ABSTRACT
Online learning has become an effective approach to reach students who may not be able to travel to university campuses for various reasons. Its use has also dramatically increased during the current COVID-19 pandemic with social distancing and lockdown requirements. But online education has thus far been primarily limited to teaching of knowledge and cognitive skills. There is yet almost no use of online education for teaching of physical clinical skills. In this paper, we present a shared haptic virtual environment for dental surgical skill training. The system provides the teacher and student with a shared environment containing a virtual dental station with patient, a dental drill controlled by a haptic device, and a drillable tooth. It also provides automated scoring of procedure outcomes. We discuss a number of optimizations used in order to provide the high-fidelity simulation and real-time performance needed for training of high-precision clinical skills. Since tactile, in particular kinaesthetic, sense is essential in carrying out many dental procedures, an important question is how to best teach this in a virtual environment. In order to support exploring this, our system includes three modes for transmitting haptic sensations from the user performing the procedure to the user observing.
ABSTRACT
Europe’s capacity to explore the envisaged pathways that achieve its near- and long-term energy and climate objectives needs to be significantly enhanced. In this perspective, we discuss how this capacity is supported by energy and climate-economy models, and how international modelling teams are organised within structured communication channels and consortia as well as coordinate multi-model analyses to provide robust scientific evidence. Noting the lack of such a dedicated channel for the highly active yet currently fragmented European modelling landscape, we highlight the importance of transparency of modelling capabilities and processes, harmonisation of modelling parameters, disclosure of input and output datasets, interlinkages among models of different geographic granularity, and employment of models that transcend the highly harmonised core of tools used in model inter-comparisons. Finally, drawing from the COVID-19 pandemic, we discuss the need to expand the modelling comfort zone, by exploring extreme scenarios, disruptive innovations, and questions that transcend the energy and climate goals across the sustainability spectrum. A comprehensive and comprehensible multi-model framework offers a real example of “collective” science diplomacy, as an instrument to further support the ambitious goals of the EU Green Deal, in compliance with the EU claim to responsible research.