VR surveying & geomatics lab at BITS Pilani, Hyderabad.
How iXRLabs helped BITS Pilani's Hyderabad campus augment its civil engineering geomatics lab - giving students hands-on practice with expensive surveying equipment and varied terrain, virtually.
At a glance
VR surveying modules deployed to augment the geomatics lab at BITS Pilani, Hyderabad.
Hands-on practice with expensive equipment - like the total station - without the cost or the queue.
Covers core methods: total station, auto level, dumpy level, theodolite, chain, and plane table.
Supports contouring, area calculation, and offset point marking across varied virtual terrain.
Overview
Hands-on surveying, without the constraints.
iXRLabs deployed VR surveying and geomatics modules at BITS Pilani's Hyderabad campus to augment its civil engineering geomatics lab. The modules give students hands-on experience with expensive surveying instruments - like the total station - and access to varied terrain that isn't available around campus, all without the cost, equipment queues, or limited lab time that constrain traditional surveying practicals.
The challenge
Expensive instruments, limited time, limited terrain.
Surveying is a hands-on discipline, but practising it is hard to scale. Instruments like the total station are expensive and few, so students queue for limited time on shared equipment. Field practice is constrained by the terrain available around campus, and lab sessions are short - leaving students with limited repetitions on the exact techniques they are assessed on.
- Costly, scarce instruments: a few total stations shared across a whole cohort.
- Limited lab time: short sessions mean few repetitions on each technique.
- Fixed terrain: field practice is limited to what's available around campus.
The solution
A full VR geomatics toolkit, practised on demand.
iXRLabs delivered VR surveying modules covering the full range of geomatics techniques, so students can practise on demand, as often as they need. Because the equipment and terrain are virtual, every student gets unlimited, hands-on repetitions with instruments that would otherwise be expensive and time-limited - across terrains they couldn't find around campus.
- Instruments: total station surveying, auto level, dumpy level, theodolite survey, chain measurement survey, and plane table survey.
- Techniques: contouring, area calculation, offset point marking, and more.
- Unlimited repetition: every student practises the full workflow as often as needed, on varied terrain.
The partner
About BITS Pilani, Hyderabad Campus.
BITS Pilani (Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani) is one of India's leading private deemed universities and was among the first institutions to be designated an Institution of Eminence by the Government of India. Its Hyderabad campus, established in 2008, is a fully residential 200-acre campus in Telangana serving over 6,000 students, with a Department of Civil Engineering where surveying and geomatics are core to the curriculum.
Impact
What the deployment delivered.
Expanded lab capacity
More students get hands-on surveying practice without adding physical equipment.
Access to costly instruments
The total station and other instruments are available to every student, virtually.
Unlimited repetitions
Students practise each technique as often as needed, beyond limited lab time.
Varied terrain
Contouring and area calculation across terrains not available around campus.
Why it matters
Scaling equipment-heavy lab work without scaling cost.
In surveying, skill comes from repetition on real instruments and varied terrain - exactly what is hardest to provide when equipment is expensive and lab time is short. BITS Pilani's deployment shows VR can remove those limits, giving every civil engineering student unlimited, hands-on practice with the full geomatics toolkit. It is a model for scaling practical, equipment-heavy lab work without scaling cost.
About iXRLabs
Immersive VR labs for higher education.
iXRLabs is an AI-powered VR/XR lab platform for higher education, delivering immersive, hands-on lab modules across Engineering, Medical, Sciences, and Nursing. The platform helps universities teach systems and equipment that are hard to access, afford, or scale in a physical lab - improving understanding, engagement, and retention, while giving students safe, repeatable, self-paced practice.
FAQ
Frequently asked questions.
What did iXRLabs deploy at BITS Pilani, Hyderabad?
Which surveying modules are included?
What problem do the VR surveying modules solve?
What surveying techniques can students practise?
Can iXRLabs XR labs support disciplines beyond civil engineering?
How can a university get started with iXRLabs VR labs?
Augment your lab with VR.
Give every student unlimited, hands-on practice with costly equipment - like the surveying rollout at BITS Pilani.