Taylor 0:03

Hello, okay. And I will start recording if this doesn't fall, sorry. Okay. Okay, can you sorry if that's distracting? Um, could you just tell me your name major year and like, what how many semesters you've been doing empathy bytes.

 

John 0:26

My name is John Pham. I'm a third year CS major and this would be my third semester and empathy bytes.

 

Taylor 0:32

Gotcha. Can you tell us just some interest hobbies you have?

 

 

John 0:37

Interest in hobbies? Yeah. Oh my goodness. I like reading. I like learning Spanish. I do latin dance and also the boxing club here. So those are probably my hobbies. I also do music for piano guitar.

 

Taylor 0:50

Very cool. Any chance you're in musicians network?

 

John 0:52

I am not.

 

Taylor 0:55

Okay. You should join. So, why did you join empathy bytes?

 

John 1:00

I joined empathy bytes, because I like the mission of the program, which is to foster and empathy understanding.

 

Taylor 1:07

Okay, cool. Very nice. So would you say that something like you love about empathy bias or any other reasons you really enjoy empathy bytes.

 

Taylor 1:31

So what do you think makes you continue to work in empathy bytes?

 

John 1:36

for that exact reason that I can continue working on your project? And then also, it's kind of learning meeting new people as well.

 

Taylor 1:43

Sorry, can you remind me how many semesters you've done in my third semester? Gotcha. Okay. Um, so What work have you done in empathy bytes in these past semesters,

 

John 1:53

in these past semesters, so there's been two projects that contribute on so the main one this semester, and last semester, we worked on this VR museum. So in that project, we take artifacts from the Georgia Tech library in the Georgia Tech library archives, and we create 3d models of them and put them in this 3d VR museum. And then before that, we did a AR VR kind of experience for the makerspace, the hive Makerspace

 

Taylor 2:21

and right now you are continuing to work on the VR space. Correct. Gotcha. So what is like your favorite development you've made this semester?

 

John 2:24

Development?

 

Taylor 2:27

Yeah, anything you've worked on so far this semester? Yes.

 

John 2:35

your museum defnitely a lot of progress has been made in that semester, I think for the most part, as we've seen in the semester done on that project.

 

Taylor 2:42

Do you have like a favorite model you guys have done in there? One of

 

John 2:46

our it's kind of random but one of our like packaged signed footballs is very like it's very good. Like the textures are really good and it looks really good.

 

Taylor 2:56

When was that football from?

 

John 2:58

That? I should not sure because it just kind of in the art. It was kind of on those random objects they had and he just kind of, we just kind of took it just did the model, but 80s 90s Maybe.

 

Taylor 3:10

Gotcha. Why do you feel it's important that we preserve these kinds of old artifacts from Georgia Tech's history?

 

John 3:19

I think part of it is because because it's not known. You know, I think, a part of getting into the culture and a part of learning about music. Can you repeat the question?

 

 

Taylor 3:31

Oh, why do you feel like it's important? To preserve these kinds of artifacts in a like, technical, virtual way, and how does that impact Georgia Tech's history?

 

John 3:47

I think because these artifacts kind of represent us in a way because like you said, it does represent our history, but I think it represents us as people and kind of, you know, what we've been through, for example, like us hosting the Olympics. I think that was a very big thing, a big part of the question and something about not a lot of people know about. So I think kind of allowing students to learn about these objects is very important so they can kind of have a strong connection with the institution that they're in.

 

Taylor 4:11

Do you feel like other museums or like artifacts will switch to using these VR spaces so that other people can interact with them?

 

John 4:22

I can defnitely see that in the future. Especially because, you know, especially Meta VR, AR is defnitely becoming a more popular thing nowadays. And I think it's all about accessibility as well. Not know a lot of people can't be in the place physically. So maybe providing like a virtual environment where they can explore I think, would be very cool. I think it's very realistic to see that in the future. That a lot of companies, a lot of places.

 

Taylor 4:49

So what were some challenges that have come up this semester,

 

John 4:54

this semester.

 

Taylor 5:02

You can take your time also, just so you know. We can cut anything I think about that.

 

John 5:25

I'm trying to think of like an answer that's like relevant not like an actual answer if that makes sense.

 

Taylor 5:30

It can be anything away.

 

John 5:33

challenges that we faced. Oh, okay, I guess I got one, I guess. Right now, I guess one of the big challenges that we're facing, but we're kind of going through it is we've kind of switched from hand modeling techniques to just photogrammetry techniques. So photogrammetry is we're taking objects and we're taking multiple pictures. We like going around and taking multiple pictures. And we kind of throw that into an application and that kind of makes a 3d render a 3d model of the object. And it's a challenge because photogrammetry, there's things that it's good for, it's it's not as good for so once you have something that has a lot of refections or you know, sometimes like, like shine like refect a lot of light that's not good photogrammetry just because like it's hard just take pictures for it's like make the object out. So then there's the challenge of Okay, so now we're becoming limited in the objects we can do. So the alternative would be doing hand modeling techniques for handling is really difcult to do, and it's very time consuming. And it's it's kind of a challenge we're kind of faced right now is like how can we create models of these refective objects? that we like we think, like meets our standards.

