Encounter 1 of 3: Initial Awe
My first exposure to StemVR (Discord invite here) actually happened by chance thanks to a word-of-mouth push around their guided tour of computer science worlds -- being a programmer at my dayjob, I wondered what that would even look like inside VRChat:
I ran into my very first VRC friend again here! They’re the eternal “Ask Me” status type and we hadn't shared Discord info yet, so it was a real delight. I was hoping they’re still okay! 💕
Needed to leave in the middle, but at least got to see the above Linux kernel running synced to everyone in the world inside a mock terminal, which is just 🤯 But yeah, I definitely never want to overlap events going forward! Just feels a little oof, if it is something I can avoid!
Nonetheless, I then joined back… after the tour had already ended, since I never caught how long it was supposed to run. However, the group admin treated those of us hanging around to see their avatar’s demonstration of time dilation physics/math! I remembered a comment on a forum about not having experienced VRChat unless I had been given a tour by Naruto through a historical museum... I'd like to think that this checked that box for me. 😂
Encounter 2 of 3: The Double Decay
However, I've noticed that despite being too amazed in the moment to really feel it then, a lot of my attitude since struggles to pull away from imposter syndrome. Initially I'd attempted to throw a video or two into the StemVR server's various channels... but couldn't shake the impression that these were people very dedicated to their craft. Which both then and now is silly -- else they would not have given that open tour! I can't help but imagine then that it's got more to do with my professional history, honestly, but it's kind of fascinating that interacting with a VRChat community could bring that out, right? … Well, what if we dialed that to 11?
Parallel to my adventures in STEM, it happened to be the start of Summer Vket 2022 -- and at the end of one such world I found myself presented with a magic circle math quiz. It was a really endearing way to flesh out the theming of that Vket sub-world dovetailed into an interactive introduction to concepts in geometry!
Studying the posters with the help of DeepL-sensei, what I found bewildered me even more: a group named the VRC Science Assembly. Very much a "Universe A" / "Universe 1" vibe (albeit more amicable than that). Excited by the discovery, I scoured their social media and that little Vket area and sent what intel I'd collected into the StemVR Discord... only to see a channel reply the next morning from none other than someone greeting us all on behalf of the VRCSA community! Evidently they (a staff member!) had joined just a month prior with the hope to attend a StemVR event for some time... I guess some random person going "oh hey this group I found pretty amazing huh?" does provide a pretty nice foot in the door. >///>;
Looking over their activities and incredibly diligent presentations on VRCSA's YouTube archives, stacked atop the distant feelings I'd started to have in StemVR's Discord... I resolved to spectate silently a while. 😅
Encounter 3 of 3: The Chill Reality
About a month goes by. I'd experienced a special chance meetings with two STEM-oriented communities... but needed the nerve to attend either's regular weekly meetups (a "tea time" hangout for StemVR and I believe a more lecture-oriented event for VRC Science Assembly). In the meanwhile I'd actually bumped into a bonus I'll link at the end of this post, which helped me work up the resolve to clear my schedule and dive into that tea time... needless to say, timezones make joining VRCSA a bit tricky for westerners. 💦
The actual "tea time" was preceded by an hour of watching videos suggested in the server, which... mostly got overtaken by chitchat, haha -- but the community member who'd help lead the charge on the idea seemed very earnest in explaining it as a kind of "binging through a Subscriptions feed" beat. While still being open to doing older videos too, of course. I think it's mostly to keep them on top of new happenings in a regular way, which would apply well as an event idea for other groups! 👀📝
With regard to that chitchat, a younger student brought up their personal engineering project they seemed really passionate about. I couldn't parse out all the finer points beyond a surface level, but as the conversation began to trade perspectives on that kind of work vs. breaking into a full-time career in engineering... I realized that I could still contribute to the flow of conversation in a way.
Picture unrelated. (...I think.)
Despite a stinging awareness that the room probably had better coders in it... it's still a community event intended to educate and build each other up, so if you don't know stuff just... own it, right?
Own--like genuinely answer back--that you've not often had the chance to talk to people who build engines or use Arduino boards -- these days it's "that tech I see in cosplays electronics." >.>
Because the more I let others be deferred to, or was agreeable and actively listened when it came to topics outside my little corner of STEM, the more chances I think it gave the other person the floor. It surprised me how they shared not just textbook information, but also why their work or experience used those ideas in ways that personally excited them as students and professionals.
A tradeoff given to connect with amazing talented people, that awe I felt at the start! It wasn't like my fear's causes changed, just simply not mattering so long as I was still interested in earnestly sharing what my go of things brought to the table.
In hindsight writing this, to those who like me who worry about bothering an expert: from what experience I do have first studying and subsequently working in tech... There may be no 2 things more frequent for someone in STEM than (1) needing to explain what you do, given its nature as technical, but also (2) being more than happy to do so if it's with someone genuinely curious about what one does, values, and/or has to say and the space is open for it... That is these events!
A lot got said about specializing vs. pigeonholing in an engineering company, the kinds of budgets involved in personal- vs. professional-scale efforts -- it was clear from some of the anecdotes that older community members wanted to help others steer clear of pitfalls they'd experienced. Especially when it came to the usefulness of a degree in certain STEM fields compared to others, which... for sure can get a lot of people talking, myself included when it's about computer science / coding... 😅
Also charming to hear casual mentions from Mythbusters to 2057 and Modern Marvels. \o/ There was definitely a mix of people interested in reaching out to laypeople like some of that media did, together with those joining to find peers at their skill level? (I had seen new faces already working on personal projects of their own or who had a degree/job in STEM fit right in!) After the tea time proper began, the group size about tripled towards maybe a little over 10 at its peak, and the server admin (who had that fancy avatar with the Lorentz table above) shared tales of their trip to a functioning telescope from the 1960s. Open source eye-tracking, perilous drone-related stories... so I do feel like StemVR has a nice balance of skills and interests all mixing around in these events!
Ultimately then, I guess for all its origins in the hard sciences, StemVR is at the same time a social challenge for me: how much I run towards vs. away from owning what I know and what I don't! Plus leveraging that to connect more people with a community in a way that plays to their perspectives, too.
(As for my personal takeaways here on the other side of these events... I think it entirely fine and chill that I was mostly there listening and facilitating along chats. Contributing beyond that, as suspected going in, I guess it's an open question whether I think that's enough to keep me returning or not. 🙃 Though it was of note that I liked being able to join early as the event started since then I could talk about the event itself with the host, welcome any first joiners, then gradually fade towards the background. Maybe that's just my vibe when it comes to VRChat mixer-esque events?)
Thank you again to the members of StemVR and VRCSA that I've been able to interact with in my travels! You're all very earnest in a very endearing way and I hope to continue cheering you all on. I'll close out by pointing over to another 2021-era world I discovered made by the StemVR group, for any interested:
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