2026 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Advancements in educational games have significantly enhanced immersion, engagement, and knowledge retention in the field of engineering and STEM education over the last few decades. A well-designed video game can sustain student engagement and promote effective learning throughout the gameplay experience. A strong conceptual understanding of materials is crucial for engineers to make informed decisions when selecting components for innovative designs or solving complex engineering problems. However, gaining such in-depth knowledge begins with complex 3D visualizations at the atomic level, which often becomes a cognitively heavy and demotivating task for undergraduate students. To overcome this challenge, a computer-based video game, “Crystal Vision 2.0,” was developed for undergraduate civil engineering students to reduce the cognitive load associated with learning complex concepts related to the behavior of different engineering materials. The game provided an exploration of conceptually complex 3D crystallographic structures through in-game tasks in a first-person video game. 82 undergraduate students participated in testing the gaming intervention, showing improved learning outcomes. Observations from the gaming sessions suggest that combining educational psychology, conceptual theory, and popular game mechanics constitutes a powerful pedagogical approach for fostering intrinsic motivation towards complex engineering course topics.