Congrats to Andrew Hughes and the team at Designing Digitally for their win in the 2012 Federal Virtual Worlds Challenge (see the full press release below).

You can also see our own interview with Andrew from November last year right here.

Designing Digitally, Inc. Wins the 2012 Federal Virtual Worlds Challenge

ITS INNOVATIVE VIRTUAL CAMPUS TOUR PRODUCT CAPTURED ACCOLADES

FRANKLIN, OHIO – Designing Digitally, Inc. took first place honors in the Familiarization category in the 2012 Federal Virtual Worlds Challenge with its 3D virtual campus tour of the United States Air Force Academy.

The Ohio-based tech firm used its 3D Virtual Campus Tours product to create a virtual replica of the campus that the Air Force Academy now uses for recruitment purposes. Designing Digitally, Inc.’s submission for the challenge was two-part. The first featured the first generation product the Air Force Academy currently uses. The second included enhancements Designing Digitally made to its campus tours product following the creation of the Air Force Academy’s virtual tour.

“We are honored by this incredible recognition,” said Nick Taylor, Director of Development. “We have been fortunate to have a fantastic partnership between ourselves and the United States Air Force Academy. Special thanks to the United States Air Force Academy for choosing Designing Digitally, Inc. to build this product.”

Designing Digitally’s 3D Virtual Campus Tours product is not only innovative, it’s also flexible to meet client needs.

“Our system allows for multiple types of virtual campus tours, including self-guided and admission representative-led options,” explained Greg Wark, 3D & Virtual Development Team Leader.

3D Virtual Campus Tours is meant to replicate the campus experience. When creating a virtual tour, Designing Digitally makes certain that each campus is built as photorealistic as possible. The company has more than seven years’ experience building virtual campuses in 3D, which surpasses others in the industry, said Wark.

“The system we create runs in a basic web browser on our clients’ websites,” Abby Hughes, Director of Client Relations, added. “Each tour is fully customized for the client. We can also incorporate interactive games such as virtual parachuting, basketball, hockey, flight simulator, trivia and more to enrich the experience for users.”

While the current version of 3D Virtual Campus Tours is so advanced it won this national award, Taylor said that’s not good enough.“We are constantly updating the system to be more and more innovative and to help our clients take a proactive approach to college recruitment.”

The system was originally designed to serve as a solution to a problem many campus recruiters face – the cost of travel. The idea was to enable students to “travel” to a campus without having to physically be there. The notion being: If they can see it and enjoy it, they’ll be more likely to attend, Hughes said.

“This product does exactly that by allowing students to walk around as a 3D avatar that looks like them,” Taylor said. “They can visit the dorms, walk around the campus to see how far the dorms are from the food courts, classrooms and other points of interest. It’s just like being there – only more cost effective.”

For more information, visit http://www.3dvirtualcampustours.com.