Graduate Assistant - VR Application Development

Posting Details

Posting Summary

Logo Posting Number STU00025PO26 Job Title Student Employee Internal Title Graduate Assistant - VR Application Development Campus Upstate College/Division USC Upstate College/Division Level Department UPS College of Science & Technology Administration Advertised Salary $15 per hour for up to a 20-hour week. Extends for 12.5 weeks a semester for 2 semesters Location of Vacancy USC Upstate, Spartanburg, SC Part/Full Time Part Time Hours per week 20 Work Schedule

Approximately 20 hours per week during the Fall 2026 and Spring 2027 semesters. Schedule will be coordinated with the supervisor around the student's course schedule and project needs. Regular weekday availability and attendance at a weekly supervisory meeting are required; some work may be completed independently or remotely when appropriate and approved.

Job Search Category Student Employee

Position Description

Advertised Job Summary

The Department of Informatics and Engineering Systems seeks a graduate assistant to support the development and research evaluation of virtual reality applications for visualizing abstract concepts in STEM. The position will begin with the TITANS2 research project, an immersive learning application designed to teach conditional probability and the law of total probability. The graduate assistant will review and understand the existing application and development environment, update the current version or rebuild it when necessary, and prepare a functional application for deployment and testing on Meta Quest 3 devices in an upcoming semester. Responsibilities may also include improving interaction design, troubleshooting application performance, documenting the codebase and deployment process, user testing, and assisting with research materials, data collection, presentations, conference papers, reports, and manuscripts. After the initial application is prepared for classroom testing, assignments involving experimental design, development of new STEM learning applications, shared multi-user VR/AR learning environments, or extension of TITANS2 to additional topics will, where practical, be matched to the graduate assistant's experience and professional interests. This is a mentored experience in immersive application development, educational technology, human-subjects research, and research publication.

Qualifications

Applicants should have strong problem-solving, organizational, written, and verbal communication skills and an interest in virtual reality, augmented reality, game development, educational technology, or STEM education research. Experience with Unity and C# is strongly preferred because the current TITANS2 application was developed in that environment. Applicants with comparable experience in another game engine, programming language, or immersive-development toolchain may also be considered if they can demonstrate the ability to recreate or convert the application and deploy it to a Meta Quest 3 device. Experience with one or more of the following is preferred: Unity XR, Meta Quest development, OpenXR, 3D interaction design, debugging, software documentation, networking or multiplayer development, user testing, statistical analysis, technical writing, or human-subjects research. The successful candidate must be able to learn new tools, work independently, regularly communicate progress, document technical decisions, and collaborate with faculty.

• Must be a currently enrolled graduate student with six graduate credit hours per semester
• Current graduate students are required to have a 3.0 GPA
• Newly admitted graduate students must have an undergraduate 2.75 GPA
• To maintain the position, graduate students must maintain a 3.0 GPA

Posting Detail Information

Number of Vacancies 1 Desired Start Date 08/16/2026 Job Open Date 07/16/2026 Job Close Date Open Until Filled Yes Special Instructions to Applicant

This employment site is updated on a regular basis. The length of the recruitment and screening process may vary from position to position, depending upon a variety of factors. Should review of your qualifications result in a decision to pursue your candidacy, you will be contacted by phone or email.

Quicklink for Posting https://uscjobs.sc.edu/postings/209654 EEO Statement

The University of South Carolina does not discriminate in educational or employment opportunities or decisions for qualified persons on the basis of age, ancestry, citizenship status, color, disability, ethnicity, familial status, gender (including transgender), gender identity or expression, genetic information, HIV/AIDs status, military status, national origin, pregnancy (false pregnancy, termination of pregnancy, childbirth, recovery therefrom or related medical conditions, breastfeeding), race, religion (including religious dress and grooming practices), sex, sexual orientation, veteran status, or any other bases under federal, state, local law, or regulations.

Supplemental Questions

Required fields are indicated with an asterisk (*).

• • What is your current student status?

• Freshman

• Sophomore

• Junior

• Senior

• Graduate Student

• • What is your major?

(Open Ended Question)

• • What is your expected graduation date?

(Open Ended Question)

• • What is your current cumulative GPA?

(Open Ended Question)

• • Have you worked on-campus before?

(Open Ended Question)

• • If so, please list department name, supervisor, and date job ended.

(Open Ended Question)

• • Are you currently working another on-campus job?

(Open Ended Question)

• • If yes, list department name and supervisor.

(Open Ended Question)

• • Describe your experience with Unity, C#, game development, VR/AR development, or another comparable software-development environment.

(Open Ended Question)

• • Describe a software project in which you independently learned a new tool, inherited an existing codebase, or rebuilt an application.

(Open Ended Question)

• • Describe any experience deploying applications to Meta Quest or another standalone VR device, or explain how you would approach learning that process.

(Open Ended Question)

• • Are you able to work approximately 20 hours per week during Fall 2026 and Spring 2027 while maintaining the required graduate enrollment?

(Open Ended Question)

• • Why are you interested in this position?

(Open Ended Question)

Applicant Documents

Required Documents

Optional Documents

• Cover Letter
• Resume
• List of References and Contact Information