An augmented reality sandbox created by the UTC Department of Electrical Engineering was unveiled at Westview Elementary School’s Family STEAM Night on March 26.
This was not your ordinary sandbox: No pail. No shovel. No plastic toys.
This was an augmented reality sandbox: Computer. Software. Projector.
And sand, of course. Lots of sand.
Thanks to a partnership with the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga Department of Electrical Engineering, students at Chattanooga’s Westview Elementary School were introduced to an augmented reality (AR) sandbox at its unveiling on Tuesday, March 26, during the school’s annual Family STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts, mathematics) Night. The Westview students will be able to explore ideas related to geography, hydrology, erosion and landscape formation in a hands-on and engaging manner.
“This is so cool,” multiple students yelled with excitement as they dug their hands into the sand to create mountains, valleys and rivers.
An AR sandbox is an interactive exhibit that combines physical sand with virtual reality technology to create a dynamic and immersive experience. Students manipulate real sand while observing real-time changes in a projected virtual environment.
The sandbox is equipped with depth-sensing cameras that track the movements of the sand, allowing the system to generate corresponding topographical maps and projections onto the sand surface. While users shape the sand to create landforms, the AR system responds by projecting colors, textures and other visual effects onto the sand to represent various geological features.
For instance, pouring sand to form a raised area might result in the projection of a mountain range, while digging a depression could simulate the formation of a lake or riverbed.
Westview Elementary faculty members John Edgar and Nicole Webb brought the project idea to UTC late last year, connecting with the engineering department through an initiative called CommunityShare.
CommunityShare connects Hamilton County Schools’ PK-12 educators and students in schools and out-of-school programs with local community partners to ensure that students have access to the resources they need to reach their full potential.
“I wanted to do an augmented reality sandbox with the kids,” said Webb, Westview’s E-Lab specialist. “I thought it would be a great opportunity for our students to use it during E-Lab and in the classroom. We can reach every single population here at Westview.
“So I put my project out there, gave a short summary of what we wanted and what we needed, and then community partners responded. Some of the community partners said, ‘We can’t do this, but we know somebody else who can help you,’ and that’s how we got connected with UTC.”
This was the UTC College of Engineering and Computer Sciences’ second CommunityShare project during the 2023-24 academic year. Brainerd High School students recently engaged in an eight-week unit on safe electric vehicle battery production and storage, a joint effort involving Underwriters Laboratories and the UTC chemical engineering team. The students were immersed in workshops on EV thermal runaway and creating protective devices for EV batteries.
Through CommunityShare, Edgar and Webb connected with CECS Outreach Coordinator Alex Coker.
“We really wanted to get into schools to help facilitate these kinds of projects while supporting the students and the teachers,” said Coker, who joined the UTC staff in August 2023. “Projects like this expose students to the fact that they have an amazing university in their backyard. That helps open the pipeline for more students to be ushered toward college and UTC.”
After Coker—who attended the Westview Elementary event with CECS student ambassadors Sakshi Shah and Krisha Patel—first learned about the school’s desire to add the AR sandbox, he introduced Webb and Edgar to UC Foundation Professor Abdul Ofoli, the head of UTC’s electrical engineering department.
UTC student Nicholas Margavio and CECS staff members Matthew Totton, Ben Swords and Donald Walker worked with Ofoli to construct the sandbox.
Margavio is an electrical engineering major and Brock Scholar in the Honors College.
“When I was a kid, my schooling did not have many opportunities to get involved with science or higher education,” said Margavio, a junior who hails from Memphis. “I hope that by being involved with this project that has so many layers you can’t see, our lab could help inspire the children at Westview to want to learn more about awesome technology and a desire to understand the world around them deeply.”
Coker said the UTC group began working on the AR sandbox on Jan. 25. The project took approximately six weeks to complete.
“It’s nice to take an idea and not just have it stop at the idea because we don’t have the resources at the school,” said Edgar, the recipient of bachelor’s and master’s degrees from UTC in 2014 and 2020, respectively. “To have a community partner able to get us from that idea to a finished product is such a good thing.”
The sandbox was in a prime location for Westview’s Family STEAM night, sitting in the elementary school lobby.
“What I like about the AR sandbox is that we can use it with all grade levels,” Webb explained. “I can teach students in kindergarten about the different types of landforms—and they can use sand and actually make the landform. If I’m moving up to third grade, we can talk about topography and what a topographical map looks like; they can play around with it and make a river and it changes the color.
“So it just brings these standards to life and allows the students to have a hands-on activity to learn from.”
AR sandbox photo gallery by Angela Foster
Electrical engineering major Nicholas Margavio demonstrates the augmented reality sandbox. Margavio was part of the UTC team that built the AR sandbox for Westview Elementary School.
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