Worcester Polytechnic Institute’s (WPI) Interactive Media and Game Development program and Higgins Armory Museum have won a highly competitive $50,000 Digital Humanities Start-Up Grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) to create an interactive “virtual joust” experience at the Worcester-based museum of medieval arms and armor.
WPI students (now alumni) Patrick Newell, Hyungjoon Kim, Justin Liu, and Steven Shidlovsky designed the Virtual Joust concept two years ago as part of their required, junior-year Interactive Qualifying Project (IQP). The NEH Digital Humanities Start-Up Grant program, which supports pioneering projects that use technology to advance the humanities, will usher Virtual Joust to an engaging reality for museum-goers interested in medieval history. Designed to spur innovation, test new ideas, and act as a catalyst for further development, the grant will fund Virtual Joust’s continued development and execution, which will be overseen this year by a new team of students from the IMGD program and WPI’s Game Development Club.
Click here to read this article from Medievalists.net