My Journey: Exploring the World of Virtual Reality
Summary
TLDRIn this engaging class chat, host Cat Lea Ramos interviews Tanya Parker, a Senior Technical Program Manager at Metaquest, who shares her experiences in building virtual reality (VR) experiences. Tanya discusses the immersive nature of VR, her role in creating 3D environments, and the innovative projects she's involved in, such as integrating notifications into VR headsets. She emphasizes the importance of collaboration and diverse perspectives in problem-solving within a team. Tanya also shares her personal journey from considering various careers to finding her passion in computer science, offering advice to students to stay open-minded, embrace mistakes, and persist in learning. The chat concludes with a reminder of upcoming class chats and the importance of teacher feedback for improvement.
Takeaways
- 👩💻 Cat Lecia Ramos, a software engineer at code.org, hosted the chat and emphasized the importance of coding in her daily work.
- 🎓 Tanya Parker, a Senior Technical Program Manager at Oculus (now Metaquest), helps build virtual reality experiences and shared insights into her role.
- 🔍 Live captioning has been enabled for class chats, making them more accessible for teachers and students.
- 🧊 Cat introduced an icebreaker activity where she shared her heated dumpling slippers, encouraging others to share personal items.
- 🤖 Tanya showed her stuffed animals from the Studio Ghibli film 'Totoro', expressing her love for the animation studio's work.
- 🕶 Tanya's work involves a mix of software engineering, product design, and product management to create immersive 3D virtual reality experiences.
- 🎮 Virtual reality is described as a 3D, fully immersive environment that can simulate anything from playing games to traveling the world.
- 🛠️ Tanya's team is working on innovative solutions like removing VR controllers to allow users to interact with the environment using just their hands.
- 💡 Collaboration is key in Tanya's work, with diverse perspectives and ideas coming together to solve complex problems in virtual reality development.
- 🌐 Tanya believes that virtual reality is the next wave of internet, predicting that it will become an integral part of people's lives in the future.
- 💡 Tanya advises students to stay open to trying new things like computer science, to be persistent, and to enjoy the process of learning and problem-solving.
Q & A
What is Cat Lecia Ramos' profession?
-Cat Lecia Ramos is a software engineer at code.org.
What is the purpose of today's class chat with Tanya Parker?
-The purpose of the class chat is to discuss Tanya Parker's experiences and insights as a senior technical program manager at Oculus, now known as Metaquest, where she helps build virtual reality experiences.
What is Tanya Parker's role at Metaquest?
-Tanya Parker is a senior technical program manager at Metaquest, where she works on creating virtual reality experiences by collaborating with various roles and disciplines.
What does Tanya Parker like about her job?
-Tanya Parker enjoys the ability to create experiences that millions of people can use and enjoy, as well as the work-life balance it provides, allowing her to pursue outdoor activities and travel.
What is the significance of the Oculus Quest 2 in Tanya Parker's work?
-The Oculus Quest 2 is a popular device that Tanya Parker works with and plays on almost every day as part of her job, creating immersive virtual reality experiences.
What is an example of a virtual reality game mentioned in the chat?
-An example of a virtual reality game mentioned is Beat Saber, where players use a virtual sword to cut through blocks synchronized with music.
What is Tanya Parker's educational background before finding her passion for computer science?
-Tanya Parker initially considered studying business and even switched her major to chemical engineering before realizing her passion for computer science.
What advice does Tanya Parker give to students who are starting to learn computer science?
-Tanya advises students to stay open, give computer science a shot, not be afraid to make mistakes, and to be persistent in learning and trying different approaches until they achieve success.
How does Tanya Parker describe the future of virtual reality technology?
-Tanya Parker envisions that virtual reality technology will evolve to become more compact and integrated, possibly resembling something like a contact lens or even a bio-integrated device that allows for immersive experiences.
What is the importance of diversity in the workplace according to Tanya Parker?
