A Little Easton computing student scooped a top prize at the Innovate UK Immersive Tech Awards for his virtual reality project.

Jake Boulton and his fellow students on the virtual and augmented reality course at Goldsmiths, University of London, won the jury prize for their 'BeatBoxVR' project.

BeatBoxVR is a virtual reality drumming simulator and rhythm game for drummers of all skill levels, with an emphasis on customisation and immersive 3D environments.

Lead developer Joshua Davies said they aimed to "cover fundamentals of drumming whilst providing an entertaining and immersive platform experience".

The Immersive Tech Awards, hosted by Innovate UK, is the biggest competition in the UK for students in the immersive technology space.

Jake and the rest of the team - Joshua, Nathan Thomas-Benke, Hwanjoon Jang and Mai Ye - were praised by judges for their "creativity and innovation".

Goldsmiths, University of London Professor Sylvia Xueni Pan said: "Any students studying in the UK can apply, and it’s highly competitive.

"The judges come from industry and academia and are look for originality and technical difficulty, as well as creativity.

"In order to stand out at the competition, there has to be something innovative that could excite most judges.

"This is very hard as most judges are very seasoned practitioners in the immersive space and can be quite difficult to impress. 

"Any winning team must have demonstrated excellent understanding of the immersive technology - not only how to make a piece of work that looks impressive, but something that would engage with users in a way that goes beyond the limitations of the traditional 2D user interaction. This takes creative and technical skills to deliver.

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"The Masters in V/AR degree is aimed at providing students with the necessary skills to thrive in the immersive section of the creative industry.

"What we have seen is that in recent years, there has been a shift of focus from using traditional media to AI-Powered, immersive interfaces.

"It takes both technical and creative skills to create innovative and meaningful immersive experiences, and our master’s degree addresses exactly the skill gap needed in this space."