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Reinforcing Human-Technology Interaction Theory through a Virtual Reality Engineering Training Application

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Conference

2023 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Location

Baltimore , Maryland

Publication Date

June 25, 2023

Start Date

June 25, 2023

End Date

June 28, 2023

Conference Session

Engineering Technology Division (ETD) Technical Session 6

Tagged Division

Engineering Technology Division (ETD)

Tagged Topic

Diversity

Page Count

11

DOI

10.18260/1-2--44089

Permanent URL

https://peer.asee.org/44089

Download Count

101

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Paper Authors

biography

Jenna Wong San Francisco State University

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Dr. Wong is an Assistant Professor in the School of Engineering at San Francisco State University (SFSU). Her research interests focus on traditional and sustainable structural resilience and engineering education. Her doctorate research at UC Berkeley investigated the applicability of seismic isolation and supplemental viscous damping to nuclear power plants with focus on seismic resilience and safety. After receiving her PhD, Dr. Wong began a post-doctoral fellowship at Lawrence National Laboratory focusing on computational analysis for nonlinear seismic analysis of Department of Energy nuclear facilities and systems. After joining SFSU in 2016, she established an active research lab at SFSU with a diverse group of undergraduate and Master's level students. For her engineering education research, she is interested in exploring how to use technology such as virtual reality and 3D printing to enhance student engagement. She is an active member of ASCE, ASEE, and SEAONC.

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Shah Rukh Humayoun San Francisco State University

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Khanh Nguyen

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Yongjian Pan

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Abstract

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.

Wong, J., & Humayoun, S. R., & Nguyen, K., & Pan, Y. (2023, June), Reinforcing Human-Technology Interaction Theory through a Virtual Reality Engineering Training Application Paper presented at 2023 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Baltimore , Maryland. 10.18260/1-2--44089

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