East Boston High School Students Visit Verizon Innovation Lab
It was a day of innovation, technology, and discovery as students studying computer science from East Boston High School explored the Innovation Lab at Verizon’s Hub on Causeway Street in Boston. The tour showed students how new technology is connecting people and redefining the possibilities of how they interact.
“I had a lot of fun touring the Verizon Innovation Lab,” Daniel Gentile, a junior at East Boston. “Getting to see and hear about the technology in person was very exciting.”
The East Boston High School students were exposed to cutting-edge technology and given a wide view of Verizon’s innovative processes.
“It was very fun finding out about what Verizon was working on and learning about their other projects besides their mobile service,” said senior Mateo Uribe Martinez.
Students and career specialists at the AR studio.
One of the highlights was the lab’s state-of-the-art Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR) studio, where students got a first-hand opportunity to experience using a virtual landscape.
Uribe-Martinez, who is interested in studying computer science and engineering, said that seeing how AR and VR projects were made and used in the real world increased his interest in the field. With AR, virtual objects are projected into the real world through devices such as a tablet, smartphone, or special glasses. VR is about immersing the user in a completely virtual world.
“The coolest thing for me had to be the VR that they used to make jobs easier for people,” he said. “Especially when they showed how a plane engineer could use AR to view guides on how to fix a plane’s wheel while simultaneously working on it.”
Students visited the XR (extended reality) stage, a cutting-edge platform equipped with interactive technology that enables immersive experiences through virtual and augmented reality, ideal for dynamic presentations, live performances, and immersive storytelling. Students were also shown a robot dog from Boston Dynamics, and an AI-powered robot helper that can be used to move items in factories and distribution centers.
“The coolest thing I saw at the Verizon Innovation Lab has to be the robots, and how they were moving around and how they program them,” said Gentile. “The visit was very eye-opening and completely changed my view of technology and AI.”
“You hear about how this technology is changing the world and all of its possibilities for the future, but after actually getting to experience seeing it in person, it becomes more than just talk,” he said.
Boston Public Schools high school students checked out AI-powered robots, including one designed by Boston Dynamics.
Verizon’s Boston Innovation Center is a testament to the company’s commitment both to new technology and to Boston.
“Empowering Boston students isn’t just an investment in education, it’s a catalyst for building a network of future leaders, innovators, and changemakers,” said Cynthia Joachimpillai, Associate Director, Verizon Innovation Lab.
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