2025 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Case Study: Developing and Implementing VR Technology for Civil Engineering Education

Presented at New Engineering Educators (NEE) Technical Session 2 - Technology Tools

This case study paper describes the development and implementation of VR technology in a classroom for undergraduate civil engineering students. VR technology for engineering education has been shown to produce positive learning outcomes such as improved understanding of class concepts, increased motivation to learn, and higher accessibility. Despite these benefits, VR use in engineering education is limited, often due a lack of knowledge of where to start with VR development and implementation in the classroom. Therefore, this paper aims to give lessons learned from developing and implementing a VR module for a upper-level civil engineering course to reinforce concepts related to structural analysis. The development process for the VR module is presented along with tips and tricks for more effective development and a focus on civil infrastructure. Additionally, the implementation process for deploying the VR module in a classroom is introduced with advice for successful integration into the course. Challenges and successes of using VR for engineering education are highlighted and discussed in depth. From this paper, faculty will be able to effectively develop and implement VR in their classes for improved learning outcomes.

Authors

Casey J Rodgers http://orcid.org/0000-0002-6378-3386 University of Illinois at Urbana - Champaign [biography]

Casey Rodgers is a PhD Candidate in Civil Engineering and a Masters student in Computer Science at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC). She received her BS in Civil Engineering with a minor in Computer Science at Purdue University in May 2020 and received her MS in Civil Engineering at UIUC in May 2022. Her research interests focus on developing computer graphics, computer vision, and machine learning solutions for structural health monitoring, post-disaster response, and engineering education problems.
Afeefa Rahman University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign [biography]

Afeefa Rahman is a Ph.D. candidate in Civil  &  Environmental Engineering at the University of Illinois Urbana‑Champaign, working in the Hydrocomplexity Research Group under Prof. Praveen Kumar. Her doctoral work tackles global freshwater scarcity by investigating how humid air just above the ocean surface can be captured and condensed at scale. Before coming to Illinois, Afeefa earned both her B.Sc. and M.Sc. in Water Resources Engineering from Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET). At BUET, she served as a Lecturer in Water Resources Engineering, teaching hydrology, hydraulics, and GIS‑based watershed analysis while advising senior design projects on river training and urban drainage. Afeefa is an active student member of the American Geophysical Union and the American Society for Engineering Education. Proficient in Python, HEC‑RAS, HEC‑HMS, ArcGIS, Delft 3D, and PALM, she brings an integrative perspective to the intertwined challenges of hydrology, climate, and human development.
Prof. Ann C Sychterz Ph.D., P.Eng http://orcid.org/0000-0003-4000-6362 University of Illinois at Urbana - Champaign [biography]

Ann Sychterz (SICK-tesh) is an assistant professor in the Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. With her team at SMARTI lab, they harness geometrically nonlinear systems, such as tensegrity structures and origami, for adaptive civil infrastructure. She obtained her PhD in 2018 from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL) addressing the novel use of control algorithms, statistical diagnostic tools, and real-time feedback on a full-scale tensegrity structure to enable smooth deployability, damage detection, adaptation, and learning. She completed her masters and bachelors of science at the University of Waterloo, Canada. Dr. Sychterz completed a postdoctoral position at the University of Michigan on actuator optimization of adaptive origami structures. She has funded projects by the National Science Foundation, the Illinois Department of Transportation, and the Swiss National Science Foundation.
Prof. Jacob Henschen University of Illinois at Urbana - Champaign [biography]

Professor Henschen completed his B.S., M.S., and PhD. at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign in 2007, 2009, and 2018 respectively. He was an Assistant Professor at Valparaiso University until he moved to the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign as a Teaching Assistant Professor in June 2020. He serves as the co-chair for the Teaching Methods and Education Materials Committee at ACI and the co-chair of the Committee on Faculty Development at ASCE.

Note

The full paper will be available to logged in and registered conference attendees once the conference starts on June 22, 2025, and to all visitors after the conference ends on June 25, 2025

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