PACT opens new Immersive Rooms. Soumodip Sarkar wants technology “at European level”

PACT – Parque do Alentejo de Ciência e Tecnologia, chaired by Soumodip Sarkar, inaugurated its new Immersive Rooms, Gaming inPACT, today, April 29th. These are rooms with the best equipment and technologies for an “incredible” and unique immersive experience in the country. For now, this technology, which can be used in business training or school teaching, is only available in Évora.

The initiative is part of the eGames Lab project, which is financed by the PRR – Recovery and Resilience Plan and the Next Generation EU European Funds.

The Alentejo Science and Technology Park was born from the desire to position Alentejo as an innovation center of global reference. “Who would have thought that in Alentejo we could have something so advanced? The vision is advanced, just like some of the equipment, but the future I would like to create will be something at European level, and still well ahead”, says the executive president of PACT to Rádio Campanário.

It should be noted that, since the beginning of its activity, in 2016, PACT, installed in Évora, connects the academic world with the business world, with the purpose of creating value for the market and for the region. Over the years, it has been developing a structured network of partners, which aims to help entrepreneurs and companies leverage their ideas or businesses.

Still speaking with Rádio Campanário, Soumodip Sarkar explained that this “was a recent experience. I’m not in the gaming field, I don’t understand any of this. We held an event last year and we had rooms full of young people, some even came from Porto; It was at that time that I thought, so I’m doing something that’s not just for companies, it’s not just for people here in Alentejo, here in Évora, but also for young people. It was at that point that I had the idea: why not invest in this area?”

“It turns out that PACT is also part of the eGames Lab project. I spoke to some young people and they all liked the idea that here, in Alentejo, in Évora, they could have a hub around gamming. And as I work on my research in the area of ​​artificial intelligence, following news for companies, for startups — I just gave an international talk on the topic — I thought, why not combine these two things?”, added Soumodip Sarkar.

And he added that “it was by bringing these two things together that the idea of ​​immersive rooms was born, which we still don’t have ideal conditions to have, but it has to do with the concept of metaverses. I see a lot of future, both in teaching and in several of our activities, in these immersive experiences, basically the shortest word and metaverses therefore

According to Soumodip Sarkar, “today we are starting a new stage of PACT, which CCDR itself [Comissão de Coordenação e Desenvolvimento Regional do Alentejo] and the European Union don’t know where to fit in, because it doesn’t fit well into traditional things. But I see a lot of future in this area because our lives are increasingly virtual. So why not also have more virtual experiences, more immersive, with experiences that are as real as possible?” “I know several parts of the world where they do similar things, which I also want to do here, also in Alentejo. Nobody would expect something like this in Alentejo”.

But in practical terms, what are these immersive rooms that represent an investment of 130 thousand euros for? “The potential is enormous, for example, a company can provide training on how to use machines, but without needing to have physical machines. We can create gamming games, in general, and with the support of virtual glasses, 3D glasses, trainees can have an experience as if the machines were actually working”, said the president of PACT. Take the case of the aeronautics sector, where machines are very expensive; Companies can provide training virtually.

However, Soumodip Sarkar said that “we still don’t have all the equipment, because it costs a lot of money. Only part of this project is financed [em grande parte por financiamento do PRR], the rest is our will and we are counting on more support. But we hope to acquire more equipment by the end of the year.”

Interview by Augusta Serrano; Text by Carlos Caldeira