 

Taylor 6:50

How does like hand modeling differ? From the photogrammetry? Like, what does that process look like?

 

John 6:56

photogrammetry is a lot simpler, because you just put the object kind of on a surface when you have good lighting around. And you just take your phone and take multiple pictures of it. You go around and like a circle and take a lot of pictures of it. And you take all those pictures and you just put it into an application and that gets you to spit out like a rough 3d model. And then you can kind of come in and then fx it up and clean it up a little bit. And then bring like details in if you need to handle Molly has to do everything from scratch. So you would have to take different shapes and mold into it. And it's just a lot more difcult because it's a lot more intricate. Is very more hands on. So defnitely a lot more time isn't as well. So I think four grams is defnitely easy. We're able to crank out more like multiple models in a week using photogrammetry.

 

Taylor 7:42

And then how, how long would it take for like hand modeling in comparison,

 

John 7:47

we've seen like, people do one, one or two hand models in a semester, versus like a couple of photogrammetry models and like one or two weeks. So wow, defnitely a big difference. Yeah. And of course there's also huge learning curve with the hand modeling. So like, you

know, you also not only do we have to do everything by hand, you just have to learn how to do it. It's also adds to that time.

 

Taylor 8:12

So how do you think empathy bites has impacted you academically?

 

John 8:19

Academically, I guess I don't know this kind of academically but I think out of all, you know, there's a lot of classes that have like team projects or like group projects that some may last like a few weeks, like a month or something lasts the whole semester. I think employees have provided me you know, like a team work experience like the best like team group project. I've had, because not only because it lasted multiple semesters, it's like three semesters I've been doing this, but also I think the work that we've done is a lot more interesting and a lot more. I don't know, I'm a lot more passionate about it than I am with like these like class projects. So I would say like, you know, working with other people that like that's how this program has helped me like it allows me to work with other people in a more I guess, in a different way than like in a class setting.

 

Taylor 9:08

Do you feel like this will also be benefcial for you and like the interest and in the industry and like the workforce

 

John 9:17

Absolutely. I think because this semester too, I kind of took the role of like a, like a team lead, which is kind of like a more managerial role. So defnitely, that's that type of experience. I wouldn't normally get in maybe like a class setting usually. So defnitely unique to this program in that defnitely do believe it would translate into the work industry.

 

Taylor 9:40

So you said this was your third semester. Will you be returning next semester?

 

John 9:45

I think I will probably move on because I am kind of reaching towards the end of my graduation. So now that I've kind of had this experience, I want to also like learn some new skills, I think actually go into industry. So that's kind of my exit strategy right now, when I fnish school.

 

Taylor 10:03

So what do you hope other people continue to work on after you're gone?

 

John 10:09

Yeah, so in terms of projects, obviously, I think the VR Museum is a great project. And I would always I would love to see more and more and more models being put into there. And I would love to see like an ofcial release so that students can like go ahead and put it on like I don't know, that'd be like a library exhibit or something like that. Or maybe an app you can download from some store. But on top of that, I would like to see more. I guess more personal experiences like I believe we had an exhibit. I don't know if it was it was here. I don't know who did it. But it was like it was during I think Black History Month, maybe last year. And it was a VR experience. And what it was is it puts you in the eyes of an African American person, like in a cafe during the civil rights movement. So something like that. I think that's really that can give a really unique perspective to people because you're literally being put into someone else's shoes is seeing it from their perspective. And I think that's kind of the beauty of VR is that you can you're allowed to do that and you have the ability to do that. So I would love to see projects like that, where we can like kind of be put into this environment and see things how others see it.

 

Taylor 11:24

Nice. Um, so this is kind of towards the end of the interview. But are there any other thoughts you'd like to share like, such as like, why you just really think empathy bites is a good place to join? Any comments concerns stuff like that parting words as this is your last semester probably missing.

 

John 12:01

I would advise to defnitely push towards the focus of creating a community and creating a sense of understanding for different communities and like really learning to empathaize with other people. I think that's a very, very important thing. And that's again, the reason why I joined the program for that mission for that purpose. So I think defnitely remember that in the back of your mind of why we're doing this, right? We're not just doing this just to, you know, have fun or like, you know, just kind of like do whatever there is a purpose behind what we're doing. And the purpose is to foster empathy understanding. So I think I think it's a very valuable thing. I think we should defnitely keep th at in our minds. Moving forward.

 

Taylor 12:45

Great. So that is the end of our interview.