Skip to main content

News

Digital Media Wows the Space Cowboys at Constellation Field Tech Night
By
Alex Keimig
Associate professor of digital media Tony Liao, Ph.D., waves to the crowd before throwing out the first pitch at the Space Cowboys inaugural 2024 Tech Night.
Associate professor of digital media Tony Liao, Ph.D., waves to the crowd before throwing out the first pitch at the Space Cowboys inaugural 2024 Tech Night.
Tony Liao posing with important Space Cowboys members.
Tony Liao posing with important Space Cowboys members.
The UH contingent at the Space Cowboys game.
The UH contingent at the Space Cowboys game.

Earlier this spring, representatives of the Technology Division’s digital media program and CougAR Lab, including associate professor of digital media Tony Liao, Ph.D., connected with Sugar Land’s own Class AAA baseball team, the Space Cowboys, to participate in the inaugural 2024 Tech Night.

Last month, Liao and seven digital media students - Noe Mendoza III, Isaac Shah, Phoebe Diep, Charity Sanders, Ambria Roberts, Diego Amber Garcia, and Jonathan Vo - had the opportunity to present multiple customized augmented virtual reality projects to Technology Night attendees at Constellation Field, where Liao also threw out the first pitch in the Space Cowboys’ winning game against the Salt Lake Bees.

For additional images from the night, check out the UH at Sugar Land Instagram account here!

Representatives of the Space Cowboys first visited the CougAR Lab in March to set the partnership in motion. 

“We talked through some possibilities and came up with a variety of potential marketing options, like VR spaces, that would work with the augmented virtual reality devices that we have in the lab. Then we took some students out to their Media Day to meet and interview some of the players, as well as take 3D scans of them and the ballpark,” Liao said. “We brought out all of our equipment. The students loved it.”

The challenge in preparing for the final event, Liao said, was simply that it had never been done before. 

“There are always going to be challenges with AR/VR when you don’t know exactly what your finished product is going to look like, or what’s even possible," he said. "Coming back to the lab with all of this footage, 3D scans of baseballs and players and rooms, and working together to say ‘how are we going to turn this into something that people are going to want to see?’ – that brainstorming and problem solving of taking all of this footage from one day in March and spending the rest of the summer figuring out how we were going to turn it into something useful and usable was really a fun challenge for us."

But the projects they were able to pull together – including 3D scans of the players, boxes in the clubhouse, and other visuals – were a home run.

“A bunch of what we made actually ended up going up on the scoreboard, so that was a great opportunity for us,” Liao said. “We loved working with [the Space Cowboys]. In fact, they’ve already invited us back to do Media Day again in March [2025], and they’ve set the next Technology Day for April [2025] when the season starts up again.”

“We were thrilled to partner up with Tony and the CougAR Lab for a unique collaboration at the ballpark,” said Amy Johnson, Sugar Land Space Cowboys Marketing Director. “We take pride in teaming up with the community to bring different experiences to our fans, and being able to provide an experience for the students as well was really cool. The Space Cowboys are excited to team up again next year for an even larger Tech Night at the ballpark, furthering partnerships with the local chamber to bring awareness to the CougAR lab and the groundbreaking innovations our local students are working on!”

With a full offseason now set aside to plan and prepare, the next Tech Night promises to be even bigger and better. 

“We really enjoy partnering with these local entities and being able to show people what is possible with our technologies, so this opportunity and others like it are definitely ones that we hope to continue doing in the future,” Liao said.

Share This Story: