The SIG AR/VR Lab(Service d'Informatique de Gestion - Augmented and Virtual Reality) at HEC, the management school of the University of Liege, is lead by Pr. Michaël Schyns. We have three missions related to Digital Business management: Education, Research and Services to society.
Our focus is on:
Optimization of business processes thanks to Business Analytics (OR and Machine Learning)
New technologies for management with a special focus on Virtual Reality

TeamDev

1st row: Julien Wauthoz (Dev), Anaïs Thys (Artist), Axelle Arany (Artist), Justine Evers (PhD candidate Digital Business), Elodie Etienne (PhD candidate Digital Business), Sarah Saufnay (Dev-manager), Jeremy Jägers (Artist).
2nd row: Michaël Schyns (Dev-manager-head of the lab), Robin Rademaker (Dev), Jenny Tonka (PhD candidate Digital Business), Quentin Decharneux (Dev), Louise Denef (Project manager-dev), Jonathan Jägers (Dev VFX)
February 2023

One of the main activities of the lab is to create serious games. Through our games, we love to develop new ways of learning and teaching for higher education, but also digital twins and decision aid systems for the industry, as well as therapy and support systems for the health sector. We focus, but not only, on Unity 3D based virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) environments. About 12 people work in this lab: researchers, developers, 3D artists and internship students. The whole group is much larger since the studio is a laboratory within HEC, the Management School of the University of Liège and since the projects usually imply collaborations with many departments and stake holders. We develop Unity 3D environments for the University and external partners. Beside the classical development process of serious games, our studio offers some specific opportunities. Indeed, we are a University lab with two additional missions: education and research. On the research side, we love to experiment new technologies and to develop environments to test the potential of new approaches; e.g. our VR Enchanted Forest will be used for children therapy by a hospital and is being developed in partnership with researchers in Psychology. Our flight simulator and digital twin of Liège Airport has not only for goal to train pilots and logistic operators but also to test whether actuators, high-end VR headsets, HDRP vs. URP, photo-realistic animated avatars and motion platforms improve significantly the immersion quality and the process efficiency. On the education side, the studio is led by Professor M. Schyns. We not only develop teaching modules; training students is also part of our DNA.

Student internships: nice opportunities to work with us - contact us
Game artists, animators, game developers, computer scientists

Our missions

EDUCATION :

Pr. Schyns teaches computer sciences and data analytics at HEC, the Management school of the University of Liège. He also leads the domain of specialisation "Digital Business" for Business Engineers. This special program is an integrated curriculum which delivers two master degrees in three years: one in Business Engineering and one in Computer Sciences. He teaches not only at the master degree level but also works with companies and other bodies to deliver continuous education to professionals. Beside traditional approaches, new ways of learning are considered. Pr. Schyns is deeply involved in the creation of virtual reality environments for training and education. ...

teaching
cone
RESEARCH

We are interested by applied research with a direct impact on companies. We love to work with real data on real problems in partnership with real firms. Our team of researchers, with the help of our developers, performs advanced scientific research in the global field of (innovative) decision aid. Pr. Schyns obtained a PhD in Operations Research with a focus on combinatorial optimization. Beside, his first (scientific) love since studying for his master degree in computer science is Machine Learning. In addition, we believe in new technologies and are interested to measure the added-value of some digital techniques (AR/VR, IoT, 3D printing, Digital Twins...) on business processes. ...

SERVICES TO SOCIETY

The mission of HEC Liège is to foster real-life education and research in economics and management for the benefit of our local community and the wider society. The SIG-Digital Business Unit wants to contribute significantly to this mission. We love to face challenges from companies and the society and we do our best to perform research and developments with a real impact. We have collaborations with many companies and many departments in many domains (air transportation, logistics, psychology, health sector...) based on our research work in Operations Research, Machine Learning and Digital Technologies. ...

Cutting-edge tools

We are not only developers but also a research lab.
Research questions: how to strengthen the feeling of presence, improve the immersion quality , optimise the user experience.

casques

High End headsets

Meta Quest (Base and Pro), HTC Vive (Pro,Pro Eye), Index...

haptique

Haptic devices

GoTouch Interhaptics, Hi5 Noitom gloves...
Being able to feel the virtual world!

motion

Motion Capture

Noitom neurons, Leap Motion, Eyetracking, trackers Vive...
For ultra-realistic motion

mobile

Mobile/standalone headsets

Samsung Gear VR, Quest, HEC cardboards...
To reach a larger public

vérin

Moving platform, scent generation...

To activate all our senses

photo

Photorealistic avatars and env

photo studio, photogrammetry, full 360 stereoscopic camera...
Matrix? Only a movie? When the virtual looks like the real.

tapis

Locomotion

How to move efficiently even in small rooms

AR

Augmented Reality

Microsoft Hololens, Smartphones...
Even more potential for augmented reality

AR

And other technologies

3D printing, robots (AGV and four legs), bio-feedback...

And all the required software
and a wonderful team...

sig

Contact us

Pr. Michaël Schyns
HEC-ULiège
14, rue Louvrex
4000 Liège