In a case of movie magic meets real science at UT Dallas, “A Minecraft Movie” just raked in a record $163 million on its opening weekend—and its fun world and look are echoed in a program at UTD that’s helping students learn about polymers, MCAT prep, and more.
In the movie, four misfits (including Jack Black and Jason Mamoa) are transported to the video game’s cubic world. They must gather materials to craft their way back home and protect themselves from threats including zombies and hostile creatures called “piglins.”
In the real world, a team of UTD researchers has begun its own Minecraft mission: to build lessons within the popular game to teach students about semiconductors, batteries, and polymers, and to help premedical students prepare for the MCAT, the university said.
Aerial view of UTD’s digital twin in Minecraft. [Image: UTD]
“We deliver complex content fully within Minecraft in an approachable, simple way,” said Walter Voit, director of UTD’s Center for Engineering Innovation and associate professor of materials science and engineering.
UTD said that Voit, the project’s leader, is a longtime Minecraft player who was keen to see the new “Minecraft” movie.
Startup develops educational games in Minecraft
Voit and fellow researchers have launched a startup company, Pedegree Studios, which has licensed UT Dallas technology to develop educational games embedded in Minecraft.
Pedegree Studios’ efforts include Overqualified! learning modules that feature a digital replica of the UTD campus, which the team previewed in March at South by Southwest.
UTD Associate Professor Dr. Walter Voit (center) discussing how Minecraft can be used as a training ground for students at a SXSW event at the Capital Factory in Austin. [Photo: UTD]
At the event in Austin, Voit said that Minecraft can be used as a training ground for students.
He called Minecraft is a “sandbox game” that gives players freedom to explore, build, and experiment without strict constraints. Minecraft allows developers to create a replica of a battery prototyping lab in the game, for example.
“It’s a space where you can learn real-life lessons in a realistic environment in a digital abstraction of often restricted spaces,” Eric Kildebeck, research professor at UTD and a SVP of education at Pedegree Studios, said in a statement.
As undergraduate classmates, Kildebeck and Voit were members of the inaugural cohort of Eugene McDermott Scholars at UTD.
Building complex lab facilities in a Minecraft world
UTD said Minecraft’s abstract, blocky environment makes it possible to quickly build complex lab facilities. [Image: UTD]
The university said that the game’s abstract, blocky environment makes it possible to quickly build complex lab facilities in the game that don’t need to be replicas of their real-world counterparts to function.
UTD said a team led by Robert Steininger, a longtime research scientist in the Center for Engineering Innovation and puzzlemaster at Pedegree Studios, carefully studies manuals, blueprints, and physical layouts to re-create UTD labs and equipment and model human endeavors, such as learning to make a computer chip from scratch, via Minecraft.
“We’ll find a 3D model of a scanning electron microscope, and then we’ll re-create it in the game,” Steininger said.
Teaching students ‘wherever they are’
UTD said that Pedegree Studios builds on the 2014 release of Polycraft World, a Minecraft modification created by a team of UTD faculty and students that incorporates many aspects of polymer science and engineering into the game, from petrochemical harvesting and refining to the creation of specialty items made from many different plastics, rubbers, ceramics, and alloys.
UTD researchers received a Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency grant in 2020 to use Polycraft World to teach AI systems to respond to dynamic and unpredictable environments.
“In the beginning, the thought was: We want to provide some bonus experiences for students to poke into Minecraft and learn about polymers. We started by putting seven recyclable polymers in the game,” Voit said.
Researchers envision engaging science and engineering lessons matched to state and national accreditation standards that students at the university and elsewhere can access on a gaming console, computer, or phone.
“We’re here to help faculty package their course content dynamically to take advantage of the ways that students consume content today,” Kildebeck said. “We can teach students wherever they are, whenever they’re awake, using whatever device they’re on.”
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R E A D N E X T
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UT Dallas researcher Dr. Walter Voit transformed Minecraft’s 170-million-player universe into an advanced virtual training ground—for students and for AI agents tested by DARPA. His team’s Polycraft World uses gameplay to turn classroom theory into real-world expertise, covering topics from synthetic organic chemistry to nuclear plants to semiconductor facilities. Their new startup company, Pedegree Studios, has licensed the core technologies from the university to create a scalable digital pipeline for education and workforce development.
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