Page 33 - Campus Technology, May/June 2020
P. 33
2019
Bringing Career Skills
to Life in VR
HoloDiesel
At Fox Valley Technical College, students are using virtual reality to safely explore the inner workings of a diesel engine — while it is running.
By Meg Lloyd
When Jay Duca, a diesel equipment instructor at Fox Valley Technical College in Appleton, WI, attended an in-service presentation on Case Western Reserve University’s (OH) HoloAnatomy for VR nursing instruction and 3D simulation, he immediately thought of his own diesel equipment students. He knew a similar virtual reality tool could help them understand how a 6-cylinder Cummins ISX works by opening up the running engine and seeing what’s happening inside — virtually, of course.
The concepts of internal combustion are difficult for most students who enter the diesel technology program, and instructors struggle to describe the complex process that’s taking place inside the closed engine housing. Inspired by Case’s HoloAnatomy, Duca proposed a holographic image of a running Cummins engine that students could manipulate firsthand, giving voice commands to examine and interact with the crankshaft, pistons, valves, connecting rods and other operating
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