1. Introduction

The Virtual Midtown project mission is to create an interactive,
three-dimensional representation of Midtown Atlanta in which users
can navigate the streets of Midtown via a computer interface.

This project idea resulted from the vision of a Georgia Tech Computer
Science faculty member, who saw potential need for such an environment
to assist with two separate goals.  The first goal resulted from the
vision of an Atlanta-based organization known as the Midtown Alliance.
This group's mission is to improve the future of the midtown area of
Atlanta, which includes a plan to redesign and renovate the area.  The
second goal arises from a desire to improve and add new, more
interesting dimensions to the undergraduate Computer Science curriculum
at Georgia Tech.  A common complaint among sophomore Computer Science
students is that the assigned programming projects are not stimulating
enough, and not terribly relevant to the outside business world.
Providing a virtual reality interface for which they could write
interactive programs could remedy this dilemma.

The Virtual Midtown project ties together both of these areas of
interest.  The design group can provide a valuable service for both
the design and marketing aspects of the Midtown renovation project
by providing a virtual representation of the new Midtown design, in
which members of the community can explore and view the improvements.
The project could also be an exciting catalyst in the sophomore
Computer Science curriculum.  With these goals in mind, the Virtual
Midtown design group was formed, and project design initiated by
a Computer Science senior design group at Georgia Tech.

The Virtual Midtown project will be an ongoing one.  The full
development of such a comprehensive, interactive, multi-platform virtual
environment will go beyond the scope of a senior design project.  This
project will be augmented and refined by future senior design groups,
and could potentially include assistance from students in other areas
such as architecture and graphic design.  In the end, we hope that
Virtual Midtown will further the future of Atlanta, while also serving
as a model for innovation in programming coursework, allowing the
computer science students of the future an unprecedented opportunity to
have their work be educational, meaningful, and enjoyable.