Lethbridge College’s Centre for Technology, Environment and Design (CTED) has announced it is partnering with Liquid Avatar Technologies, a publicly-traded global blockchain and fintech solutions firm, to launch a work-integrated learning opportunity that will allow students to occupy property in the metaverse.
As part of the partnership, Liquid Avatar Technologies is providing 9,000 plots of land within its Aftermath Islands Metaverse – a network of spaces where users can create a virtual world parallel to their physical one. Students will begin engaging in the new program and in mentorship opportunities by the end of the winter 2022 semester.
Established in 1957 as Canada’s first publicly funded community college, Lethbridge College is a board-governed institution serving the training and applied research needs of southern Alberta.
Students in Interior Design Technology, Virtual and Augmented Reality and Architectural Animation Technology programs will “build” on the virtual island – creating structures and businesses and completing transactions. Each student will receive a plot of virtual land. The plot and all the assets they create for it will remain their property for as long as they choose. The college will also have a significant parcel of virtual land to let it provide students with virtual events, learning and other services, explained Lethbridge College.
“I’m so excited for this partnership with Liquid Avatar Technologies,” says Cherie Bowker, chair of Lethbridge College’s School of Spatial Design Technologies. “Our students will learn so much about entrepreneurship and building in the metaverse and will gain a much greater understanding of digital space and digital identity while these worlds evolve and grow. We are proud of how we lead in this space, and we are thrilled to work with the skillful, talented and creative Liquid Avatar team.”
In the virtual spaces, collectively named Lethbridge College Island on Aftermath Islands, the students will learn how to work, play, learn, game, entertain, and earn in the metaverse. In addition to the virtual land, up to 100,000 in-game currency credits are being made available to the college. Those credits can be used to build, buy, and trade assets like additional property, objects, landscape items and even avatars, the college explained.
CTED students will have hands-on opportunities to build out Lethbridge College Island by working closely with experts in the field, as well as faculty, who will mentor them in the development of the property.
“Providing the next generation of creative and technical thinkers with the tools to engage in new technologies that are primed to change consumer behaviour is an exciting opportunity for Liquid Avatar Technologies and Aftermath Islands,” said David Lucatch, president, chief executive officer and chair, Liquid Avatar Technologies, and managing director of Aftermath Islands Metaverse Limited. “We envision this collaboration with Lethbridge College as a sandbox for learning and acquiring significant tangible experience, providing Canadian students with an advantage when entering the evolving job market.”
Lucatch has spent the past 25 years developing technologies and taking them to market. Part of his recent resume includes co-founding Aftermath Islands Metaverse – a planned virtual environment that provides online users with theme-based first-person augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) experiences, quests, games and integrated e-commerce activities. Lucatch and the team at Liquid Avatar Technologies will also be mentoring Lethbridge College students to further progress their education in the metaverse.
Aftermath Islands Metaverse Limited is a Barbados corporation which is 50 per cent owned by and is controlled by Oasis Digital Studios, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Liquid Avatar Technologies.