The University of Queensland worked with Telstra Purple on Affluent Effluent, a HoloLens application that helps Gatton-campus students explore wastewater management through a simulated fish farm. It responds to a teaching challenge: spreadsheet-based IoT data was difficult for students to engage with. Learners change environmental parameters and observe effects in a mixed-reality simulation, linking the exercise to an assignment.
UQ researcher Kim Bryceson's 2019 paper dates the pilot to 2018. An informal evaluation involved eleven students and reported strongly positive responses to five engagement and interest questions. This small engagement evaluation is not evidence of improved academic or clinical performance. The paper also mentions early-2019 formal evaluation without providing those results in the reviewed text.
A later research-paper abstract describes upgraded environmental modelling and graphics for the same wastewater simulation. The reviewed evidence supports classroom piloting and continued development, but does not establish a wider institutional rollout. The HoloLens generation and deployment-specific compute configuration remain unconfirmed.
