Google Earth Kart is a video game developed by students in the web development senior project design class in computer science. In it, the functionality of a typical racing game meets the immersive 3D world of Google Earth.
Players select from a range of car models and race around Vanderbilt’s campus, crossing the finish line next to the Zeppos Tower. The project incorporates concepts learned in class such as server hosting, React, and JavaScript, while also implementing techniques beyond the course: WebSockets and ThreeJS.
The game is just one of 49 projects that will be included in the spring Computer Science (CS) Immersion Showcase, which is scheduled for Thursday, April 17, in Adams Atrium of Featheringill Hall, from 5 to 7 p.m. The Showcase is a bi-annual event that features student project presentations from various CS project courses, including artificial intelligence, autonomous vehicles, cloud computing, computational sustainability, cyber-physical systems, machine learning, software engineering, virtual reality, and web-based software architecture.
There are 49 projects in the spring Showcase. This semester, six project courses were offered and taught by professors Graham Hemingway, Forrest Laine, , Ipek Oguz, Vikash Singh and Jules White.
Since 2021, more than 300 projects have been presented at the CS Immersion Showcases, which happen at the end of each semester. Also, more than 1,000 students have showcased their projects, said Robert Tairas, Immersion Coordinator for computer science.
Google Earth Kart team member Jacqueline Frist said the project goal is to create a fun gaming experience and enhance the race with a real-life environment users are already familiar with. Future iterations would aim to allow users to choose racetracks from almost anywhere around the world.
“Working on this project has been really fun for me because it allowed me to refine the skills I have learned in class, while also challenging myself to keep learning new concepts,” Frist said. “I loved this idea because it is a fun game concept that I would legitimately enjoy playing.”
Contact: brenda.ellis@vanderbilt.edu