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Low participation puts VR program on hold By Ty Knight @TajMikel STEM learning camps brought to life by UNM professor Elan Colello in partnership with VR Junkies at AllOutVR have been put on hold due to lack of participation. The learning camps were originally scheduled to take place in two different segments between June 19 and 23, and July 17 and 21, but only four students registered for the program. AllOutVR’s website advertises that “VR Days of Summer is the first STEM-based virtual reality camp in the nation.” This collaboration between UNM and VR Junkies, while unique and cutting-edge, represents a continuation in a long tradition of using games, simulation and role play to enhance learning. The curriculum is meant to teach students about “movement, science, design and entertainment” and works to educate participants about “digital literacy, user experience design, ethics and frontier technologies that relate to VR.” The camp features VR attractions and uses green
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Kevin Maestas / Daily Lobo / @ChunkFu_Kevin
Ben Ginsburg demos the HTC Vive virtual reality headset at VR Junkies on Friday, July 14. VR Junkies is a virtual reality arcade and storefront that immerses guests into the developing worlds of VR software and hardware. The space boasts 60+ software titles that utilize various VR setups.
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Lobos awarded for academics Sasquatch Coaches contribute their accomplishment to hard-working student success manager By Matthew Narvaiz @matt_narvaiz
Despite a disappointing 201617 men’s basketball season for many Lobo fans, the team managed to walk away with something positive and arguably more important. The team received a Team Academic Excellence Award from the National Association of Basketball Coaches. The award recognizes collegiate programs that have a cumulative GPA of 3.0 or greater. The Lobos finished with a 3.05 GPA as a team for the 2016-17 season — breaking a program record. But it wasn’t the only time the men’s basketball team has received this award; it also picked up the accolade for exhibiting academic excellence in the 2015-16 season. The Lobos were the first team in the Mountain West division to earn the academic award, and New Mexico is now a two-time recipient of the award. Boise State has joined the fold with UNM, as the only two teams in the Mountain West to
Keyana Smith
Courtesy Photo / Go Lobos
receive the honor. New Lobo head coach Paul Weir, though he wasn’t with the Lobos when they achieved its academic success last season, said he attributed the success the Lobos exhibited in the classroom to Keyana Smith, a student success manager for the men’s team. “It is amazing to enter into a program with such a sound academic infrastructure in place,” Weir said in an email to the Daily
Lobo. “Keyana Smith is as bright and detailed an academic advisor as I have seen in my college coaching career. I am really excited to work with her to continue this tradition and enhance it wherever we can.” Weir said maintaining achievements in the classroom next season will continue to be an important area of focus, but not for the purpose of pursuing an award. The head coach said he believes reaching the pinnacle of success academically can be something the team can build on to be the best it can possibly be on and off the court. “I can’t predict awards or accolades on any level. All we can do is make sure we are striving to be the best we can be every day,” Weir said. “If that means we win an award for that, great. If not, provided we have achieved our capacity and given our best effort, I will be just as proud of our student-athletes and staff.” The success that follows performing well in the classroom is an idea that Weir seems to embody.
On the Daily Lobo website SANCHEZ: Travel Blog — Volunteering near home
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2017: a recap By Ryan Moloney @DailyLobo Following what many longtime festival-goers considered to be a lackluster showing in 2016, veteran fans were cautiously optimistic about Sasquatch’s 2017 iteration. Towards the end of last year, they announced that renowned, reclusive R&B star Frank Ocean would be one of the upcoming year’s headliners, a promising booking that appeared to signal an impending rebound. But the momentum stagnated in January, as all mentions of Ocean disappeared across Sasquatch’s social media pages, and the lineup was nowhere to be seen. In due time, Sasquatch sent an email announcing that the festival lineup would be released the upcoming Monday at midnight — a curious decision, as it would seemingly make more sense to release the lineup when fans and publications were actually awake for the announcement. The email came with a two-anda-half-minute video revealing the lineup. Fourteen seconds in, it was apparent that this wasn’t going to be the return to form that fans were
hoping for, as Twenty One Pilots vividly flashed on screen as the year’s top billing. The previously announced Frank Ocean was next with Chance The Rapper following up to round out the 2017 headliners. The undercard was lead by relatively high-profile indie acts such as The Shins, The Head and the Heart, Phantogram and MGMT. As the video began to make the rounds online the reaction was loud and clear — fans were outraged. The announcement posted on the festival’s Reddit page was full of comments lamenting an uninspired and lazy collection of bookings, most notably angered by Twenty One Pilots securing top booking and a sizable drop in the number of acts. The Facebook announcement was littered with irate comments, so much so that Sasquatch deleted the post and reposted the lineup hours later, further pissing off its fans. Three weeks before the festival, Sasquatch announced that Frank Ocean had to cancel due to production delays and was going to be replaced by LCD Soundsystem. The bittersweet announcement left many scrambling to sell their tickets
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NARVAIZ: Updates on missing funds at Dreamstyle Arena