(528e) Developing and Deploying Augmented and Mixed Reality Platforms for Chemical Engineering Labs and Workforce Development
AIChE Annual Meeting
2023
2023 AIChE Annual Meeting
Education Division
Preparing Students for Industry
Monday, November 6, 2023 - 5:45pm to 6:00pm
Augmented reality (AR) takes inputs from a real environment (sensors and cameras), and projects a holographic, interactive virtual environment on top of it in real time to create a âmixed realityâ interface. In this work, we explore four implementations of mixed reality for chemical engineering education:
- Synchronous remote/hybrid unit operations laboratory
- Asynchronous laboratory unit operation training
- Workforce development on batch-to-continuous flow
The first two were conducted during the senior Unit Operations course at Worcester Polytechnic institute, and demonstrated the power and pitfalls of AR. Microsoft Hololens 2 was used to superimpose tutorials in lab for individual unit operations. The later was a custom-application developed with ACS Green Chemistry Institute and AIChE RAPID Manufacturing Institute for a batch-to-continuous processing workforce development course. It quantitatively demonstrates the power of AR to engage and promote learning for laboratory courses, specifically with a tutorial on how to construct a packed bed reactor.