History

Novel Observations in Mixed Reality (NOMR) first began as a capstone research project in the effects of mixed reality in education, but has since expanded to be a staple of the undergraduate physics curriculum. This project was began by Jared Canright 🔗, and overseen by Suzanne White Brahmia 🔗. The project was written from scratch in the Unity Engine by Jared, and eventually branched out to a team of several undergraduate students. The development and deployment of the NOMR VR lab application has been a tremendous success, bringing cutting edge technology and education to thousands of undergraduate students since its initial deployment in the Introductory Physics Labs (IPL) curriculum in Winter Quarter 2020.

Research Team

Today, development is NOMR is conducted exclusively by undergraduate students in the Student Developer Group (SDG) under the guidance of Dave Aplin. Students work to develop new scenarios and demonstrations on top of the three initial scenarios Jared developed (Electric Particles, Minty Particles, and Exotic Matter). Students joining the NOMR Student Developer Group benefit from applied experience with software development and support in the areas of 3D modeling, VFX artistry, and VR UX design. In addition to software development skills, these academic physics skills can also be developed: Numerical methods in physics, working with real-time physics engines, and the evaluating and optimizing performance of numerical physics simulations.

Research

This NOMR project was initially intended to research the efficacy of mixed reality in physics education. This research was performed between 2020 and 2023 while NOMR was first used in the undergraduate physics labs. This research paper is available publicly for reference by anyone, academic or not. A copy is embedded below for convinience or can be downloaded directly from here.

This page was last updated April 2026.