-Tanya Parker highlights the importance of diversity in the workplace to ensure that the virtual reality experiences created are inclusive and cater to all kinds of people, representing a wide range of perspectives.
Outlines
👋 Introduction to the Class Chat and Guest
The video script begins with Cat Leia Ramos, a software engineer at code.org, welcoming viewers to a class chat and providing a brief introduction about herself. She mentions the availability of live captioning for future chats and introduces the guest, Tanya Parker, who works on virtual reality experiences at Mediquest (now Metaquest). The session includes an icebreaker where Cat shows her heated dumpling slippers, and Tanya shares her Studio Ghibli stuffed animals, highlighting their personal interests before diving into the main discussion about virtual reality.
🕶️ Virtual Reality Experiences and Tanya's Role
In this segment, Tanya Parker introduces herself as a Senior Technical Program Manager at Oculus, now known as Metaquest, and explains her role in creating virtual reality experiences. She discusses the Oculus Quest 2 device and her work in connecting people through immersive 3D environments. Tanya also talks about a project she worked on that enabled notifications on the headset, allowing users to stay connected without breaking the VR experience. The conversation highlights the collaborative nature of her job and the importance of solving new and unique problems in the VR space.
🤝 The Importance of Collaboration and Diversity
Tanya emphasizes the significance of working with a diverse team to create virtual reality experiences that cater to a wide audience. She shares insights on the collaborative process, stressing the value of listening to different perspectives and ideas to solve complex problems. Tanya also discusses the importance of being flexible and open to various approaches to ensure the best outcomes in product development, reflecting on her own experience and the dynamic nature of working in a team.
🏆 Tanya's Career Journey and Passion for VR
Tanya shares her personal journey, from considering careers in law, criminology, and landscape architecture to discovering her passion for computer science in high school. She talks about her initial hesitations and the various roles she explored before finding her niche in technical program management. Tanya expresses her excitement about the impact of her work on people's lives and the potential of virtual reality to connect communities. She also mentions the importance of work-life balance and her enjoyment of outdoor activities and travel.
🔮 Future of Virtual Reality and Advice for Students
The final paragraph delves into the future of virtual reality, with Tanya predicting that technology will evolve to become more integrated and less cumbersome, possibly resembling something as subtle as a contact lens. She also addresses a question from the audience about the prevalence of VR in the future, expressing her belief that it will become as common as smartphones are today. Tanya offers advice to students who are just starting to learn computer science, encouraging them to stay open-minded, embrace challenges, and enjoy the process of learning and creating in the field.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Software Engineer
💡Virtual Reality (VR)
💡Metaquest
💡Technical Program Manager
💡Immersive Experiences
💡Beat Saber
💡Notifications
💡Controllers
💡Work-Life Balance
💡Computer Science
Highlights
Cat Lecia Ramos, a software engineer at code.org, hosts a class chat discussing virtual reality experiences.
Live captioning is enabled for class chats to assist teachers and students.
Tanya Parker, a technical program manager at Oculus (now Metaquest), shares her role in building virtual reality experiences.
Virtual reality is described as an immersive 3D environment that can simulate different places and activities.
Tanya discusses the Oculus Quest 2 device, which is used to connect to virtual reality experiences.
An example of a virtual reality application is the game Beat Saber, which incorporates music and physical movement.
Tanya's work includes enabling notifications on VR headsets to keep users engaged without disrupting the experience.
The importance of collaboration in problem-solving within the development of virtual reality is emphasized.
Tanya shares her day-to-day work, which involves meetings and problem-solving with diverse teams.
A project to remove VR controllers in favor of hand tracking for a more realistic interaction is mentioned.
Tanya provides insights on the value of diverse perspectives in a team for effective problem-solving.
The goal of virtual reality is to create a space that is enjoyable, engaging, and respectful of user privacy.
Tanya expresses her passion for creating experiences that millions can enjoy and that impact their lives.
She discusses the importance of work-life balance and how her job enables her to enjoy outdoor activities and travel.
