Raunak Agarwal

Bachelor of Science, Computer Science Specialization, 4th year

Course: CMPUT 401 (Winter 2023) with Instructor Ildar Akhmetov

Who was your community partner and can you describe the project objectives? 

Aquatic Biosphere Project. To create an Augmented Reality (AR) application, that can help users learn about different species in different biospheres in Alberta. These would include fishes, mammals, birds, plants, insects and more. The overall idea is to integrate AR experiences for public engagement and learning. This app would cater to a diverse population of users and provide them opportunities to interact with the application and learn new facts and information.

What was your biggest takeaway from your CSL placement? 

I got to work on a project right from scratch. It gave me the ability to take ownership of the project, interact with the client to get to know their requirements and formulate them for my team. I learned a new technology, Unity and a new programming language C#. I got the opportunity to network and befriend some really intelligent and hard-working people.

How can you apply any newly gained knowledge/skills to your future endeavours (courses/employment/volunteering)?

What I have learned working on this project will provide me with the opportunity to work on similar applications. Before starting this project, I had no idea about how to work in Unity, and now after 3 months I can say that I have acquired great skills that will help me with prospective employment and volunteering opportunities. AR is a growing field, which has scope for some great projects.  Given the opportunity in the future, I would love to work on similar projects.