Tashiv Sewpersad: masters
During his honours year, Tashiv found it difficult to choose between the modules on offer so he did as many as he could, including machine learning and games development. His research project looked at how to improve the relevance of search results. “I learnt a lot about information retrieval and that can feed into so many different things,” says Tashiv.
For his master’s thesis Tashiv is focussing on virtual reality (VR), and more specifically the mobile version of VR that can be used in educational applications, making learning fun. Using the computing processing power and camera of a mobile phone, he hopes to create something that will be available to almost everyone.
The initial demo involves building a zoo but the hope is that it will lead to ‘serious games’ – games that entertain and educate. “It’s my vision of how learning should be,” says Tashiv.
“I think that’s where computer science is very different from other fields. It can be used to enhance other things. If you’re interested in plants you can do plant simulations... Computer science isn’t just banking apps and databases…. It becomes now [a case] of how wide is your imagination.”
Part of Tashiv’s current research is working to overcome the challenges of the computational power required for image tracking, while keeping it accessible to everyone. The project has also made use of his artistic side as he is responsible for a lot of the graphics involved in the game.
Working from the postgraduate lab, Tashiv enjoys the camaraderie of the facility. “When you’re doing research, you don’t want to be isolated because research is actually a social, community type thing. So to be surrounded by people who are looking into your field and who can comment on what you’re doing is very valuable.”
Tashiv has an interesting philosophy about computers: “Computers can allow you to live more than one life in a way. When you leave your computer running to do something, it’s doing work and you benefit from that, but you can do something else. So you are getting two live’s worth of time.”