Assessing the Use of Virtual Reality to Support Additive Manufacturing Education

该项目旨在通过改善添加剂制造教育来服务于国家利益。预计到2025年底，全球添加剂制造市场的价值将超过400亿美元。因此，对添加剂制造劳动力培养的需求正在增加，大学正在开发新的课程和计划来满足这一需求。不幸的是，使用添加剂制造工具和技术的实验室实践经验并不总是那么容易获得。例如，由于成本和维护的复杂性，高端工业机器很少出现在教室环境中。虚拟现实提供了一种潜在的吸引人的方式，让学生有效地、低成本地接触到这些工业添加剂制造机器。这项建议侧重于三门工程设计和制造课程，将用基于虚拟现实的教育方法取代传统的计算机辅助设计活动。该项目团队将进行一项研究，分析虚拟现实方法如何影响学生解释复杂设计和复杂添加剂制造过程的能力。它还将研究虚拟现实方法如何影响学生在不同的工程环境中应用特定于过程的设计考虑的能力。本研究旨在探讨沉浸式虚拟制造环境在学习以设计与流程为中心的加法制造概念时，如何影响学生的认知负荷。智力成果将是：(I)在使用虚拟现实来理解不同的添加剂制造过程类型(例如，桌面材料挤压；工业粉床融合)时，识别学习差异；(Ii)在添加剂制造设计评估期间，虚拟现实对学生认知负荷的影响的定量证据；以及(Iii)了解将虚拟现实整合到学生的工程设计过程中以支持针对特定过程的高级制造教育的可行性。这些成果将通过对600多名工程设计和制造专业的高年级本科生进行实证研究而产生。为了确保教育结果的稳健性，将与宾夕法尼亚州莱昂哈德工程教育加强中心合作，在整个项目中提供形成性和总结性反馈。教育发现将通过与美国制造的合作伙伴关系以及宾夕法尼亚州立大学位于英联邦各地的24个校区在全国范围内传播。NSF IUSE：EHR计划支持研究和开发项目，以提高所有学生的STEM教育的有效性。通过参与的学生学习路径，该计划支持有前景的实践和工具的创建、探索和实施。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This project aims to serve the national interest by improving additive manufacturing education. The global additive manufacturing market is expected to reach a value over $40 billion by the end of 2025. As a result, demand is increasing for additive manufacturing workforce development, and universities are developing new courses and programs to meet this demand. Unfortunately, hands-on laboratory experiences with additive manufacturing tools and technologies are not always easily available. For example, due to their cost and complexity of maintenance, high-end industrial machines are rarely found in a classroom setting. Virtual reality offers a potential engaging way to expose students effectively and at low cost to these industrial additive manufacturing machines. Focusing on three engineering design and manufacturing courses, this proposal will replace traditional computer-aided design activities with virtual reality-based educational approaches. The project team will conduct a research study to analyze how the virtual reality approaches affect students’ ability to interpret intricate designs and complex additive manufacturing processes. It will also examine how the virtual reality approach affects students’ ability to apply process-specific design considerations in different engineering contexts. It is expected that the virtual reality approaches will improve students’ learning and better prepare them for success in the additive manufacturing workforce.The objective of this research is to determine how an immersive virtual build environment affects a student’s cognitive load when learning design- and process-centric additive manufacturing concepts. The intellectual deliverables will be (i) identification of learning differences when using virtual reality to understand different additive manufacturing process types (e.g., desktop material extrusion; industrial powder-bed fusion), (ii) quantitative evidence of the impact of virtual reality on student cognitive load during additive manufacturing design evaluation, and (iii) understanding the viability of integrating virtual reality into a student’s engineering design process to support process-specific advanced manufacturing education. These deliverables will be produced through empirical studies conducted with more than 600 upper-level undergraduate engineering design and manufacturing students. To ensure robustness of the educational findings, formative and summative feedback will be provided throughout the project in partnership with the Pennsylvania State Leonhard Center for Enhancement of Engineering Education. The educational findings will be disseminated nationally through partnership with America Makes along with Penn State’s 24 campuses located throughout the commonwealth. The NSF IUSE: EHR Program supports research and development projects to improve the effectiveness of STEM education for all students. Through the Engaged Student Learning track, the program supports the creation, exploration, and implementation of promising practices and tools.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.