Tanya shares her journey of career exploration from considering law and criminology to discovering computer science.
The story illustrates the value of trying different fields and finding a career that combines problem-solving and creativity.
Tanya predicts that in a hundred years, VR technology might be as ubiquitous as smartphones, possibly integrated into contact lenses or bio-implants.
She advises students to stay open to trying computer science, make mistakes, and persist in learning.
Transcripts
hello hello and welcome to today's my
journey class chat my name is cat leia
ramos and i'm going to be your host for
today's chat a little bit about myself
i'm actually a software engineer
at code.org which means i get to
basically code all day
so first of all thank you to all the
teachers and the students out there for
joining us today teachers just so you
know we have enabled
live captioning for all of our class
chats today and going forward so you'll
see that on the screen
and today we get to talk with tanya
parker we're very excited tanya parker
helps build virtual reality experiences
at mediquest
so we're very excited to talk to her
today
teachers as we're talking and going
through questions if you have any
questions that come up please put them
in the chat that way we can see them and
if we have time at the end we'll try to
get to as many questions that we can
alright so i'm going to kick us off with
a fun icebreaker
this is something i've been doing a lot
while being at home and during the
pandemic just not really going and
seeing people in person but i've been
doing a lot of show and tells so the way
this works is i will pick something from
around my desk i will show it to you and
i will tell you about it
so today my show and tell
are these slippers that i have they look
like dumplings they're very soft very
warm and
they're kind of cool because if you can
see they plug in to power and they
actually are heated so when it's really
cold i can keep my feet nice and warm
all right so now i'm gonna go ahead and
pass it off to you tanya give us a
little show and tell and then um
introduce yourself i'll grab something
too
uh who doesn't like a heated val cozy oh
yeah
i love my share of cozy things as well
these are some stuffed animals from my
neighbor totoro which is a studio ghibli
film um i love a lot of studio ghibli
films especially the ones directed by
miyazaki so couldn't resist these little
guys
very very cute
um so yeah tanya could you just give us
a quick intro about yourself
sure
i'll share my screen and show you some
of the things i work on so hi my name is
tanya i'm a senior technical program
manager at oculus now known as metaquest
and i work on for a company that creates
virtual reality experiences
so if you've seen this this is the quest
2 it's a really popular device in a way
for you to connect to these virtual
reality experiences as a technical
program manager i get to do a little bit
of everything so if you've heard of
software engineering product design
product management i work with all kinds
of roles and disciplines to problem
solve and create these 3d immersive
experiences
so virtual reality is like playing a
video game but instead of 2d it's 3d and
you're completely surrounded
by a new environment so you can feel
like you're in a totally different place
when you're just in your living room uh
so here is an example of what this
quest two looks like and something i get
to work with and play on almost every
day as part of my job
very cool yes i think i have played a
one virtual reality game called beat
saber maybe you're familiar with it but
it's cool because there's music but it's
scary because you're in the video game
and then as music is playing there's
blocks going by and you kind of have
this virtual sword that you're using to
cut through the blocks but yeah it's
very cool to be in the game
um awesome
so you kind of describe that you're a
technical project manager and that you
work on virtual reality i'm kind of
curious can you tell us
um
maybe a little bit more about virtual
reality and maybe even some projects
that you've been working on
sure
so uh virtual reality can really be you
know it's up to your imagination of all
the things that virtual reality can do
and that's one of the really cool things
about my job is we're trying to figure
out how to build metaverse in a way that
helps connect people in our communities
so here's an example of a home
environment you know you could build
your dream home for example with awesome
high ceilings huge tv screen fancy food
it can really be anything you could go
travel the world you can play games like
beat saber you can um stay fit you know
like maybe something your parents would
like to do
and some of the projects that i work on
uh one example is i have enabled
notifications so on your phone when you
get a text message or some kind of
notification we can now show that on
your headset so you don't have to remove
your headset to look at your phone and
read that notification so it's a way for
you to stay in the virtual reality space
and get to stay plugged in without
