This October, Emerging Media Lab’s (EML) Judicial Interrogatory Simulator was chosen as a finalist for the 2024 Gartner Eye on Innovation Awards for Education, recognizing EML in the Higher Education Innovation in Teaching and Learning category. The Judicial Interrogatory Simulator (JIS) leverages new technologies including Generative AI and Virtual Reality to provide an immersive moot court experience to help first-year law students practice presenting their arguments in court. With this year marking a record number of submissions for Gartner’s Eye on Innovation Awards, being named as a finalist highlights the groundbreaking work of UBC’s creative thinkers.
Inspiring innovation at UBC
Established in 2017, UBC’s Emerging Media Lab (EML) was created as an experimental space where faculty, students, and staff can come together with the goal of enhancing student education through modern technologies like AI, Virtual Reality, and data visualization. EML students are encouraged to experiment with new tools and techniques that address educational barriers in creative ways. The Judicial Interrogatory Simulator (JIS) is an example of a key project in the growing collection of EML’s collaborative work.
The Judicial Interrogatory Simulator (JIS) is a collaborative effort with 5 students from diverse academic backgrounds, guided by EML staff and three UBC faculty members. They set out to address the often-nerve-wracking experience first-year law students must go through in their legal education: moot court. Moot court is a simulated court proceeding where law students argue hypothetical cases to practice legal reasoning, advocacy, and courtroom procedures. To mitigate the heightened sense of anxiety related to public speaking, they created the JIS as a resource available to students via web and virtual reality. The JIS has two modes—Classic and Intelli-Judge—where students can practice their speech articulation, time management, and even receive real-time feedback. Following the positive feedback and success of this achievement, UBC is planning to share the JIS application with other law schools across Canada.
With 59 EML projects under their belt and undoubtedly more to come, the Gartner Eye on Innovation Award has put a well-deserved spotlight on EML’s embodiment of student-led, collaborative innovation that continues to enrich our UBC community.
Check out the Gartner Eye on Innovation Award for Education finalists
Check out Gartner's video detailing EML’s Judicial Interrogatory Simulator
Article by Vickie Wu.
