Cal Poly engineering students and faculty members took to a popular video game to recreate the university's campus so some students can hold a virtual graduation ceremony.
The Computer Science and Software Engineering Department will virtually walk across the recreated Spanos Stadium that was invented on Minecraft.
Minecraft is essentially a lego video game that allows players to use their creative skills to make buildings, structures or anything they can imagine.
This comes after the 2020 graduation ceremonies were been postponed due to the COVID-19 virus.
The CSSE Department launched a Cal Poly server on Minecraft during spring break, using ideas from UC Santa Barbara and UC Berkeley in order to recreate the campus.
"My favorite part of this whole process so far has been seeing the professors enjoy themselves and hearing about the happiness and creative outlet that the server has given them so far," said Kevin Krein, another student involved in the project.
In order to create an accurate representation of the Cal Poly Spanos Stadium, the students and faculty used measuring tools with Google Earth.
The virtual graduation ceremony will take place on June 13 at 1 p.m. There will be close to 100 graduating CSSE students joined by faculty.
Families of students will be able to view the event via live streaming. Department Chair Chris Lupo will present a brief welcome speech before faculty member John Clements reads the names of each graduate as they walk their avatars across the virtual stage. When all the students have "walked," their avatars will fly around campus.
For the latest on commencement information, visit this website.
