🏆 Best Project 3rd Place

The objective of this project is to create a VR game that helps students become more familiar with the machine components found in ME 360.

 

 

Team Members

Morgan Keene    Nicholas Ishler    Ryan Knause    Haotian Shangguan    Carter Hall    Yousef Aldawodi                  

Instructor: Dr. Hu

 

Project Poster

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Project Video

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Project Summary

Overview

ME 360 is a mechanical design course taught here at Penn State. In this class, students learn about the functionality of mechanical components such as gears, shafts, and bearings as well as how to implement these components into different machine designs. The overall goal of ME 360 is for students to learn to make design decisions, however, many students struggle with this due to their lack of familiarity with the mechanical components involved.

Objectives

– Develop a VR game to reinforce concepts in ME 360.

– Game should have interactable parts and the ability to assemble and disassemble machines.

– Game should be fun, engaging, and educational for students.

Approach

– Spoke to the sponsor to get a better understanding of the problem and the goals for this project

– Began background research to learn more about the content that is taught in ME 360

– Researched the benefits of using VR in education and user experience of VR games

– Began brainstorming ways in which a VR game could aid in the teaching of ME 360

– Gathered and created 3D models of the mechanical components that are found in ME 360

– Developed VR game using Unity

– Performed testing using the talk-aloud method with people external to our team

– Implemented suggestions and finalized details of the game

Outcomes

– Increases student’s understanding of the machine elements involved in ME 360

– Allows professors to teach students more engagingly and efficiently