DAF technology lab

The DAF Technology Lab is a university-wide facility for virtual & mixed reality. It was opened in 2015 and is located in the Dante Building. It has a space for head-mounted devices in which visitors can undergo a strictly individual virtual reality experience. There is also a unique experience room, in which 15 to 20 participants undergo such a virtual experience together. The lab has three goals. In so-called immersion teaching settings, students learn by experience rather than through theoretical learning. There is also a space for interdisciplinary research, in which all university research programs can perform research into virtual reality or by using it. Thirdly, the lab is where, working with the business community, fundamental research is combined with applications of that research.

Donation

The DAF Technology Lab was partly realized thanks to a donation of the PACCAR Foundation, the DAF Trucks parent company. The European Union and national partners also made a contribution, which was used to purchase equipment for measuring participants’ behavior and responses, such as their heartbeat, brain activity, eye movements, positions in space and speech. Measuring physiological and cognitive processes can help, for instance, to predict training program success while the training program itself is taking place. The lab is also used for education in the fields of neurosciences, data visualization, economic processes and leadership themes. Lab research also engages with topics such as mental representations and interpersonal distance