Toptal empowers remote students to explore the world
Leading science institution Imperial College London revolutionizes remote learning for geology students.
The end result was not only better to look at, but it was also more secure, and the code was cleaner and better integrated with the business logic.
Goran Lalić
Developer and Unity expert
The Client
Imperial College London is a science-based public university consistently ranked in the top 10 in the world for its excellence in teaching and research
The Challenge
When COVID-19 shelter-in-place orders made field trips impossible, geology professors needed a solution to provide remote learners with the simulation of field experience.
The Result
Toptal’s work enabled hundreds of students to simultaneously explore the digital terrain and engage in real-time voice and video communication. The updated software launched in just three months, in time for a new semester.
Laying the Foundation for Virtual Education
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Imperial College London needed a way to give undergraduate geology students field experience in a world largely cut off from travel. Collaborating with the university’s Department of Earth Sciences and Engineering, a Toptal expert helped transform existing 3D modeling software into a remote learning module that allowed hundreds of students to attend virtual-interactive field trips simultaneously.
A Collaborative Effort
In only three months, a Toptal Unity expert improved the software’s functionality, interactivity, and user interface, allowing the Department to deliver a distinctive teaching experience to their students.
Unity Developer
Toptal Sales Executive
In the end, we were able to deliver all the teaching we wanted to in a better way, as far as I’m aware, than any other Earth Science department anywhere in the world was able to during the pandemic.
Dr. Mark Sutton
Director of Undergraduate Studies, Imperial College London
Key Results
In three months, helped develop one-of-a-kind 3D software that allows hundreds of remote students to attend virtual geological field trips.
Integrated Agora middleware to enable voice and video communication within the software and redesigned the user interface to improve the experience.
The software proved so successful that the geology department would integrate virtual fieldwork into additional curricula.
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