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I Session 2526

Interactive and Immersive Training in a Virtual Environment for Construction Students

Fabian C. Hadipriono, Richard E. Larew, Tsung-chieh Tsay The Ohio State University

Introduction Construction projects involve a wide range of operations and activities, most of which can lead to accidents if proper care is not taken. The most serious construction accidents involve construction equipment operation, trench and embankment failure, falls from elevated positions, collapse of temporary structures and forms, and the failure of structures under construction. 1 Tragic construction accidents have had catastrophic consequences. The collapse of the Quebec Bridge during construction in 1907, in which 74 men were killed, is considered one of the worst tragedies of the century. In recent years, 51 people were killed during the construction of a cooling tower in West Virginia, and another 113 died when walkway bridges collapsed in Kansas City’s Hyatt Regency Hotel.

In 1980, the National Safety Council (NSC) reported that worker’s injury rate accounted for nearly 11% of all work injuries and more than 20% of fatalities.2 In the 1990s, in spite of years of efforts by the industry and government regulatory offices to introduce new safety regulations and safety-oriented construction techniques, these high injury and death rates have not decreased. In fact, in 1990, The Business Roundtable reported that the worker’s injury rate in this industry was about 54% higher than the rate of all other industries combined.3 In addition, the death rate in construction is 71 per 10,000 workers versus an average in all industries of 18 per 10,000. Over 200,000 construction workers suffer disabling injuries each year, and over 2,000 construction workers die as a result of work-related injuries each year.4

A survey of 120 structural failures conducted by the Institution of Structural Engineers in the United Kingdoms>b reveals that inadequate construction education is one of the important factors leading to the above failures and accidents. To achieve a well constructed project the institution recommends that construction education include the following education enhancement factors: practicality and feel for engineering construction, knowledge of overall structural behavior, creative thinking and problem solving, accuracy of assumptions made in the design, and engineering j udgment. In turn, all these factors allow students to understand the underlying causes of failures. Therefore, it is imperative for civil engineering educators to promote these education enhancement factors to our undergraduate students in the classroom.7’8

In reality, many civil engineering undergraduate programs fail to provide students with an arena where they can acquire the construction skills and experience necessary to perform successfully at on-site operations.9 Most civil engineers need to spend many years in the field in order to assimilate an adequate knowledge about actual construction performance. However, the development of new materials, innovative approaches to construction, and computer-based management systems in the construction industry now require

$iiii’1996 ASEE Annual Conference Proceedings } ‘?JHlyc: .

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Tsay, T., & Larew, R. E., & Hadipriono, F. C. (1996, June), Interactive And Immersive Training In A Virtual Environment For Construction Students Paper presented at 1996 Annual Conference, Washington, District of Columbia. 10.18260/1-2--6135