North India’s First Physical Metaverse Lab launched 

Ludhiana, October 8, 2022: MBCIEverse- North India's first physical metaverse lab was launched today in Ludhiana. It will offer a creative setting that will allow students to collaborate and create applications across domains in a practical learning environment. The lab is an initiative of the Munjal Birmingham City University Centre of Innovation and Entrepreneurship (MBCIE). 

•    MBCIEverse is North India’s First Physical Metaverse Lab in Ludhiana with AR, VR, XR and web3 facilities. 
•    First Virtual Reality (VR), Augmented Reality (AR) and Mixed Reality (MR) lab of its kind. 
•    16-week course on Virtual Reality, 2D, 3D with cutting edge VR/AR headsets for teaching and research; training to be provided by UK experts.    

The 16-week MBCIEverse programme will provide insights on how the physical world can be stimulated using modern technology that includes a variety of Head Mounted Display (HMD) units and haptic sensors, besides other cutting-edge equipment, that will help professionals work and ideate across the high-end Metaverse.

Sunil Kant Munjal, Chairman, Hero Enterprise and MBCIE while inaugurating the state-of-the-art lab in Ludhiana said- “Countries such as the United States, France, and China have successfully implemented virtual reality labs in their schools to provide students with a comprehensive and imaginative learning experience. Given India's demographic dividend, the potential appears to be unrivalled and unprecedented. The only challenge is making this technological adoption accessible to the general public and with MBCIE, we are taking a lead in making this available to school students, college students and professionals. I am sure entrepreneurs of Ludhiana will also use this facility to become more competitive.”

Dr Venkatesh Vijay, a metaverse expert from Birmingham City University, UK narrated the importance of the technology, why you should care about it, and how to build your own Metaverse and Introduced two short programmes ‘Introduction to VR’ for School Students and ‘Build Your Metaverse’ for professional and college students.  

Dr Paramjeet Kaur, Principal BCM Arya Model School presented the Impact of Technology on today’s Education and how this facility and the Metaverse programmes run by MBCIE will enable the young generation not only to learn but also provide hands-on experience to better prepare them for the future.  

Dr Vandna Shahi, Principal BCM School Basant Avenue addressed the audience highlighting the need for educators to adopt immersive technologies for the 21st-century skillsets. 

Speakers at the event also included S K Rai, Vice-Chairman Hero Cycles Ltd, Dr Prem Kumar, Executive Director, MBCIE.