Role: Senior Technologist

March 2023 – Present

Researched and developed novel VR simulations and prototypes using the Unity platform. Provided subject matter expertise to streamline project documentation and mentor colleagues on Unity VR development.

Department of Veteran Affairs, Suicide Prevention Training Project

• Collaborated with a small team to prototype a VR suicide prevention training for non-clinicians and clinicians.
• Integrated local Speech-to-Text on Meta Quest headset enabling users to practice what to say to a Veteran in need.
• Developed connection to in-house LLM to give user’s real-time feedback.
• Lead development project milestones and timeline.

Department of Veteran Affairs, Workplace Training Project

• Collaborated with a small team to prototype a VR empathy-based experience for healthcare veterans and VA nurses & doctors.
• Created the VR experience using the Unity Game Engine along with PICO and Meta VR headsets.
• Integrated eye tracking into menu selection to enhance user experience.
• Lead development of multiplayer experience to allow healthcare spectators in the application.
• Optimized tutorials via user feedback / customer needs to ensure inexperienced users learned the required controls to operate a new VR app increasing the ease of use of the app and a better customer experience.
• Collaborated to create a relaxation and debriefing area within the VR app to help users digest the material.
• Updated app to work with multiple types of VR devices by switching to the OpenXR SDK.
• Collaborated to create short pop ups to help examine the user’s knowledge about the subject matter.
• Created and implemented a RESTful API using ASP.NET Core to integrate with our VR app.

Department of Veteran Affairs, Nurse Oncology Training Project

• Collaborated with a small team to prototype an Oncology Nurse VR training experience.
• Integrated custom animations to immerse the user in the experience and showcase an innovative design.
• Developed multiple interactive tutorials to help new users learn how to interact with the environment.
• Created timed scenarios to test the user on their knowledge.

Testimonial

“Drew has done a great job in delivering excellence. He organizes his work, gives target dates, and is generally self-sufficient in delivering a high quality app with almost zero quality issues.”
– Cal Zemelman (Vice President of Data Science & Engineering at CVP)