At UNeTech, we’re proud to say we don’t just support innovation—we support innovators. One of the clearest examples of that mission in action is Emily Pratt, a creative technologist whose leadership journey through the Omaha Virtual Reality Pipeline (OVRP) has been as thoughtful as it is inspiring.
Emily Pratt
Creative Technologist, OVRP
Emily’s story with UNeTech began while she was a student at Metropolitan Community College, pursuing a degree in 3D Animation and Game Design. A friend passed along the application for an internship, and something clicked. “I was immediately drawn in by just the opportunity to mash creativity with this technology I hadn’t really experimented with before, which was awesome—like VR technology,” Pratt said.
She joined the OVRP team on March 18, 2024—just one day before her birthday—and was quickly immersed in the work. She started with the Adeptus intubation simulation project, where her team trained in Unity and Scrum, earned certifications, and gained hands-on experience in virtual reality design. “We got certifications in Scrum training, which was super for building my resume,” Pratt said. “I got an intro to virtual reality development with Unity. It was a great way to jump into something new before they put me on the big project where I could have a lot of fun.”
That “big project” was just the beginning. As new team members joined, Pratt found herself naturally stepping into leadership. “I started taking charge of this one specific game mechanic—‘ghost hands’—because nobody else had any idea where to start with it,” she explained. “And from there… as we got more people, I just stepped up into that role as it appeared.”
Soon, she was leading Scrum meetings in the absence of team leads, facilitating lab time, and mentoring a growing team of peers. Today, she helps coordinate a team of seven other developers, while continuing to grow her own technical and leadership skills.
Pratt’s story is a powerful example of the career pipeline UNeTech’s OVRP offers: she began as a student intern and is now a respected team lead—currently double-majoring in Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence at UNO, having transferred from MCC to gain deeper back-end development experience.
Emily at work with OVRP at the UNeTech Institute. Left to Right, Anna Johnston, Jonathan Mickles, Emily Pratt
Photo by Jennifer Pool
OVRP playtest at Midway of Innovation for Sillicon Prarie Startup Week held at Catalyst in October 2025. Pratt guides an attendee through the intubation simulation.
Photo by Jenny Pool
The program’s structure gave her room to explore and evolve. “This program is really great at helping you do what you want to do,” Pratt said. “A bunch of people come in with an idea of what they want to do, and we have a project that’s moldable enough for everybody to pick their place… You can mold it in a way that grows the program in a way that the program doesn’t even know it might be growing—which is kind of awesome.”
Through her time with OVRP, Pratt has:
- Earned certifications in Scrum Development and Scrum Mastery from Scrum Alliance
- Presented to the Nebraska VR Network for Education & Research and the EDA Denver team
- Participated in AI “vibe coding” sessions led by Dr. Winter
- Is currently pursuing Unity Certified Professional Programmer status
Emily’s leadership was instrumental to one of the OVRP’s biggest successes: the 2025 Economic Development Conference for the EDA Denver Region. UNeTech was invited by the Economic Development Administration, the entity that funded the OVRP, to demonstrate their results in front of regional economic development professionals. An OVRP student team led economic development professionals, government officials, and other university partners through VR simulated medical procedures.
Pratt describes the Denver trip as a turning point: “We ended up having a lot of bugs while we were there… But we got experience to fix problems as they arise in real time. It was hands-on experience that showed me things do go wrong, but we can fix them—and we’ve got a team to help.”
OVRP students test their setup in preparation for a presentation at the 2025 Economic Development Conference for the EDA Denver Region. Left to Right: James Lang, Emily Pratt, Hap Hausman
Photo by Jenny Pool
What’s next for Pratt? “I want to be a technical game designer,” she said, describing it as “the bridge between game design and programming.” Her passion is clear: she wants to design tools and simulations that don’t just entertain—they train, teach, and improve lives, especially in healthcare. “Like with how we’re using it now—the intubation simulation—that’s a simulation of real life. We’re trying to make that as realistic as possible.”
Whether it’s helping classmates prepare resumes or leading a design sprint, Emily is the kind of collaborator every team hopes for: steady, curious, kind, and clear-eyed about what’s possible when creativity meets code.
And if you’re wondering whether that kind of leadership can be grown at UNeTech—just ask Emily Pratt. She’s living proof that the OVRP pipeline doesn’t just prepare students for jobs. It cultivates confident, capable leaders ready to take on the future.
