.
Yuri’s Night on EDAKent will have a 60s party theme; retro arcade games will be available ‘in-world’, plus a dance floor and other attractions. There you will also find examples of EDA academics’ research in the form of posters in an exhibition. A description and link to the island is available here.
You will require a viewer, which can be downloaded free, and visiting is free also and should be possible through the campus wifi network (eduroam) or from home.
We hope this would be the first of many visits for you as we expand the information and facilities on EDAKent to make it an exciting place to explore in Second Life.
The School has just established its presence in Second Life on a virtual island known as EDAKent not far from NASA, and will be hosting a 24 hour ‘in-world event’ starting at 8 pm GMT on 12th April, the annual international celebration of Gagarin’s historic flight known as Yuri’s Night.
EDA’s connections with Space go back a long way – in fact to its very inception as the Electronics Laboratory at the University of Kent in 1966. The Laboratory was founded by Professor Roger Clifton Jennison who made a number of discoveries in the field of radio astronomy, including the discovery of the double nature of the radio source Cygnus A. For many years the Electronics Department was a centre of world leading research in Radio Astronomy and associated Electronic Instrumentation. Now, as the School of Engineering and Digital Arts, internationally recognized activity continues in the frontiers of Instrumentation, Communications and Information Engineering. However, the School has also expanded its reach to include the Digital Arts, where exciting teaching and research takes place covering Digital Animation, 3D Modelling and Virtual Worlds.
EDAKent is a new initiative to present the work of the School in the rapidly expanding online virtual world, Second Life. The ‘island’ where EDAKent is situated was previously known as Space Destiny, and it was the first to register an official party destination in Second Life! EDAKent will expand on the original space builds that were previously developed to showcase the range of skills and offerings of its students and staff.
Yuri’s Night on EDAKent will have a 60s party theme; retro arcade games will be available ‘in-world’, plus a dance floor and other attractions. There you will also find examples of EDA academics’ research in the form of posters in an exhibition. A description and link to the island is available here.
You will require a viewer, which can be downloaded free, and visiting is free also and should be possible through the campus wifi network (eduroam) or from home.
We hope this would be the first of many visits for you as we expand the information and facilities on EDAKent to make it an exciting place to explore in Second Life.