In 2017, Derek was awarded a scholarship from the Oculus Launchpad Program and received funding to complete a VR project called “I Am A Man.”  This VR project centers on the Civil Rights, the 1968 Memphis Sanitation Worker’s Strike, and last days of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.  The VR experience has been broadly celebrated for its achievement in the use of this new technology to communicate history in a meaningful way. The project has been shown in film festivals nationally and internationally including the SIGGRAPH 2018 Virtual, Augmented and Mixed Reality Program. “I Am A Man” won the Perspectives Award for Immersive Storytelling at the 42nd Cleveland International Film Festival and won VR Best of Show at the 2108 Nashville Film Festival, and was the winner of the 2018 FoST Prize for the category, “Bridging the Divide.” The project is contracted for installation as a part of a permanent exhibit at the National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis, TN at a later date.
Derek’s next venture Logic Grip Inc. is a NC State University sponsored startup company that looks to continue the production of VR content as it develops new VR hardware and peripheral devices.