Chaturvedi, S. K., & Yoon, J., & McKenzie, R., & Katsioloudis, P. J., & Garcia, H. M., & Ren, S. (2012, June), Implementation and Assessment of a Virtual Reality Experiment in the Undergraduate Themo-fluids Laboratory             Paper presented at 2012 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, San Antonio, Texas. 10.18260/1-2--21481

\bibitem{asee_peer_21481}
  Chaturvedi, S. K., \& Yoon, J., \& McKenzie, R., \& Katsioloudis, P. J., \& Garcia, H. M., \& Ren, S. (2012, June), \emph{Implementation and Assessment of a Virtual Reality Experiment in the Undergraduate Themo-fluids Laboratory           }
  Paper presented at 2012 ASEE Annual Conference \& Exposition, San Antonio, Texas.
  10.18260/1-2--21481

Sushil K. Chaturvedi, Jaewan Yoon, Rick McKenzie, Petros J. Katsioloudis, Hector M. Garcia, and Shuo Ren.  "Implementation and Assessment of a Virtual Reality Experiment in the Undergraduate Themo-fluids Laboratory           ".  2012 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, San Antonio, Texas, 2012, June.  ASEE Conferences, 2012.  https://peer.asee.org/21481 Internet.  23 Feb, 2025

\bibitem{asee_peer_21481}
  Sushil K. Chaturvedi, Jaewan Yoon, Rick McKenzie, Petros J. Katsioloudis, Hector M. Garcia, and Shuo Ren.
  "Implementation and Assessment of a Virtual Reality Experiment in the Undergraduate Themo-fluids Laboratory           ".
  \emph{2012 ASEE Annual Conference \& Exposition, San Antonio, Texas, 2012, June}.
  ASEE Conferences, 2012.
  https://peer.asee.org/21481 Internet.  23 Feb, 2025

@INPROCEEDINGS{asee_peer_21481
author = "Sushil K. Chaturvedi, Jaewan Yoon, Rick McKenzie, Petros J. Katsioloudis, Hector M. Garcia, and Shuo Ren"
title = "Implementation and Assessment of a Virtual Reality Experiment in the Undergraduate Themo-fluids Laboratory           "
booktitle = "2012 ASEE Annual Conference \& Exposition"
year = "2012"
month = "June"
address = "San Antonio, Texas"
publisher = "ASEE Conferences"
note = {https://peer.asee.org/21481}
number = {10.18260/1-2--21481}
}

TY  - CPAPER
AB  -                                                  AbstractThe proposed paper presents results from an NSF (TUES Program) supported project for advancing thedevelopment and use of virtual reality experiments that are designed to emulate learning environmentof physical laboratories in engineering education. The motivation to pursue this project comes fromrecent advances in computer, internet communication and video technologies that have madeequipment related to these digital technologies very cheap and accessible to engineering educationcommunity, including students. One area namely the computer-based interactive and immersivevisualization has the potential for becoming a powerful teaching and learning tool in engineeringeducation. Although the literature review of virtual reality laboratories indicates that the state of art hasadvanced considerably in recent years, the past research has yet to be translated into strategies thatwould make virtual laboratories an integral part of engineering education.In the present work a physical experiment from the thermo-fluids laboratory, namely “Jet Impact force”is transformed into a 3-D virtual reality (VR) experiment using the ‘MAYA’ software (Fig 1). In order tomimic the physical experiment the 3-D virtual model of the chosen experiment is animated using thesoftware “Virtools” to create a virtual laboratory environment that is three-dimensional, interactive andimmersive. In order to facilitate student’s interaction with the virtual environment, human computerinterfaces (HCI) such as wands, data gloves and Nintendo Wii controllers have been incorporated. Twodifferent immersion levels have been created, one for desk-top virtual reality (DTVR) and another forcave virtual reality (CVR), to enable students to interact with the VR experiment in both “desk-top” aswell as “CAVE” modes of operation.The VR experiment has been embedded in the undergraduate thermo-fluids laboratory course so thatstudents can conduct pre-lab practice sessions prior to performing the corresponding physicalexperiment. By performing virtual reality experiments, students are expected to learn in more detailabout objectives, procedure and expected outcomes ahead of scheduled physical experiments.To test the efficacy of the proposed pre-lab practice session pedagogy, assessment instruments andstatistical experiment design have been developed to determine if implemented virtual realityexperiments used in the supplementation (mixed physical/virtual) mode, enhances student learningcompared to the pre-implementation setting (without supplementation through VR experiments). Toimplement the experimental design three sections of thermo-fluids lab (ME 305) course were targeted.In one section, the entire class was designated as the “Control” group and students in the other twosections were designated as “treatment” groups T1 and T2. Student in the “Control” group prepared forthe physical experiment in the conventional manner, namely by reviewing the lab book. Students in the“treatment” group T1 used the lab book and the desk-top virtual reality (DVR) version of the experimentto prepare for the physical experiment. Students in the “treatment” group T2 used the lab book as wellas the “CAVE” Virtual Reality (CVR) version of the experiment to prepare for the physical experiment.Assessment has been done at three levels namely through a quiz, direct observation and survey ofstudent opinions. Assessment results will be presented in the full paper.Fig 1: Physical set-up and the 3-D virtual experiment.
AU  - Sushil K. Chaturvedi
AU  - Jaewan Yoon
AU  - Rick McKenzie
AU  - Petros J. Katsioloudis
AU  - Hector M. Garcia
AU  - Shuo Ren
CY  - San Antonio, Texas
DA  - 2012/06/10
PB  - ASEE Conferences
TI  - Implementation and Assessment of a Virtual Reality Experiment in the Undergraduate Themo-fluids Laboratory           
UR  - https://peer.asee.org/21481
DO  - 10.18260/1-2--21481
ER  -