On Tuesday, 27 January 2026, the Library officially opened its new Immersive Technology Lab. It is a virtual and augmented reality visualisation space that provides an in-room panoramic visualisation across a 270° display area. The Immersive Technology Lab was designed as a “true immersive” projection-based experience.
The opening marked the culmination of a seven-year journey. Ellen Tise, Senior Director: Library and Information Service, reflected: “What started as a much simpler vision has evolved alongside the rapid development of technology. This is a space where staff and students don’t just look at data – they can step inside it.” Originally conceived as a modest visualisation space, the Immersive Technology Lab has grown into a fully immersive environment supporting teaching, research, innovation, training, and industry collaboration.
Prof Deresh Ramjugernath, Ms Ellen Tise and Prof Sibusiso Moyo during the opening talks of the event.
Professor Sibusiso Moyo, Deputy Vice-Chancellor: Research, Innovation and Internationalisation, highlighted the Lab’s strategic importance: “Across disciplines, we are working with much larger datasets and more complex information. We need to interpret, explore and communicate our findings clearly and responsibly.” Located in the Library, the facility encourages interdisciplinary collaboration and strengthens SU’s core functions of teaching, learning, and research, as well as innovation.
Professor Deresh Ramjugernath, Rector and Vice-Chancellor, described the Immersive Technology Lab as a world-class facility that equips students and staff with new skills and ways of thinking, preparing them to meet the demands of a rapidly evolving academic and digital landscape.
Implemented as an extension to the existing Makerspace, the Lab adds enhanced visualisation services to the library’s existing data visualisation support service offering. It expands on the Makerspace’s existing suite of 3D content creation and editing services. In doing so, the Immersive Technology Lab integrates existing data visualisation literacy training services, virtual reality (VR) head mount display experience services and new research data visualsation services into one consolidated immersive visualisation environment. This uniquely positions the Lab as an interdisciplinary research support service at SU, accessible to students and faculty members across the whole spectrum of academic disciplines.
In practice, this means that staff and students using the Immersive Technology Lab will experience being visually immersed in a project – applying technologies such as virtual and augmented reality to create deeply engaging, simulated experiences for education, research, training, and industry. Examples of practical use could be nursing students practicing hospital procedures; engineers, being ‘in’ virtual 3D models of construction sites; and creating climate science models, such as translating invisible greenhouse gas data into visible, understandable experiences.
Accordingly, the Immersive Technology Lab was implemented as a direct consequence of the data-intensive environment in which Higher Education institutions with a strong research focus have to operate.
To visit the Immersive Technology Lab, please contact your faculty librarian to assist with an appointment or contact the Head: Makerspace, Norman Hebler, directly at nhebler@sun.ac.za.