Tim Dodds

Icon (AI Conversation Sim) is a learning application and content authoring platform powered by generative AI.

Using our flexible, web-based authoring tools, teachers create scenarios for students to practice real-world conversation skills across a wide range of subject areas such as business, medicine, journalism, and education. Icon is being used by thousands of students across UNSW in the web and in immersive VR classes.

Icon won silver in the global Immersive Experiential Learning category at the 2024 International QS Reimagine Awards in London.

EyeSim is VR app for students of ophthalmology and optometry. Users are presented with simulated eye conditions like myopia, cataracts, and macular degeneration and can explore how they affect the lives of those affected.

Teachers can use the built-in networking features to guide students through the experience. By exploring different environmental conditions and engaging with various kinds of real-world interactions, students develop a nuanced understanding of eye disease that’s grounded in both pathology and empathy.

EyeSim was named the winner of the 2025 European Conference on E-Learning (ECEL) Education Excellence Awards in Denmark.

Lift-Off is a fun VR app the UNSW Immersive team made in collaboration with the university’s Equity, Diversity and Inclusion team. It was designed for them to take on the road and share with high school students around the New South Wales.

UNSW has programs for engaging with cohorts of students from backgrounds where university study isn’t a given. We wanted an app that would bring to mind thoughtful questions about what they want to achieve in life … all while hurling around cute little critters in VR.

Languages Under the Sea is a simple, fun VR app the UNSW Immersive team created for use at campus events. It gives people a quick and engaging taste of the languages available to study at UNSW by playing ‘I Spy …’ in a gorgeous and relaxing underwater environment.

Campus events are a key part of the Immersive team’s efforts to expand the awareness and take-up of VR as a learning tool at the university. For many users, an app such as this is their first ever taste of VR, so we made it fast and intuitive. It’s a simple game about looking and finding.