VR Engine - Structural Engineers VR Training Environment for Post-Hazard Assessment
By: Thomas Yu, Khanh Nguyen, Steffi Win, and Yongjian Pan
Department: Computer Science
Faculty Advisors: Dr. Jenna Wong and Dr. Shah Rukh Humayoun
The mission of the San Francisco State University (SFSU) Virtual Reality Engineering (VR Engine) Program is to use virtual reality (VR) technology to increase safety and improve resilient design in the structural engineering field, as well as educate the broader community about STEM. Collaborating with SFSU’s Department of Computer Science, industry, and field experts, this program will launch a long-term effort to build modules and exercises that will educate and train engineers and serve as a vehicle for communicating with the broader community about engineering and work-based experiences. The target audience for VR Engine’s work will be undergraduate/graduate students and practicing engineers with opportunities to expand to a larger user base outside engineering. With the support and guidance of experts in industry, the program will identify key challenges impacting the current practicing community and develop strategies to improve the preparation of the next generations of engineers. VR Engine believes that education does not end with a college diploma but continues throughout an engineer’s life. This program will harness that inherent curiosity for new knowledge and create new approaches to engage learners at all stages of their careers. Given the ongoing development process, our program currently displays a 3D model for a building structure with some basic surrounding environmental elements as a baseline.