2023 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

At XXX University, a Primarily Undergraduate Institution (PUI) and Hispanic Serving Institute (HSI), efforts are underway to explore the efficacy of teaching human-technology interactions (HTI) thru a real application of virtual reality (VR). VR is an emerging technology in the education field with immense capabilities to transcend beyond time and space boundaries. The Virtual Reality Engineering (VR Engine) program brings together structural engineering and computer science (CS) colleagues to develop a VR platform for engineering professionals and students related to post-hazard structural evaluation training. Supported through a grant by XXXX, VR Engine is progressively developing an immersive experience for trainees to explore a structure damaged from an earthquake event. Trainees will need to navigate around the structure and control their point-of-view to examine the evidence of damage. Ultimately, the trainees must classify the structure based on acceptable level of occupancy access (i.e. red card - no access, yellow card - limited access, green card - ok for occupancy). This environment is being developed progressively with the first stage of work focusing on a desktop version of this training. Through this project, three CS graduate research assistants are partaking in all portions of the work which includes the integration of the structural system from Revit to the Unity platform into a 3D model; definition of materials, textures, and light sources; and development of the user navigation system Student assessment is conducted to evaluate the efficacy of this project engagement’s ability to reinforce concepts related to HTI including usability of the underlying environment as well as its effects on cognitive load on users’ memory. Based on this assessment, efforts are underway to develop a curriculum to expand the use of VR environments with real engineering applications in CS courses to teach HTI theory.