Abstract:
This talk presents a description of an ambitious, long-term project that directly
supports the goals of the IMGD program at WPI, and provides students with real-world
skills. Virtutopia is conceived of as a framework for supporting a wide array of
online interactive spaces, including among other things learning spaces, art spaces,
and play spaces. The design and development of the system will be incorporated at
three levels within the WPI educational structure: coursework, *QP projects, and
graduate and faculty research.

An MQP team of five and a graduate-student ISP are currently laying the groundwork
for the first iteration of the framework. The Virtutopia philosophy and current
design will be presented. It is hoped that this introduction will lead to a
discussion of possible directions for the project, as there are many interesting
pieces to be hashed out.