Virtual Construction Simulator 3D: A Simulation Game for Construction Engineering Education

This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5)

This engineering education research award to Pennsylvania State University will employ researchers to develop and assess educational gaming capability for a virtual construction engineering simulator to obtain a better understanding of the application and use of simulation games in engineering education. This will enable students to develop a comprehensive understanding of the construction process and critical skills such as resource utilization, sequencing, site layout, and risk management. In the virtual environment students will manage a complete construction project and be able to explore alternative solutions. Other areas of engineering are also faced with the challenge of how to best educate students to understand the broad and complex real-world context in which discipline specific content will be applied. Virtual reality games offer a promising approach to accomplish this using currently available cyber-technology. The guidelines for future development derived from this research will be valuable in improving engineering education to better prepare students for engineering jobs.