having to disrupt or interrupt the
experience and really enjoy yourself in
virtual reality
wow that's very cool that makes me
realize you could basically just be
living in the virtual reality all the
time because you can get all of your
notifications
very very cool um can you tell us a
little bit more about what your
day-to-day looks like a typical day in
your life at work yeah so i have a very
collaborative job which means
i don't work on things by myself i have
to work with a ton of people all the
time which for adults that's usually a
lot of meetings so we usually have a
bunch of problems to solve every day
where we need to decide what something
looks like feels like how people
experience it so that they really have
fun and are engaged and enjoy the
experience and so we just try to build
that in the best way possible so we ask
each other a lot of questions we want to
make sure we build it the right way so
we are
protecting people's privacy and just
making it overall a very like enjoyable
way for people to relax entertain
themselves and connect so i am usually
just walking through a lot of those
problems until we're able to get to you
know these milestones are just uh
checkpoints into creating and launching
our project or feature
um so as another example
one cool thing about the oculus quest is
that you have these controllers that you
know allow you to point and choose and
show where your hands are and so an
example of a problem that we needed to
solve is we want to get rid of these
controllers so that you can just use
your hands and point and click and touch
and grab and really interact with the
environment so it feels like you're
grabbing things and and and
it feels real um and so that's a problem
that you know nobody's saw before and
somebody had to solve it and so that's
what's really exciting is that uh you
get to be creative in solving these
problems and figuring it out together
yeah that sounds really cool just
because thinking about oftentimes
thinking about technology and software
but also virtual reality and 3d spaces
these are all things that are brand new
and so i'm sure problems are coming up
all the time related to things that
don't even exist yet and it's kind of
like wow how do you solve a problem that
no one's even tried to solve before i
was kind of curious because you
mentioned collaborating with a lot of
people and working together
in a group to kind of solve a problem
i i'm just wondering do you have any
takeaways or tips that you've learned
from working with others that you feel
like wow this is really helpful when
you're working in a group and you're
trying to solve a really hard problem
i think the most important thing to
realize is that everybody thinks about
it a little differently and so the whole
point of working on it together is
listening to everybody's perspective and
hearing what ideas they have what
options they're suggesting and really
making it a melting pot of like of those
ideas um so it's
being flexible to hearing a different
thinking or point of view um hearing you
know
other ways to to approach the problem
other ideas so
just being open and listening to each
other and just kind of going through
each of the ideas and suggestions so
that you can weigh the pros and cons or
what we call trade-offs in the industry
uh and then that way that can help you
make a choice together versus having to
always have one person pick for example
but
sometimes it helps to have a leader or a
manager who really can drive the
conversation but i think what makes this
kind of role so much more rewarding is
that we can do this together
that's awesome so i'm hearing that
sometimes it's actually more helpful
when you're
pro problem solving or you have
something you don't know the answer to
to actually include more people because
like you mentioned you get more
perspectives and you get a lot of people
seeing it from different points of view
yeah i definitely agree that comes up in
my day-to-day a lot too definitely and
the more diversity you have with like
your co-workers and the people that you
hire the more that
you can represent the people that you
are
creating this for because virtual
reality is for everyone for anyone and
we want to make sure that it works for
all kinds of people
awesome yeah it's great that that's all
top of mind for you including as many
people as you can
great
what do you
love about your job what's awesome about
your job
uh what's awesome it
is really exciting to be able to create
these experiences that millions of
people can
use and and enjoy
so something that feels like oh i'm just
deciding the small piece or building
this little little feature
it really makes an impact on people's
lives and how they get to relax at the
end of the day
um or how they get to connect with their
friends you know something with the
pandemic is thankfully
video conferences has has become more
norm and people are like having um like
birthday parties and and sort of things
virtually and so we hope that virtual
reality can have that same build that
same bridge uh so it's really exciting
to be able to to build that next step
