A local researcher got multiple awards from a global competition at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Along with a group of virtual strangers from 49 countries, Lethbridge College’s applied research chair in virtual and augmented reality recently caught the attention of global virtual reality game developers for college students and staff.

Mike McCready, applied research chair in virtual and augmented reality, said he was paired with four people from the United States.

“I had an opportunity to have 80 teams around the world participating and creating something either in virtual or augmented reality. The award recognizes the best health and wellness and education learning. We got the top five in the VR apps,” McCready said.

He decided to create an application to assist children who have dyslexia.

“We take this application as a prototype and developing it into a functioning application to help children who have this condition,” McCready said.

 He said the two parts of the VR apps allow users to write letters in the air, which helps to develop motor skills. The second part of the game is speech recognition, which allows users to sound words they have written.

“It’s kind of an example of what is the path for our students. When I came back last week, I shared my experience with students and how wonderful it was,” McCready said.

Allyson Cikor, virtual and augmented reality instructor, said McCready has set an example for all instructors in the VR certificate program. She says he lives and breathes VR, and is moving the program forward.

“Mike is a great guy and we all work. He is helping us to reach out and work with industry partners,” said Cikor.

Cikor said the college’s goal is helping students to become a part of the industry and get more experience with the VR program.

McCready said he would like to use the new app as a prototype and develop it into a functioning application that can be used to help children with dyslexia.