Mr. OGISO Naoki and Mr. SAKAI Hiroki and Mr. SAKAI Koki (all are first-year students of the Graduate School of Natural Science and Technology) won the Grand Prix for their virtual reality (VR) work titled "MEcholocation" at the "ReVolution #Research" division of the "Laval Virtual ReVolution #Research" held in Laval, western France from Wednesday, April 12 to Sunday, April 16, 2023. The "Laval Virtual" is an annual international competition for VR and augmented reality (AR).

"MEcholocation" makes it possible for people to experience "echolocation" (a process in which animals (bats, dolphins and others) find their way by producing sound waves that echo when they are reflected off an object) by visualizing the reflection of a clicking sound in VR. The work was created by the students in the "Information Engineering Experiment 3" class taught by Associate Professor KIJIMA Ryugo of the Faculty of Engineering, and it was further developed for the Laval Virtual competition. The students created the work in the hope that people with normal vision would understand how visually impaired people "see" the world with sound through the pseudo experience to "walk," "sit," and "touch" without vision in this virtual world.

On Tuesday, May 16, three students and Associate Professor Kijima visited the Office of the President and reported their win to President YOSHIDA Kazuhiro. At the meeting, Mr. Ogiso expressed his strong ambitions to develop something new by applying VR technology he learned to participate in the competition. President Yoshida gave the following words of encouragement to the students; "We wholeheartedly support any new challenges of the team. and hope that your unique ideas can be used for the benefit of people and society in the future."