Thanks to their innovative 3D AR system, a proactive group of undergraduates offers interactive learning to elementary school students in one of Pakistan’s most underserved regions
The lack of access to trained teachers and quality education can impair growth, development, and opportunities for young students, especially in rural areas with poor infrastructure and limited resources. But thanks to a recent EPICS in IEEE project, a university team in Pakistan successfully faced this challenge head-on, and, through their rollout of an “Augmented Reality 3D System for Interactive Learning in Rural Elementary Schools,” they’ve reached hundreds of elementary students in underserved areas of Pakistan with a virtual, sustainable, and hands-on learning platform that’s positively engaging students and teachers alike.
“Our project aims to develop a three-dimensional augmented reality (AR) display system to address the unique educational challenges faced by rural communities in Pakistan,” shared Sameer Qazi, a senior-year student in the Department of Electronics at Mehran University of Engineering and Technology (MUET) in Jamshoro, Pakistan. “Many rural areas lack access to qualified educators and modern teaching resources, so our project seeks to bridge that gap by providing an interactive and immersive learning system that delivers an innovative educational experience with a focus on science, art, and history.”
Kicked off in early 2024, “our project involved nine students and two faculty supervisors from our school’s Electronic Engineering Department and each of us contributed to three different modules of the project — ‘Display System,’ ‘Content Development,’ and ‘Power Management,’” explained Qazi, who served as Project Lead for the Display System module. “We partnered with the Fast Rural Development Program (FRDP), an organization dedicated to transforming underprivileged areas and driving sustainable development within rural Sindh, Pakistan, to help ensure that our solution was aligned with community needs and could be seamlessly integrated into the target schools’ curriculum.”
Bridging the Distance
In Southeastern Pakistan’s congested Sindh province — rural regions of which are often challenged by floods and other harsh weather conditions, damaged roads, sparse healthcare, overcrowded schools, and limited training for teachers — Qazi said that their AR system with interactive 3D visualization was designed to enable distance education and create an intuitive learning experience for the area’s youngest students. “Our system features real-time capture, processing, streaming, and 3D visualization of recorded educational content as well as interactive 3D content adapted from the schools’ book lessons, allowing knowledge transfer to remote areas,” he said.
Among specific activities, “our prototype’s Display Module involved the development of a single LED-based, three-view holographic system using semi-reflective glasses to create different views,” Qazi said. “Our Content Module used ‘Unity 3D,’ a real-time 3D development platform, to develop interactive content for the display, and incorporated Leap Motion technology to enable gesture-based manipulation of the content to make it intuitive and engaging for users.” Finally, he said, “work within our Power Module involved us designing a standalone power system using a Battery Management System (BMS) and solar technology, allowing the entire system to operate independently of the grid using renewable energy for greater sustainability.”
Though Qazi noted that precise alignment of their prototype’s semi-reflective glasses and LED display to achieve a seamless three-view holographic effect proved a challenge, the team addressed that through ongoing recalibrations to perfect the optical alignment, while their local sourcing of components and optimization of hardware designs helped ensure the system’s affordability. And those extra efforts were well worth it, as the team’s 3D AR system is successfully delivering on its promise.
“To-date, we’ve deployed our system in two schools in rural Sindh (Sanghar and Dadu), where several STEM-focused lectures were delivered using the holographic display, and have reached about 500 students in first through eighth grade,” Qazi said. “The response has been overwhelmingly positive, with students demonstrating higher engagement and better conceptual understanding, and teachers have also appreciated the system’s ease of use and its potential to transform traditional learning.”
“Transforming Traditional Learning”
Qazi said that he and his fellow teammates won’t be stopping there.
“We plan to expand the system’s applications beyond education into fields like medical visualization, industrial training, and research simulations,” he shared. “Future iterations of the system will incorporate Digital Twin technology, which allows for real-time interaction with live models of physical systems and paves the way for industrial and engineering advancements.”
“Ultimately, our vision is to see this system deployed in rural schools across Pakistan, where it can provide students with access to high-quality, interactive learning tools,” Qazi said of their broader plans. “Beyond education, we hope that the technology can inspire similar innovations in healthcare, vocational training, and beyond and ultimately foster development in underserved communities.”
On a professional level, Qazi said that the project helped hone his technical abilities in optics, display technologies, and programming while also strengthening his collaborative, leadership, communication, project management, and problem-solving skills. And Qazi and his teammates – including students Abdur Rehman and Amjad Channa (Display Systems), Javeria Khichi, Farwa Sheikh, and Ghullam Murtaza (Content Development), and Haris Khan, Abdul Samad, and Sanjana Khitri (Power Management), along with Supervisor Shoaib R. Soomro – couldn’t be more grateful to EPICS in IEEE for making those opportunities possible.
“From funding to mentorship, EPICS in IEEE provided us with essential support that allowed us to bring this project from concept to reality,” Qazi confirmed. “I encourage anyone considering an EPICS project to seize the opportunity, because it’s a chance to make a tangible impact on society while growing as an engineer and leader.”
For More Information
For more information on EPICS in IEEE or the opportunity to participate in service-learning projects, visit https://epics.ieee.org/. “EPICS (Engineering Projects in Community Service) in IEEE” is an initiative which provides opportunities for students to work proactively with both engineering professionals, technological innovation, and local organizations/partners to develop solutions that address global community challenges.
Excellent efforts. I myself visited and attended the Demo session.
It was truly an honor to serve community as Student Team Lead of this project. We are always here to provide our services for growth of education specially in remote areas