8 university students create virtual campus in Taiwan

A group of Taiwan National University of Science and Technology (NTUST) students have built their school’s campus on a Minecraft server, allowing fellow students to gather and socialize in the virtual space.

NTUST Department of Computer Science and Information Engineering Associate Professor Cheng Hsin-ming said that he was inspired by National Taiwan University’s Minecraft campus, and he recruited a team of eight students in the department to volunteer on the project.

NTUST’s own Minecraft campus was built over a month and a half, with a ratio of one building block per 50 centimeters. Cheng said the team spent much time taking measurements and exploring the process before finally constructing nearly 20 buildings on campus.

The map also features animals on campus, such as turtles swimming in NTUST’s famous “Turtle Pond,” Cheng added. In the future, they plan to organize events such as tours for new students and scavenger hunts.

On the Minecraft NTUST Facebook page, a post on Sept. 10 mentioned that student clubs were already recruiting new members in the virtual world. In another post, the page manager said they saw students taking each other on dormitory tours, which would not be possible in reality.

A student on the Minecraft team named Lee Jui-hsuan said she was not on Minecraft originally but joined because she found the idea intriguing. She said the hardest part of the project has been the construction of NTUST’s sailboat-shaped building due to its irregular curved shape.

Minecraft is a sandbox computer game that offers players freedom to roam around limitless blocky, virtual environments, fight monsters, craft tools and items, and build various things. It is the best-selling video game of all time.

Agencies