um but i also really like that having a
job like this enables me to do a lot of
other things in my life like i get to
have a really great work-life balance
and enjoy
um life
so i live in seattle and i do a lot of
outdoorsy things like hiking with my dog
i have a corgi i tried my first
triathlon last year
um i really like to travel and so i get
a lot of
good vacation time and enjoy a lot of
food while i travel as well
so here's some some pictures of me my
friends my boyfriend here in jollibee is
uh one of these filipino fast food chain
restaurants and it's my favorite chick
fried chicken um so i just wanted to
show a little bit of that like my work
is great and it's just it's it's a great
way for also for me to enjoy my my my
life outside of work
oh i love that i'm also
filipino-american so jolly b is very
near and dear to my heart and if anyone
out there
could try the fried chicken at jollibee
you will be very happy
um that's great i also want to give a
quick reminder that if
teachers students as you're listening if
any questions come up definitely feel
free to put them in the chat so we can
get to them at the end um if you have
any questions about anything tanya has
mentioned so far definitely please do
ask those questions we'd love to hear
them
um
cool so you told us a little bit about
what you love about your job about what
you love to do outside of work uh kind
of curious when you were younger
maybe even around the age between like a
kindergarten and i think maybe fifth
grade is where some of our audiences are
at so when you were younger what did you
want to be when you grew up and why
oh
um that's a great question because i had
a lot of things in mind um when i was
younger my parents really wanted me to
be a lawyer
and i thought that seemed kind of cool i
watched a bunch of movies where people
got to argue in court and win cases and
i felt like that would be fun
um but then i realized that you know
court's a really small part of that job
and there's a lot more about the job
that i probably wouldn't enjoy as much
uh i really liked um a criminology class
i took in middle school and so i i was
fascinated by fingerprint analysis and
um
how people analyze like evidence at
crime scenes and i thought that was
really cool too but a little grim
um but i was also interested in
landscape architecture i love plants
flowers and gardens and i thought it'd
be interesting to design places that
would attract lots of birds and
butterflies and just be an escape an
oasis
but eventually i found computer science
and
it caught me by surprise i had not even
heard of it until high school a friend
of mine wanted to
take the ap computer science class and i
did not know it was and he suggested he
thought it might be fun for me i was
like why not i'll give it a try and i
loved it i just completely loved it um
i
enjoyed it because it just it was such a
great mix of that creative creative side
and analytical side where i really loved
math and science but i also felt
artistic and computer science kind of
just lets you
use all of those skills when you're
creating things
so when i applied for college i applied
to have schools in business just in case
that's sort of what my mom was like well
in case you know you you don't like
computer science business is a safe
option and half the school's computer
science and i eventually accepted uh
university of southern california
computer science computer engineering
degree
and then i freaked out uh during my
welcome week i was hearing all kinds of
things
suggesting otherwise like people saying
that all the jobs would be outsourced
you know you're not gonna have a job out
of college and
eventually i found that that was
completely untrue
but at the time it scared me and i
changed my major to chemical engineering
because then i thought i liked chemistry
you know kind of related back to that
criminology that i was interested in
when i was much younger
um
but i just wasn't enjoying myself it you
know you just kind of feel it when you
aren't happy and you're just sort of
doing the motions and luckily in that in
that major i was uh required to take a
computer science 101 or an introduction
class and it was awesome and i had so
much fun it was like the only class i
remember wanting to have extra homework
just because i thought the problems were
fun and i wanted to solve more of them
and i realized you know what this is
what i like to do i saw in lots of
career fairs everybody is looking for
computer science majors because it's not
just computer engineer software
engineers that
you know that major can help but
there are lots of applications and other
roles like mine that a computer science
degree is super useful for so i switched
back eventually found my way
um and i started out as a software
engineer at co.org actually and
eventually tried product management and
technical program management and this is
my happy place
long story short
but that's great because i think it
really showcases that
like when i was younger i used to think
oh you you know what you want to do when
you're really young and you know what
