On September 12th, three members of the IrisVR team made a trip out to Seattle for the AEC Hackathon. The event brought industry experts and tech enthusiasts from all over the country to solve a challenge related to Architecture, Engineering, or Construction. There were 3D printers, laser scanners, a full motion virtual reality environment, drones, and more. Of course, we brought an Oculus Rift.

Our team was made up of Nate, Jack, and myself, Greg. The only instruction we received was to use technology to solve a ‘pain point’ in the industry. We’re mostly programmers without much direct AEC experience, so we started out the morning by asking around to identify some pain points. Before long, we ran into Dan Shirkey and Keith Walsh from Balfour Beatty Construction. Dan is the Technology Center of Excellence Leader for the West Region of Balfour Beatty Construction, and his primary focus is to capture and grow the best cases of technology use and to bring new technology and innovation to Balfour Beatty Construction. Dan and Keith identified workplace safety as a top priority, and together we came up with a plan to use technology to improve safety training. Before long, we had our team - Hazyard.