{"id":33171,"date":"2014-09-12T08:56:36","date_gmt":"2014-09-12T12:56:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/?p=33171"},"modified":"2015-03-04T10:24:29","modified_gmt":"2015-03-04T15:24:29","slug":"virtual-vicinity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/2014\/09\/12\/virtual-vicinity\/","title":{"rendered":"Virtual vicinity"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Barry<\/a>

Barry Besecker, a 1995 Wright State graduate and CTO of Marxent, which created scholarships for female engineers and computer scientists at Wright State.<\/p><\/div>\n

Marxent Labs seems like a pretty cool place to work. Resting on each desk within arm\u2019s reach is a brightly colored Nerf gun. And beckoning from one side of the office are Atari Asteroids and Millipede video games.<\/p>\n

But it\u2019s hard to believe the workers here take much time to relax. The rapidly growing Beavercreek-based company creates jaw-dropping, augmented-reality computer apps that are being used around the world. And it has doubled in size \u2014 to 45 workers \u2014 since Jan. 1.<\/p>\n

But Marxent is in need of female engineers and computer scientists.<\/p>\n

So the company is funding full-tuition scholarships at Wright State University to encourage women to pursue careers in computer vision and related fields.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve been successful in attracting super team members to Dayton from all over the country, but we\u2019ve had very few female applicants for engineering roles,\u201d said Barry Besecker, co-founder and CTO. \u201cWe want women interested in gaming and computer science to know that there are awesome local jobs waiting for them upon graduation. Wright State was immediately on board with our vision on how to make it happen.\u201d<\/p>\n

This year, the Marxent WSU Scholarship for women in engineering will go to a junior female student, who will be able to renew it next year. A second student will be awarded a scholarship next year, with two students on Marxent scholarships annually going forward.<\/p>\n

The students, who will also be given a chance to intern at Marxent, must show a demonstrated interest in software development and a passion for gaming, computer vision, 3D animation and other emerging technologies.<\/p>\n

Besecker said a diversity of views is necessary to conceive and design products and that women can bring a unique perspective.<\/p>\n

\"Marxent<\/a>

From left: Marxent employees Gabbi Hardin, Kelsey Riviello, Barry Besecker and Jessi Sparks have fun at work, taking breaks with Nerf guns and video games.<\/p><\/div>\n

Besecker graduated from Wright State in 1995 with a bachelor\u2019s degree in math. He founded Marxent in 2011 along with his brother, Beck, the CEO who heads up marketing and sales in the company\u2019s St. Petersburg, Fla., office. Marxent is short for \u201cmarketing-times-entertainment\u201d and a name that pops up on the first pages of a Google search.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe decided to focus on the mobile space \u2014 building mobile apps \u2014 because it was getting really hot and continues to be hot,\u201d Besecker said. \u201cWe built a couple of different ecommerce-based mobile apps, and that\u2019s where we really broke into augmented reality, doing an application for Moosejaw Outfitters.\u201d<\/p>\n

In augmented reality a camera on the mobile device leverages computer vision where sophisticated algorithms processing each frame from the video can detect things in real space. It enables 3D models and images and animations to interact with those things in the real world, bridging the divide.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re taking reality and you\u2019re augmenting it with things that are virtually there,\u201d Besecker said. \u201cSo you can think of it as virtual reality and real reality coming together.\u201d<\/p>\n

The effect is that images fly off the screen, immersing the viewers and giving them the sensation of being able to reach out and touch the products. For example, Marxent created an iPad app for AZEK Building Products that enables potential customers to see porches, decks, railings and paver layouts of all different designs and colors.<\/p>\n

Besecker said market applications are limitless and range from gaming, manufacturing, fashion and marketing to medical, entertainment and education. And Marxent\u2019s market has been exploding, with more and more brands calling the company for help directly.<\/p>\n

Marxent doubled one company\u2019s business after it produced an app that enables customers to look at 3D images from a company catalog. It also created an augmented-reality game for Speedway in which users look at a fountain drink cup through the app and try to catch ice cubes.<\/p>\n

In addition, Marxent built an app for the Science Olympiad to promote neuroscience research being done at Wright State. The app is a stylized 3D image of a floating brain that displays information that corresponds to parts of the brain that are touched.<\/p>\n

The workers in Marxent\u2019s Beavercreek office include 3D modelers, animators and game developers. Pinned to the walls are posters of sci-fi movies such as \u201cThe Matrix\u201d and \u201cTron.\u201d The arm of one worker is entirely covered with tattoos of video-game characters.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re all into movies, games and superheroes here,\u201d Besecker said. \u201cIt\u2019s a lot of fun.\u201d<\/p>\n

Besecker said its culture makes Marxent a special company. Workers are broken down into four-to-five-person, cross-functional teams that can work very fast.<\/p>\n

\u201cNothing replaces us all standing around a table making commitments to one another about what we\u2019re going to get done that week,\u201d he said. \u201cWe don\u2019t have cubes; we all talk to each other and work together and shoot Nerf guns at each other. It\u2019s something new and something fun every day.\u201d<\/p>\n

Besecker said computer science jobs can offer workers the ability to create without bounds.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile it seems like programmers might be propeller heads and logic oriented, I think most people are attracted to the world of computers by the opportunity to create with no limits,\u201d he said. \u201cThat\u2019s the way computer science should be marketed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Besecker said Marxent employees are mastering new programming languages and becoming national thought leaders in some of the new fields. He said a Marxent employee gets as much as five years\u2019 experience in the time a normal worker would get one.<\/p>\n

The company plans to further increase its workforce, so it needs a steady pipeline of engineers and computer scientists. Interns work like full-time employees during their senior year and often get offered a full-time job after graduation. There are currently two interns and three full-time employees from Wright State.<\/p>\n

Marxent\u2019s future seems bright because the technology fueling virtual and augmented reality is evolving rapidly.<\/p>\n

\u201cLiving in a virtual-reality world is going to become a thing of the very near future,\u201d Besecker said. \u201cIf you like science fiction, this is a very exciting time because it\u2019s actually starting to become real.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Software company Marxent creates scholarships at Wright State to encourage women to pursue careers in computer vision and related fields. Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":33173,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[722,733,4267,743,2048,725,2068,715,746],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-33171","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-academics","category-alumni","category-computer-science-and-engineering","category-engineering-computer-science","category-enrollment-management","category-home-news-sidebar","category-mathematics-statistics","category-news","category-science-mathematics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33171","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/17"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33171"}],"version-history":[{"count":17,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33171\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35619,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33171\/revisions\/35619"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33173"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33171"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33171"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33171"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}