Southern Miss Professors Use Virtual Reality to Teach Engineering to Chileans

HATTIESBURG, Miss.  - Two University of Southern Mississippi professors have completed a virtual reality project sponsored by the Government of Chile. The workshop, part of ongoing efforts to improve the state of engineering education in Chile, was presented by Dr. Tulio Sulbaran in Santiago, Chile, and Dr. Andrew Strelzoff remotely from Hattiesburg. Fifteen faculty from the University of Chile and Pontifical Catholic University of Chile participated. 

The workshop introduced Chilean faculty to Second Life®, a collaborative virtual reality environment.  Sulbaran and Strelzoff, assisted by Southern Miss students, constructed a virtual environment for participants utilizing the software. The workshop existed on the internet and took place in virtual reality. Sulbaran traveled to Chile while Strelzoff remained on the Southern Miss campus and taught by the workshop through use of his virtual reality avatar.     

"It worked really well, we had full participation and the attendees often stayed late to continue interacting in the environment," said Strelzoff. "Each attendee was on a computer in their graphics lab using their avatar to participate in workshop activities demonstrating how the environment could be used to enhance engineering curriculum in Chile. It is amazing that I was able to effectively deliver presentations and activities from 10,000 miles away."  

Workshop goals included introducing collaborative virtual reality environments as a teaching tool to Chilean engineering faculty, creating long-term collaboration opportunities between Southern Miss and Chilean researchers, and enhancing the learning experience for Southern Miss students through international collaboration. 

Sulbaran said participants found many ways to use virtual reality to offer new services, "We asked the Chileans to brainstorm on how virtual reality could be used in their programs. Ideas included demonstrations of engineering principles for K-12 outreach, an orientation of the University of Chile campus, and advanced meeting facilities for development sessions. We believe this is the start of long term international collaboration to help the Chileans build the first 'Virtual University of Chile' campus."

Sulbaran and Strelzoff were hosted by professor Dr. Patricio Poblete, director of the School of Engineering at the University of Chile and professor Ximena Vargas, associate professor in the Department of Civil Engineering at the University of Chile. 

The event also provided a unique learning experience for Southern Miss construction and computing majors. Eight Southern Miss students majoring in software engineering met the Chileans online and worked on a two-week project to help prepare the Chileans for their own projects in Second Life®. Students sat at their computers in Hattiesburg, Miss., while interacting, via Second Life, with Chilean workshop participants. 

"It was exciting to work with the Chileans on a joint project. It was inspiring to help someone on another continent," said senior James Ross.

The workshop resulted in lectures and exercises being successfully delivered in Second Life and Chilean researchers planning to develop Second Life student advisement and outreach programs with continuing collaboration with Southern Miss faculty. 

The virtual reality project was a collaborative effort between the School of Construction and the School of Computing and supported by the College of Science and Technology. For more information, contact Dr. Tulio Sulbaran at Tulio.Sulbaran@usm.edu This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it . Second Life is a 3-D virtual world entirely created by its users and inhabited by millions from around the globe. For more information about Second Life, visit http://secondlife.com/. 

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