University Letter

UND's faculty and staff newsletter

UND AI/VR Lab receives 3rd Place in NASA-sponsored MarsXR Challenge

A team from UND’s AI/VR Lab received a 3rd Place Honorable Mention in the NASA MarsXR Challenge.

In the challenge, teams were tasked with developing virtual reality assets and scenarios for use by NASA in researching Mars exploration activities.

UND’s team won $1,000 for their work on a weather balloon inflation and launch scenario. Nine submissions were selected for $70,000 in cash prizes, in total, among thousands of individual registrants.

The team was captained by Aaron Bergstrom, advanced cyberinfrastructure manager, who worked with Bradley Traver, cyberinfrastructure engineer, and student employee Walter McKee to develop 3D assets for use in virtual reality training.