you're passionate about and then you go
to school and you study that and then
you do it and i think that your story
really showcases that sometimes it's
really good to try a lot of things and
explore a lot of things because you
never know what you're going to be
interested in i also loved hearing that
you know all of these things you were
interested like the problem solving from
you know the
criminal like criminology and
um the creativity with the landscaping
that you found a way to explore a bunch
of things and then find something that
really combined it all which i think is
so true with technology nowadays because
you never know what's what jobs are
going to exist in 10 years from now
maybe something you really love will
will come up that you've never even
heard of
um and this question actually ties
really well into a question we actually
got from the audience if it's okay for
me to ask that now
um coach mo asks do you think in a
hundred years from now
most people will have vr headsets and
maybe even uh vr headsets for free
100 years from now so
technology evolves quite rapidly it
changes
so fast but i think it's going to be
completely different not in the headset
that we know of because headsets are
pretty clunky they're heavy you can't
really use them for very long
um and as we've seen with things like
cell phones and computers things will
get smaller and yet perform better and
faster and stronger and so i'm hoping
that it's something like a contact lens
you know not even glasses
or maybe it's something that um is sort
of bio or like in your body
you put in a a little thing or a stamp
and it just sort of appears and you can
press a little button on your body and
you're there um do i think everybody
will be there
yes honestly that's why i work here i
think that's the future you know it's
the next internet it's the next wave
that people will become obsessed with
like how much time do we spend on our
phones on tick-tock you know watching
people do things trying to try to
connect with people through technology
so maybe not through headsets but will
people be in the middle verse yes
absolutely
oh yeah the way you just described that
just reminded me of all like superhero
movies and every movie i watch with
technology they're kind of just like
opening things with their hands and it's
right there in space they don't have to
use a computer um
and i totally agree with you never know
yeah you never know what's going to
exist in 10 years things are changing so
quickly
yeah
um all right i'm gonna
jump to a final question
um and i really love this question
because i think it's really helpful what
advice would you give to students out
there listening
who might be starting to learn computer
science
well i hope you're having the best time
i wish i could be in your shoes enjoying
it for the first time too
um but i think
you know one if you if you're not sure
if you like it or not stay open and try
it give it a shot
um it's so new you know like
even even for me when i was learning
about it it wasn't a thing
or people didn't know very much about it
at that age and i think you're so lucky
to be exposed to it now
um so give it a shot and see what you
like about it and encourage your friends
too
um don't be afraid to make mistakes and
that's the whole point of it is it's not
going to be perfect the first time
you're going to try one thing it's not
going to work and then you're going to
make tweaks and tweaks and tweaks and
tweaks and it'll be so satisfying when
you finally get it to work it's just
you're going to spend hours on it
thinking about it and coming going away
and coming back and there's nothing like
that
that feeling when you when you finally
solve it figure it out like i did that
you know nobody showed me how to do it
nobody did it for me i figured it out on
my own and i made this thing you know
maybe the computer said something maybe
i made a website maybe i made an app
like it's just so much fun to see that
tangible in a way digital but you know
something you created came out of your
brain and that's what i feel like is so
exciting about it so stick with it be
persistent you know
keep trying and keep trying different
ways until you until you reach that
point of success
awesome
well tonya thank you so much i think
we're we're wrapping up on time here so
again yeah thank you so much for all of
your insight thank you to the teachers
and students that are watching a quick
reminder that we have more uh class
chats just like this coming up this
spring and we also have past chats that
have been recorded that you can watch
teachers and students in your classrooms
you can find all the information about
that at code.org
cs journeys
and also remind our teachers please
check your email for surveys we really
appreciate your feedback it's how we
grow and we can make these class chats
better for you and your students so
please i'll be really excited to read
your feedback and please do share that
with us but yeah thank you so much
everyone for joining us today thank you
tanya again and that's our chat
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