Brazilian university USP will conduct academic research in the metaverse

Published at: May 27, 2022

As reported by the University of Sao Paulo (USP), the metaverse-centric research will be carried out by research groups interested in 3D modeling, psychology and human behavior, and the effectiveness of virtual and augmented reality devices. These research domains will be evaluated within the context of the metaverse to understand how the new virtual world impacts user interactions.

USP professor Marcos A. Simplicio Jr. highlighted that this is the first time USP had received a nonfungible token (NFT) via partnership. The token in question is a rare piece of land in the United States of Mars (USM) metaverse, which is being built in collaboration with other universities.

"USP is the first university in Latin America to have a partnership with USM to support the construction of its metaverse," said Simplicio.

The partnership will initially feature a collaboration with researchers stemming from an existing agreement called the University Blockchain Research Initiative (UBRI), which is sponsored by Ripple.

During the 2022 World #Economic Forum, Sheila Warren, CEO of the #Crypto Council for Innovation (CCI), sat down with Cointelegraph to discuss a range of topics, including the state of crypto, decentralized autonomous organizations (DAO) and safety within the #metaverse.

— Supreme Finance (@SupremeFinance2) May 24, 2022

As Cointelegraph reported, opportunities involving the metaverse were discussed at the World Economic Forum’s Annual Meeting, which concluded on Thursday. Specifically, the panel titled “The Possibilities of the Metaverse” explored how metaverse technologies can be used to enhance children’s learning. The panel featured Philip Rosedale, co-founder of High Fidelity; Pascal Kaufmann, founder of Mindfire Foundation; Peggy Johnson, CEO of Magic Leap; Hoda AlKhzaimi, assistant research professor at New York University, Abu Dhabi and Edward Lewin, vice president of Lego Group.

“One in three people using the internet are young adults and children, so I would really focus on building from kids’ perspective, given they are the future users,” Lewin said during the panel discussion.

The University of Sao Paulo and United States of Mars (USM), which recently rebranded from Radio Caca, have announced an agreement that aims to promote research around the technical, economic and legal aspects of the Metaverse.