Students avatars attend virtual graduation ceremony

Published Aug 27, 2020

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DURBAN - As the Coronavirus pandemic keeps affecting our lives, one university has come up with a unique way of awarding students their degrees, using virtual reality.

The Indian Institute of Technology (ITT) in Bombay created more than 2,000 avatars for their students, who were awarded their certificates by an avatar during a virtual ceremony.

According to a statement from the Indian government's Press Information Bureau (PIB), the unique celebration, designed to abide by coronavirus safety measures, was broadcast on two local TV channels as well as YouTube and Facebook Live.

"The Institute thought it best to arrange such a VR-convocation for the graduating students so as not to put their health at risk but at the same time, not deprive them of the sense of achievement and pride of passing out of India's premier engineering institute," read the statement.

Analytics India mag reported

that it took the team of 20 organisers over two months to prepare for the event, from creating personalised digital avatars to the procession.

“The most challenging part of the preparation was to bring together the convocation scene where the complete delegation of 38 members was supposed to sit and stand together with the national anthem,”

“To make this happen, each delegate was asked to come separately and walk on the dais and take their individual position,” P Sunthar, co-convener of the ceremony was quoted by the publication.

The graduation ceremony also caught the attention of India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who

tweeted

about the ceremony, calling it a "wonderful mix of tradition and technology".