Jitsik

Jitsik is expanding! We are looking into adding a business co-founder to the team. If you like working with startups, enjoy high tech, education and automotive technology, we'd love to hear from you. We are looking for someone who can help us develop the business, develop a plan for seed A investment. Contact us at: helen.loeb at jistik.com www.jitsik.com

Excited to be working with our team at Penn Engineering to develop our digital twin project on Philadelphia’s infamous Roosevelt Boulevard! Together, we’re paving the way for a smarter and safer future, by simulating potential roadway improvements. Our groundbreaking technology facilitates rapid virtual modeling, greatly shortening digital twin production timelines. Here’s to innovation and collaboration! #RoadSafety #VirtualReality #DigitalTwin #UrbanSafety #Innovation #UnrealEngine

Marc Daubert Mid Co-Op Blog When I first saw Jitsik on the Drexel University portal when applying for my first co-op, I was not sure what to expect. All I knew was that I had an interest in game design and cars and figured that this would be a way to explore both interests at the same time. What I didn't know was how much I would learn in regards to business and entrepreneurship that I would normally never see working for a larger company. Jitsik is an early stage startup that gave me plenty of opportunities to develop many skills while working there.From developing the website, conducting Human Subject studies to writing code, I was able to learn a vast amount of knowledge that I am sure will help me as I progress in my professional life. My favorite aspects from working at the Jitsik startup have definitely been to see other people interact with the Virtual Reality driving scenarios I developed. It is inspiring to hear people compliment and generally have a fun time when driving around in the virtual worlds that I helped build. It was also a blast to see people having their first VR experience with us, especially when they floor the pedal in our parking lot scenario. Working here has also given me the opportunity to meet wonderful people, from brilliant professors to seasoned game designers. It's not just the people I met outside the company that are brilliant, but also the team within. Everyone has been extremely helpful and eager to co-operate projects. I enjoyed helping my fellow Drexel students Jonathan develop the Jitsik website or Emara create new models for our new scenarios. Our lead developer Jaime, a seasoned VR developer, has made working here at Jitsik a fun experience. He is always willing to extend a hand and help co-op students with whatever they are struggling with. Jitsik has been extremely helpful with figuring out what kind of career I want to pursue when I leave college, and I want to thank my mentors Dr. Helen Loeb and Jaime Hernandez for this co-op opportunity. I can only hope my future co-op experiences match up to this one. 

Jonathan Meitzler Co-op Experience with Jitsik For my third cop-op at Drexel University, I chose to work in an early stage startup, Jitsik LLC, which develops Virtual Reality driving simulators. This co-op was very interesting for me as it was my first real opportunity to contribute to virtual reality development. Even though Virtual Reality is still a niche market, I was interested in learning about the technology, which is widely used in the gaming industry.  As a Virtual Reality and Immersive Media major, I appreciated the hands-on development associated with the startup work. After my first co-op internship at a non-profit charity called Kamp For Kids, and a second co-op internship with a company called Crane Payment Innovations, I am appreciative of how this internship helps me diversify my portfolio. In addition, the opportunity to work in a startup broadened my worldview as I can appreciate the vast amount of work, past the drawing board, that is necessary to launch a company. A lot of my work so far has pertained to the business side, such as helping design the startup website, researching the market, and identifying potential competitors. I have also taught myself the Unity engine so I can contribute to the technical development of our Virtual Reality driving scenarios. I am especially interested in the development of our video tutorial, as it involves designing visual scenes and an associated script to facilitate the user experience in the Virtual Reality world. In addition, I was pleasantly surprised and interested by the integration of our group into the Embedded Systems Lab at the University of Pennsylvania. It gave me insight into the workspace of another university and it was very refreshing. Overall I would say that this co-op has been a meaningful experience both professionally and personally and I want to thank my fellow co-op students, our VR engineer Jaime Hernandez, and Jitsik’ lead Dr. Helen Loeb for this great opportunity.

Emara Gordon Mid Co-op Blog Thanks to the Drexel University Co-op system, I have been fortunate to spend the last three months working here at JitSik, where we are hard at work continuing the development of our Virtual Reality driving simulator, Metadrive XR. During my time here, I’ve been able to use Unity to build environments for use in the simulation. It can be so exciting to build something on my computer and the ability to see it at work in the VR headset is quite exhilarating. Even more exciting is the opportunity to see other people use it when we bring people in for testing! Over the past few months, we’ve run a few events at various venues, where we have invited people to try Metadrive XR and give us feedback. In order for these events to run smoothly, I’ve set up surveys through the Upenn Institutional Review Board (IRB) to streamline the feedback process, and I have been able to help my fellow interns, Jonathan and Marc, with setting up the simulator and getting people situated. At the moment, we are using a Logitech steering wheel and pedals, mostly used for racing games, so we can set up a demonstration of the driving simulator. So far we have used our setup like this at the School of Engineering at UPenn, a Drexel startup convention, and a driving school we have partnered with, Driven2Drive. We hope to leverage all the feedback we have received, to finally deploy Metadrive XR by the end of our co-op in March. I hope the schedule will allow me to implement additional scenarios to help people learn how to drive in various places, from cities to highways to backroads, as well as in various conditions from driving at night to driving during a heavy thunderstorm. I have a strong interest in this project and I am glad that I am able to not only learn about VR but also hopefully help people in a very tangible way. I have already learned so much from Helen and Jaime and I’m so grateful to be able to work with them and make learning to drive easier, safer, and more fun!