In an astronomy class, you might see stars and planets in textbooks or through video clips. However, Auburn University undergraduate students are elevating the Auburn experience and helping the next generation participate in their astronomy elective like never before.

The Department of Physics worked with students from the Department of Computer Science and Software Engineering in the Samuel Ginn College of Engineering on this one-semester capstone project for their software engineering class to develop a planetarium app. 

Since no app for virtual reality headsets could support this idea, the students knew they had to design something that would work with the virtual handsets and include an interface for the controllers.

The four students, Preston Abraham, Sumin Beasley, Jerry Hu and Alex Piff, spent more than 110 hours of collaborative work so far to build this tool. These students worked directly with Dr. Dennis Bodewits and Dr. Melissa Halford from the Department of Physics in the College of Sciences and Mathematics (COSAM) to understand how students could have a customized app just for their astronomy class.

“My favorite part of this project was seeing it all come together,” Abraham said. “Students are going to really have an amazing time in their astronomy class using an app that we developed to making learning interactive for each student.”