Jackson DeVico

they/them

Human-Computer Interaction Master's student - University of Maryland
B.S. Games and Simulation Arts and Sciences - Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

Demonstrating waste-water treatment to environmental engineering students through 360 simulation

Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center (EMPAC)

January 2024 - April 2025

Overview

This project involved creating a 3D simulation of a waste-water treatment plant for use as a supplement to a field trip of an actual waste-water treatment plant. For the first year of development, I was the sole developer of the project under the advisement of a professor and an EMPAC research engineer. After this year, I recruited a group of students, and my role shifted towards management.

The first demo of the waste-water treatment plant

Problem

The target audience was undergraduate students taking an introductory environmental engineering course. The professor's proposal sought a virtual model of a waste-water treatment plant that would achieve the following:

The initial time between starting development and the first in-class demonstration was four months, after which the future direction of the project would be evaluated. Later on, a (potable) water treatment simulation was also developed, after which a larger team of students was formed to begin a migration to Unreal Engine.

Process

After meeting with the professor to discuss project needs, I met with the EMPAC research engineer to discuss what technology we would move forward with. We decided that Unity Engine and Blender were ideal for modeling and rendering the simulation because work for the 360 screen using Unity Engine already existed, and Blender is a free established software that would allow for easy transitions between personnel in the future.The project went through four development segments:

For the first three phases of development, the process involved creating 3D models, texturing the models, integrating the models into Unity Engine, and adding details such as animation, particle effects, physics, and camera setups. Every two weeks I would meet with the professor to receive feedback on how to improve the realism of the models and adapt them to the specific lecture the professor intended to give.

One issue I encountered was how to properly display tall objects on the 360 screen. While the screen is tall, the much larger circumference results in a very wide aspect ratio, cutting off taller objects (as seen above). To account for this, I created models with walls removed, and added additional camera angles that bring the entire object into view.

For the last few months I was involved in the project, I recruited students with more specific specialties to handle the most significant portions of development as we began to migrate the simulation to Unreal Engine. We used Notion to track team progress, and my responsibilities shifted towards managing team efforts, running meetings, providing progress reports, and creating documentation.

Results

By the end of my time on the project, I had developed a functional simulation of both a waste-water treatment plant and a water treatment plant. Features include multiple camera angles (including cross-sections), pipe flow visualization, and physics-based particle movement simulation. Alongside a team, work was also started on an Unreal Engine version of the simulation, which would have more realistic lighting and textures, more detailed models, and audio.After each demonstration, the professor collected feedback from students through direct questions and take-home surveys. The results consistently showed that students felt they had a better understanding of water treatment processes after experiencing an immersive lecture with the simulation.The success of the project also helped jumpstart an initiative from other professors to collaborate with EMPAC to develop similar teaching tools. I worked on two other similar projects for shorter lengths of time, one which combined Google Maps data with drone footage to show rock layers for a geology class, and another which used 3D scans to teach people about how cleanrooms are used.

A Contextual inquiry of student
engagement and utilization of GenAI summarization tools in an academic context

University of Maryland - INST 710: User Experience Research Methods

September 2025 - December 2025

Overview

A detailed report of the entire project can be found hereThis project involved creating a 3D simulation of a waste-water treatment plant for use as a supplement to a field trip of an actual waste-water treatment plant. For the first year of development, I was the sole developer of the project under the advisement of a professor and an EMPAC research engineer. After this year, I recruited a group of students, and my role shifted towards management.

Problem

The target audience was undergraduate students taking an introductory environmental engineering course. The professor's proposal sought a virtual model of a waste-water treatment plant that would achieve the following:

The initial time between starting development and the first in-class demonstration was four months, after which the future direction of the project would be evaluated. Later on, a (potable) water treatment simulation was also developed, after which a larger team of students was formed to begin a migration to Unreal Engine.

Process

After meeting with the professor to discuss project needs, I met with the EMPAC research engineer to discuss what technology we would move forward with. We decided that Unity Engine and Blender were ideal for modeling and rendering the simulation because work for the 360 screen using Unity Engine already existed, and Blender is a free established software that would allow for easy transitions between personnel in the future.The project went through four development segments:

For the first three phases of development, the process involved creating 3D models, texturing the models, integrating the models into Unity Engine, and adding details such as animation, particle effects, physics, and camera setups. Every two weeks I would meet with the professor to receive feedback on how to improve the realism of the models and adapt them to the specific lecture the professor intended to give.

Results

By the end of my time on the project, I had developed a functional simulation of both a waste-water treatment plant and a water treatment plant. Features include multiple camera angles (including cross-sections), pipe flow visualization, and physics-based particle movement simulation. Alongside a team, work was also started on an Unreal Engine version of the simulation, which would have more realistic lighting and textures, more detailed models, and audio.After each demonstration, the professor collected feedback from students through direct questions and take-home surveys. The results consistently showed that students felt they had a better understanding of water treatment processes after experiencing an immersive lecture with the simulation.The success of the project also helped jumpstart an initiative from other professors to collaborate with EMPAC to develop similar teaching tools. I worked on two other similar projects for shorter lengths of time, one which combined Google Maps data with drone footage to show rock layers for a geology class, and another which used 3D scans to teach people about how cleanrooms are used.