Case Study: TU Delft brings black hole physics to VR with SURF visualisation

Virtual reality lets students experience a black hole

The customer, TU Delft, faced the challenge of helping students understand the complex physics of a black hole and the general theory of relativity. University lecturer Bijoy Bera sought to create a virtual reality (VR) experience for this purpose, which required significant programming expertise and high computing power that the university did not possess.

The vendor, SURF, provided its visualisation service, including the expertise of its team and access to its computing facilities. SURF's expert developed an open-source Python package, curvedpy, and a custom render engine for Blender to accurately simulate light behavior around a black hole. This collaboration is developing a VR application that will allow students to experience these physics concepts firsthand, transforming abstract theory into an immersive educational experiment.

TU Delft

Bijoy Bera

Associate Professor