Oakland University’s School of Engineering and Computer Science in Rochester, MI, has launched an augmented reality center (ARC) on campus. Working in partnership with the College for Creative Studies (CCS) and industry partners in the surrounding area, the goal is to give students unique opportunities to apply this technology to various aspects of manufacturing.
Using AR, faculty will be able to merge the three-dimensional physical world with digital data, creating new and better ways to interact with machinery. Already popular in the gaming industry, partners in the ARC believe AR will play a big role in creating cost-effective and more efficient solutions for manufacturing in the future. And if students hope to join these technical fields in the future, this training will help prepare students for a job after graduation.
“Advancing augmented reality will prepare companies in our region to be more competitive in the global marketplace and more successful in achieving goals that are part of the fourth industrial revolution," said Louay Chamra, PhD, dean of the School of Engineering and Computer Science at Oakland University. “People often see STEM and industrial design as separate fields, but we create powerful opportunities when we bring these subjects together synergistically to improve efficiency and advance industry all around us."
Augmented and virtual reality opens a whole new way of conveying information that is far more powerful than the written word or audio/video content, according to Khalid Mirza, PhD, a professor in the department of electrical engineering and founding director of ARC. The immersive technology applications that ARC will help develop for the industry are equally useful for instruction in a classroom setting.
“Imagine having a Google Assistant or Siri that is looking out at the world along with you and understanding what is out there. And it is helping out with information on what it sees and then superposing it on real-world objects,” Mirza said.
The Center will be run by faculty from Oakland University, including Mirza, faculty from the CCS, and three graduate students from Oakland University and CCS.
Initially, ARC will be developing workshops for students to bring them up to speed on the immersive technology and applications. This strategy is geared at making the students resources themselves, while at the same time, preparing them for the workforce with a much-needed skillset.
“The uniqueness of this program is that these workshops will be taken by engineering and art students at the same time to develop cross-skills in both areas,” Mirza said.
Of course, COVID was taken into consideration when Mirza and his team were developing ARC. Therefore, the team is looking into designing asynchronous modules that students can take remotely at their own pace and then later go to the physical lab for some hands-on work.
“If we do this right, the workshops will run by themselves whether they are taken by students by coming on campus or remotely from their home,” Mirza said. “We can manage in-person hands-on work by properly scheduling it in case COVID is still lingering around.”
Mirza says that COVID taught him the valuable lesson of always being ready with a Plan B. Last year was an awakening for most faculty to adopt an array of online teaching tools and think out of the box in order to give students a hands-on experience without having them participate in a crowded lab.
Oakland’s School of Engineering and Computer Sciences serves around 3,500 students, both graduate and undergraduate.