The Owensboro Community and Technical College have been awarded a $593,464 grant to develop a virtual reality training application for advanced manufacturing.
The project will merge immersive and interactive mixed reality training experiences by incorporating artificial intelligence, robotics, smart sensors, and the internet of things.
Called “Strengthening the Industry 4.0 Workforce through Virtual Reality Training,” the project aims to train multi-skilled technicians with industry 4.0 skills to enhance efficiency and profitability for today’s manufacturers.
OCTC’s Advanced Manufacturing Technical Education Collaborative (AMTEC) will take charge of the project for the initiative started on October 1. OCTC’s Jason Simon, the director of AMTEC, will lead the project team to create virtual reality training courses by using insights from industry and education subject matter experts.
“Now more than ever, industry and education have to partner together to train the workforce of tomorrow,” said Simon. “This project is going to allow us to prepare technicians to enter into the ever-evolving field of advanced manufacturing utilizing cutting-edge technology.”
OCTC and AMTEC will also onboard zSpace, a leader in virtual reality technology, for the project. The partnership will enable creating industry 4.0 virtual reality training applications for college and secondary students across the country.
The application will enable the students to troubleshoot 10 faults on the AMTEC advanced manufacturing industry simulator within a three-dimensional, computer-generated environment that they can interact with during the experience. The AMTEC simulator is a hands-on trainer that brings the fundamentals of real-world integrated systems and components and subsystems right before the students.
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