Class Timeline
A historical timeline of JMU X-Labs academic classes offered since the program was founded in
2015. This timeline provides a glimpse into the history of our growth, how we are constantly
working to improve our offerings, and how we respond to the needs of a growing number of collaborators.
Students applied maker technology to produce and communicate solutions for metabolic syndrome—a disorder which affects about 34% of Americans and increases the risk of heart disease and diabetes.
Students developed solutions for air pollution, saving the James River spinymussel, saving lives through First Response, aerial imaging for city planning, detecting landmines, and disarming landmines using unmanned aerial vehicles.
Students and faculty designed a mathematical model to create a walking bicycle.
Students designed and built drones to help with fire rescue assessment, sea rescue response times, landmine detection and safe detonation, analyze an ancient city wall in Colombia, restore telecommunications after hurricanes, support honeybee populations, and monitor tidal flooding.
Graduate students learned how to teach math by building tangible prototypes for direct application of mathematical concepts.
Students applied their mathematical model to design and build a walking bicycle.
Using the latest technology, students designed and developed augmented and virtual reality solutions for everyday problems.
Students worked together on innovative projects directly applicable to the business needs of the Fueled food truck, including industrial and environmental design, nutrition/health promotion, mind-body awareness, graphic design, marketing, campus/K-12 education and community engagement.
Students helped their clients gain situation awareness inside enemy sanctuaries and across battlefields, disrupt threatening aircrafts, and improve communication and coordination between military, humanitarian, and civilian populations.
Students designed and built a virtual reality tour of JMU’s campus using the latest technology in 360° media and VR. The tour became part of a recruitment exhibit in the newly renovated Madison Hall.
Students designed and built drone prototypes to track pregnant bears, track and protect endangered species, and collect dung beetle data that helps reduce parasites and greenhouse gases.
In 2017, JMU offered the only H4Di course in the country and was the first in the nation to offer it exclusively to undergraduate students, who worked on problems as diverse as cybersecurity and hate crime prevention.
Students designed and built a virtual reality tour of JMU’s campus using the latest technology in 360° media and VR. The tour became part of a recruitment exhibit in the newly renovated Madison Hall.
Students transformed a golf cart into a self-driving vehicle, gaining hands-on experience at the intersection of design, engineering, systems, software, controls, and project management.
Students wrote a blockchain textbook, a first of its kind, designed to be a comprehensive introduction to the topic.
Students designed drones that distinguish elk from deer, protect oysters in Chesapeake Bay, safely tranquilize large animals, protect grassland birds, survey for invasive plants, connect with animal trackers, image shoreline erosion, track peregrine falcon nests, protect aquatic vegetation, and sway bears from harmful situations.
Students worked together on innovative projects directly applicable to the business needs of the Fueled food truck.
Students worked with U.S. military organizations to develop a faster way to log flight records, track recalled medical items, track passengers and carry-on bags, and prevent human trafficking.
Students designed and built a virtual reality tour of JMU’s campus using the latest technology in 360° media and VR. The tour became part of a recruitment exhibit in the newly renovated Madison Hall.
Students brought the autonomous concept out of simulation and into the real world by transforming a golf cart into a self-driving vehicle.
Students developed a multidisciplinary understanding of blockchain technology with consideration for underlying ethical issues and create their own innovative applications.
Students partnered with local organizations to respond to the challenges they face, developing innovative solutions.
Students developed creative confidence and learn specific methods designed to disrupt pattern thinking, generate new ideas, and work on interesting problems using a variety of design thinking processes.
Students worked together on innovative projects directly applicable to the business needs of the Fueled food truck.
Students optimized the deployment speed of 20 NATO nations, provide recruitment support for the D.C. National Guard, determine early warning signs of human trafficking, and neutralize terrorist propaganda targeting youth and new followers.
Students explored underlying technologies and develop minimum viable products that address complex open-ended problems for industry partners.
Medical Innovations expanded in the fall of 2018 with the addition of students and faculty from the Department of Kinesiology. It was the second consecutive year students focused on aspects of the opioid crisis.
In partnership with the Furious Flower Poetry Center, students built a digital archive prototype that showcases the entire proceedings of the first Furious Flower conference in 1994.
