ABSTRACT
Structural Engineering is an field of study that relies heavily on students' ability to visualize. Due to the scale of structural projects (e.g. bridges, buildings), it is not possible to provide students hands-on experiences manipulating and handling structural elements. Bringing students to the construction site is one of the most effective ways of reinforcing the subject matter as well as instilling a sense of awe and motivation for academic progress. However, the scheduling of field trips is very difficult due to students' academic and work schedules along with changes in site access due to COVID-19. San Francisco State University's Virtual Reality Engineering Program (VR Engine) was born out of a necessity to apply technology to advance efforts to engage and motivate students through inclusive teaching. This work in progress is using VR to develop immersive experiences to expand structural engineering students' perspectives and create interactive exercises to reinforce course material. As this work is being done in collaboration with the Computer Science department, this work also serves as an excellent opportunity to further research related to human-technology interfacing. VR is an emerging and affordable technology that immerses users in an artificial interactive environment using visual and auditory stimulation along with controllers for active engagement. Current efforts are utilizing common industry software, e.g., SAP2000 and Revit, to develop structural models and expand their potential through VR development using toolkits such as Unity. The VR exercises currently under development are generating structural systems to expose students to seismic technology, including seismic isolation. Through the implementation of these VR exercises, we aim to increase students' engagement and material comprehension in upper division structural engineering courses. © American Society for Engineering Education, 2022