VR Development Paves the Way for Sustainable Retailing Education
The University of Arizona and the Terry J. Lundgren Center continues its efforts to revolutionize sustainability education, by integrating virtual reality (VR) technology into the Sustainable Retailing minor curriculum.
The University of Arizona and the Terry J. Lundgren Center continues its efforts to revolutionize sustainability education, by integrating virtual reality (VR) technology into the Sustainable Retailing minor curriculum.
Leading the effort is Professor Soo Hyun Kim, Ph.D., who has written an essential guide for emerging retail students and current industry professionals. As a thought-leader, Dr. Kim has focused on the transformative impacts of advanced technologies such as Artificial Intelligence (AI), the Internet of Things (IoT), blockchain, Virtual Reality (VR), and Augmented Reality (AR) in the retail sector.
To coincide with this Fall’s launch of the Lundgren Consumer Science Lab, Center leadership worked with a multi-disciplinary team of interns from the University’s AI Core to build a "digital twin" of the retail space. Taking full advantage of GenAI, LLMs, GPTs, and emerging technologies like the Unreal Engine 5, the LCS lab’s digital twin is a virtual replica of the physical lab opening in McClelland Park. Both the physical lab and its virtual replica offer students and faculty an opportunity to study store optimization based on actual consumer activity. Both the physical lab and its virtual replica, offer students and faculty an opportunity to study store optimization based on actual consumer activity. As Dr. Kim has researched, these virtual technologies enhance operational efficiency and customer engagement and ultimately prepare future retail leaders to navigate the evolving retail landscape by fostering innovation and strategic adaptation.