Students developed AR tools to teach the constituents of chemistry molecules, used motion capture to represent dance movements with dancers from the School of Theatre and Dance, and created a mobile version of the JMU Campus VR Tour for the Center for Global Engagement for international student recruiting.
Students developed sensors and artificial intelligence to provide safe self-driving golf cart kits to retirement communities.
In partnership with United Way, students prototyped solutions regarding affordable childcare, public transportation, and the relationship between JMU and local non-profits.
Using drones and custom sensors, students prototyped solutions for problems such as the decline of bee populations and oyster reefs in the Chesapeake Bay.
Students worked together on innovative projects directly applicable to the business needs of the Fueled food truck.
Students improved training to maximize learning and performance, incentivized infantry service, created a leaner, meaner defense acquisition team, enabled transparency in humanitarian aid delivery, and developed standards for universities to secure unclassified innovative research.
In a partnership with BRMi, students covered a variety of business and education applications for RPA as well as the means and methods to intelligently optimize work performance.
Students developed a VR tour for JMU Admissions and a study abroad experience for the Center for Global Engagement, brought pre-construction models to augmented reality, and built a laboratory simulation for online graduate students for Communication Sciences and Disorders.
Students developed sensors and artificial intelligence to provide safe self-driving golf cart kits to retirement communities.
Students worked with client partners including the Army National Guard, the U.S. Department of State, NATO, the Joint Personnel Recovery Agency, and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
Students worked with client partners including the American Red Cross, Amazon Web Services, OpenCollar, and the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries.
Engineering, health, kinesiology, and nursing students worked in multidisciplinary teams to develop solutions to the opioid crisis.
In response to COVID-19, the AR/VR class pivoted from planned projects to explore how immersive technology could address the impacts of the public health crisis.
Students modified drones to carry payloads including cameras and sensors and/or to develop sensors to interact with UAVs that can be used to answer questions and solve problems.
Student teams pursued solutions to challenges based on the needs of client partners from the 11th Wing of the U.S. Air Force, the Defense Logistics Agency, the Defense Threat Reduction Agency, the U.S. Air Force, the U.S. Department of State, and the Womack Army Medical Center.
In a partnership with BRMi, students covered a variety of business and education applications for RPA as well as the means and methods to intelligently optimize work performance.
Students from the College of Visual and Performing Arts merged theater with technology to create virtual settings and performances.
Students worked with the United Way of Harrisonburg and Rockingham County to collect data about how COVID-19 has affected the economic, social, and health of the ALICE (Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed) population in Harrisonburg.
Students focused on Megacities (population surges), Sino-Indo relations, Blue Nile River analysis, and protecting the Sikh population in Afghanistan.
Students collaborated with Northrop Grumman to find ways to effectively monitor bears in their natural habitat.
Students developed empathy maps, designed prototypes, and performed usability testing to address various challenges brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic.
In partnership with BRMi, students covered a variety of business and education applications for RPA as well as the means and methods to intelligently optimize work performance.
In partnership with Deloitte, students gained insightful knowledge into the world of CRM and Salesforce to operate as successful System Administrators.
Students from the College of Visual and Performing Arts merged theater with technology to create virtual settings and performances.
Students identified and mapped out biological markers in the brain using augmented technology, made key updates to JMU's virtual tour, or analyzed the economic impact of local airports.
Food Insecurity – Students focused problem solving around local issues related to poverty and food insecurity.
The Future of Learning – Students prototyped ambitious hybrid and online education projects to contribute to the future of learning at JMU.
Students improved scheduling resources, increased collaboration visibility and efficiency across business units, helped catalog lead-contaminated facilities, helped identify and intervene with counter-productive leadership styles, and provided military family dependents who have special needs better ways to navigate healthcare.
Through the problem-solving process, teams built requisite skill sets in electrical engineering, Arduino microcontrollers, sensor and motor integration, firmware development, CAD, 3D printing and laser cutting.
Students covered a variety of business and education applications for RPA as well as the means and methods to intelligently optimize work performance.
Students gained insightful knowledge into the world of CRM and Salesforce to operate as successful System Administrators.