The application of virtual reality to chemical engineering education

Virtual reality ( VR) is an emerging computer interface that has the potential to have tremendous impact on engineering education, by providing students with new insights into their studies and permitting them to explore environments that would be otherwise inaccessible. However before that potential can be fully exploited, engineering educators must first learn not only the mechanics of VR, but also the intricacies of how best to apply this new tool to scientific and technical education. In order to develop techniques for the effective application of VR to engineering education, ongoing research in the department of chemical engineering at the University of Michigan has produced three major and numerous minor VR based educational modules, designed to aid in the instruction of chemical engineering topics. Besides developing effective methodology, another primary goal of this research is to reach as many students as possible on a nationwide basis, which requires the use of relatively inexpensive (student affordable) personal computers as a base platform. Effectively portraying technical information in real time using minimal computing power requires special simulation techniques that are unique to this environment. This paper provides a brief description of the VR modules developed to date, including some of the special simulation techniques that they incorporate, and discusses steps that are currently being taken to reach a wider audience through VRML and other world wide web-based techniques.