Stan State Students Showcase ‘Virtual Turlock’ Platform to City Council

Stanislaus State computer science students took center stage during the Turlock City Council meeting on June 23, 2026, to give community members insight on the development of "Virtual Turlock," a new digital platform to be released in the near future that showcases the city through interactive tours.

Alongside Stan State Associate Professor of Computer Science Daehee "Danny" Kim, students Ashnil Singh, Jose Ochoa Prado and Christian Reategui from the ASPIRE STEM CRU program, gave a presentation to the council detailing their creative process, showcasing user navigation and discussing potential benefits that the platform could bring to Turlock residents, businesses and visitors.

Through Virtual Turlock, users will have the ability to navigate city streets and even enter and interact with participating businesses and services. The students showcased an early design of the platform to the council and meeting attendees by entering and navigating City Hall, the Turlock Municipal Services building and the Carnegie Arts Center, as well as the Stan State campus in Turlock.

Following the presentation, the Turlock City Council unanimously approved a Memorandum of Understanding with Stan State that calls for a $5,000 annual contribution to support the platform's ongoing development, maintenance and long-term sustainability. Each student received a certificate of recognition from the council.

Students from Stanislaus State were presented with certificates of recognition by the Turlock City Council on June 23, 2026, for their development of the Virtual Turlock platform.

"The project supports economic development, tourism promotion, community engagement and placemaking efforts by providing a dynamic tool to market Turlock to residents, visitors, prospective businesses, investors and future workforce talent," said Anthony Sims, economic development director for the City of Turlock and a Stan State alumnus. "In addition, it provides Stan State students with valuable hands-on experience in software development, digital media project management and emerging technologies."

"This is a really great collaboration between the City of Turlock and Stan State," added Kim. "I really appreciate the City of Turlock for initiating this process and giving students a great chance to improve their soft and technical skills and contribute to our community."

Virtual tours of cities and destinations are already being used across the nation and world. But as the Stan State students discussed the potential project, they were thinking bigger.

Together, they decided to implement hotspot features that allows the tours to take web browsers inside buildings and interact with local businesses, whether by viewing specialized welcome videos, accessing direct links to websites and social media pages and even offering the ability to make purchases - all while prioritizing an easy and responsive user interface, accessibility, scalability and security.

"My first experience with virtual tours was when we first started researching those used by other cities," said Reategui. "I was really enlightened about how easy it was to explore cities. It inspired us, but the ideas we had for Turlock were greater, such as the ability to go inside buildings and shops. We wanted to implement that into our virtual tours to make the experience better for our users."

The Stan State team used an Insta360 camera to capture high-definition, 360-degree video for street-level footage, as well as still photos to create panoramas. Insta360 Studio was used to stabilize and reframe footage while photo editing was done using Affinity software. The Virtual Turlock platform itself was constructed using the WordPress Panorama and Virtual Tour builder plug-in.

The goal is to have the platform compatible with multiple mobile services, whether it be cell phones, laptops, desktops or tablets. The team also plans to implement important accessibility features such as text-to-speech.

Stanislaus State student Christian Reategui showcases the Virtual Turlock platform to members of the Turlock City Council and community members at the June 23, 2026 meeting.

Supplies were purchased through a $1,000 mini-grant from the Office of Service Learning. The group was also awarded an S-STEM scholarship (Scholarships in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics Program) from the National Science Foundation.

"I think this could be a great benefit to the local economy," Ochoa Prado said. "Different shops are going to be able to really put themselves out there, advertise to the people of Turlock, as well as visitors. They can discover a new shop or a restaurant. Through our platform people can explore the city in a very new way."

Stan State's ASPIRE STEM Career Ready U program provides on- and off-campus internship experiences in collaboration with industry partners to support a seamless transition into employment after graduation. The student trio was recruited to be a part of the Virtual Turlock project last fall, with the team's first meeting with the City of Turlock taking place in mid-September.

"Projects like Virtual Turlock help ensure that the next generation of technology professionals can build their careers right here in the Central Valley while contributing their talents to the communities they call home."

- Rosalee Rush, Vice President for Strategic Communications and Marketing

Singh credited Stan State and the Department of Computer Science for preparing him and his classmates for the undertaking with the City of Turlock.

"Our courses have been very rigorous," Singh said. "It has really helped us prepare to rapidly learn new skills that we needed for this project."

Added Ochoa Prado: "So many times we came across something we may not have been very familiar with. We had to go through that experience of problem solving. It has greatly helped me in my personal development."

Stan State Vice President for Strategic Communications and Marketing Rosalee Rush described the collaboration as a "powerful example of what can happen when the University and city come together with a shared commitment to learning, innovation and community impact."

"Projects like Virtual Turlock help ensure that the next generation of technology professionals can build their careers right here in the Central Valley while contributing their talents to the communities they call home," Rush said. "By creating meaningful opportunities for students to engage with local challenges and local partners, we are strengthening both our workforce and our region's future.

"For our students, this experience represents the very best of higher education. They are not simply studying technology. They are using it to solve problems, tell stories, serve their community and prepare for meaningful careers."

Each student agreed that the ability to get hands-on experience alongside professionals was a highlight of the project.

"It was such a unique experience," Reategui said. "Working with the City of Turlock is going to be something I'm going to remember for years to come."