VMASC DIRECTOR RECEIVES GRANT FROM NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION

R. Bowen Loftin, director of Old Dominion University's Virginia Modeling, Analysis and Simulation Center (VMASC), recently received a $6,000 grant from the National Science Foundation to assist in planning a Virtual Interactive Science Museum in Chile.

The proposed museum would be made available to students in Chile's public schools via the Education 2000 Internet project, sponsored by the Ministry of Education and the Chilean Telephone Company. When the Education 2000 Internet project is completed, Chile will lead Latin America in Internet coverage in education, with 90 percent of the country's students having access.

The grant will be used to send Old Dominion's Hector Garcia, a research staff member at VMASC, and Betty Bollinger, a professor at the University of Houston, to Chile this fall to collaborate with prospective Chilean partners.

Partners from Chile will visit the United States next spring to study the university's virtual reality technology capabilities.