Training

Take a look at this Science Daily article: "Machinists, numerical control programmers or mechatronics engineers -- trainees in engineering jobs often have to master complex equipment. In the future, trainees will practice and learn milling, turning, drilling and programming routines son a virtual model.

A trainee carefully clamps a workpiece in a lathe. He must program the machine correctly before he can machine the part. This is a tricky task and the trainee will have to solve a similar problem for his final exam.

From this Science Daily article: "Rugby players worldwide could benefit from a new virtual reality training programme created at Queen's University Belfast.

Team members from Ulster Rugby have been working with researchers in the School of Psychology at Queen's on a range of virtual training scenarios that test expert players' perceptual skills.

This Press Release talks about the use of VR in a new research initiative at De Montfort University.

"IN RECENT years, significant resources and research activities worldwide have been invested in the creation of Virtual Reality (VR) environments to train specialised skills for surgeons. Virtalis was one of the first, creating a trainer for minimally invasive therapy. Now, a research team from De Montfort University has begun work on assessing the feasibility for a whole team VR surgical trainer with Virtalis both supplying and designing the VR research platform.

Purdue students in sterile garb work in the virtual pharmacy clean room with Professor Steve Abel.

When Tara Holt, a third-year Purdue University pharmacy student from Frankton, Ind., steps into a pharmacy clean room for the first time, she’s likely to experience a little déjà vu.

The room should look and sound familiar. Nothing ought to feel strange about standing encased in a sterile hair cover, mask, gown, gloves and booties. That’s because Holt and her classmates will have experienced it all before in a virtual version of a pharmacy clean room. The computer-generated, 3-D immersive environment created in a Purdue project is covered in detail in this article from Information Technology at Purdue (ITaP).

From the Virtalis website: "NATIONAL Grid has embarked on a voyage of virtual discovery. It has installed a StereoWorks system from Virtalis, Europe’s leading Virtual Reality (VR) Company.

From this 24dash.com article : "The macho world of construction isn’t the most obvious place to look for a new approach to people skills training. Yet ‘soft skills’ such as the ability to communicate clearly and inspire a team are as critical to the success of any building project as technical expertise.

A new construction training centre – the ACT-UK Simulation Centre - set to open in Coventry in September 2009 will help construction managers develop their people management skills and enable them to fully develop their potential through a pioneering combination of virtual reality computer techniques and the use of professional actors. The ACT-UK Simulation Centre is backed by the Chartered Institute of Building (CIOB) and leading construction companies, including Balfour Beatty.

This stuff.co.nz article talks about a project designing virtual work environments to give students practical experience. From the article: "Students will be able to peek inside chemical reactions and explore three-dimensional models of ear canals in virtual technology being developed at Canterbury University.

The university has received $1.77 million from the Government's Encouraging and Supporting Innovation Fund for a three-year project designing virtual work environments to give students practical experience.

Canterbury University HitLab director Mark Billinghurst, who is leading the project, said New Zealand is lagging behind in virtual technology.

"There's not much government investment in the area, so this will allow us to catch up with some of the teaching and technology trends internationally."

This International Space Fellowship article reports technicians in Orbiter Processing Facility-3, at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, are preparing space shuttle Discovery for its transport to the Vehicle Assembly Building on Jan. 7.

From the article: "The vehicle will be jacked up and its wheels secured to enable the Orbiter Transport System, or OTS, to slide underneath it for the short trip.

Meanwhile, work to remove and replace the shuttle’s side hatch tiles is progressing and will continue though the holiday.

Discovery’s payload, the S6 truss segment and solar arrays are scheduled to be loaded into the transport canister Jan. 7 and transferred to the launch pad Jan. 11.

At NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, the STS-119 astronauts are in the Motion Base Simulator practicing launch procedures.

From this News Channel 10 article : "While there is not any snow in the immediate forecast, TxDOT is making sure the snow plow drivers are prepared for the next winter blast. This is the the first year TxDOT invested in virtual reality snow plow training.

Sixty six snow plow drivers from Amarillo and Childress sat behind the wheel of a virtual snow plow machine over the past week. It looks like something straight out a video game, but in reality, it's teaching the drivers how to handle the icy roads and dangerous conditions.

TxDOT says the biggest benefit to this new virtual training system is it's risk free.

This IndustrialIT post reports The School of Mining Engineering at the University of New South Wales is developing new mining safety training tools using virtual reality technology. From the post: "The VR Simulation Project is a collaborative effort between UNSW and the University of Adelaide. The training program is aimed at increasing hazard awareness and safe working practices of mine employees working at heights on mine sites.

Mining is a high-risk industry, and work at heights on mine sites involving ladders, construction scaffolds and other elevated platforms has resulted in a number of serious incidents causing injury and death.