Virtual & Augmented Reality Communication (VARC) Lab (COM-001)
Summary 🟡 ✓
- Owner Unit: College of Communication
- Sub-unit: Center for Communication Engagement
- Content Type: laboratory
- Campus/Location: Loop (14 E. Jackson Blvd., Room 111-112)
- Last Verified: June 14, 2026
Description & capabilities
The Virtual and Augmented Reality Communication (VARC) Lab houses state-of-the-art VR/AR equipment to help researchers, faculty, and students learn how to communicate effectively and ethically in virtual and augmented reality environments. The lab supports teaching and research on how immersive technologies affect society, culture, media, and interpersonal communication. It is a unit of the College of Communication's Center for Communication Engagement and maintains a checkout pool of headsets and 360 cameras available for booking by DePaul users. It was launched with a DePaul innovation (AGIF) grant.
Access status
- Level: yellow (
Negotiated Access) - Rationale: Equipment and lab space are available for booking by DePaul users by contacting the lab director; not open public access.
- Access URL: communication.depaul.edu/academics/initiatives/center-for-commun…
- Contact name: Paul Booth
- Contact email: pbooth@depaul.edu
- Verification date: 2026-06-14
- Source URLs:
- communication.depaul.edu/academics/initiatives/center-for-commun…
Verification
- Status: confirmed (
âś“) - Confidence: 90/100
- Rationale: Official College of Communication lab page documents the lab, its location, leadership, booking process, and equipment inventory; corroborated by founding coverage.
- Last verified: 2026-06-14
- Evidence:
- Official lab page communication.depaul.edu/academics/initiatives/center-for-commun…
- Center for Communication Engagement communication.depaul.edu/academics/initiatives/center-for-commun…
- Founding coverage academics.depaul.edu/liberal-studies/first-year-program/abou…
Equipment
Find this resource from the Equipment catalog or site search (e.g. “3D printers”, “laser cutter”, “NMR”).
| Category | Specific equipment |
|---|---|
| VR, AR, and XR | Meta Quest Pro; Meta Quest 2; Meta Quest 1; HTC Vive Focus Plus; Microsoft HoloLens 2 |
| Cinema and broadcast cameras | 360 cameras (checkout for teaching/research) |
Source: official DePaul VARC Lab page. Last verified: May 28, 2026.
Contacts (resource-level)
- Website: VARC Lab
- Email: Paul Booth
People & contacts
Named contacts from the people registry when publicly documented.
- Paul Booth (Faculty lead) — pbooth@depaul.edu · Profile
- Bree McEwan (Affiliated faculty) — Profile
Source URL
Official links and email are listed under Contacts above.
Documented Relationships
Unit of the Center for Communication Engagement (which also houses the Media Engagement Research Lab, the Streaming Lab, the OpEd Project, and the Open Learning Project). Led by Paul Booth; co-founded with Bree McEwan via AGIF grant GRA-886.
Linked Relationship IDs
Notes
Director Paul Booth (PER-121); co-founder Bree McEwan (PER-122). Promoted from candidate RC-003 on 2026-06-14 via institutional web evidence (packet 2026-06-14-hard-tech-candidate-web-discovery). First resource under the new College of Communication (COM) prefix.