November 3, 2023 10:40 a.m.

Umpqua Community College has announced that the computer programming club secured third place for their virtual reality educational platform called “LearnSesh” at the seventh annual Invent Oregon Collegiate Challenge.

The year-long competition ended with awards and winners unveiled at a live-streamed event at Portland’s Redd East Event Space on June 22nd.

UCC student team members included Isiah Weiss, the team lead, and Jeremy Lin.

In addition to winning third-place in the state, the team won the Best Community College award for the second time in a row. All in all, UCC was awarded $9,000 in prize money.

LearnSesh is a virtual reality education platform engineered to demystify complex science concepts through interactive experiences for middle school students.

UCC competed against teams from community colleges and four-year universities across the state of Oregon, including Oregon State University, University of Oregon, University of Portland, and several others.

Presenting sponsors for Invent Oregon included the Lemson Foundation, Business Oregon, Oregon Community Foundation and Portland State University’s Center for Entrepreneurship