LSU Center for River Studies

"Very impressive educational materials. The giant 3D model was so cool to see. Augmented reality sandboxes, virtual reality headsets, lots of creative graphics. They’re open to the public every first Sunday of the month. Go visit! Find out the ways CPRA is working to restore coastal Louisiana. The tour director Nancy was very knowledgeable and a great communicator."

"We went out on what they call "First Free Sunday" where the center was open to the public, free of charge. They have an ultra-accurate scale recreation of the Mississippi River delta to model how the river might change, and they do coastal restoration research as well. But here's the cool part: Their Mississippi delta model is HUGE. It's 120 feet x 90 feet, or 10,800 square feet in size! The entire bed is made of white plastic blocks that have been meticulously carved out to perfect detail in 3 dimensions by CNC machines. The whole thing can be filled with water and they use tiny plastic "sediment" that was calculated and designed to flow like the actual river's own sediment. From this, they can recreate the evolution of the river and delta landscapes at a rate of one year per one hour. So, if you wanted to see how things will change in 20 years, it'll take 20 hours. On top of that, there's an array of projectors overhead pointing downward to display satellite imagery in incredible detail. I think I read that they've passed 4 billion data points to build this data cache for research purposes. When you first enter the building, there's an area with wall displays and information about coastal erosion, the delta system, the model itself, et cetera. But there's also an augmented-reality sandbox on a table for visitors to "play" with and learn about landscapes and water levels. There's even some VR equipment for visitors to really immerse themselves! The LSU Center for River Studies could've charged me money for to see these displays and I would've given 5-stars. The fact that they participate in First Free Sunday where you can just walk in really earns it a 6th star from me. Definitely cool."