Addressing interdisciplinary process engineering design, construction and operations through 4D virtual environments

An interactive and immersive learning environment that will allow students to explore the design, construction, commissioning and operation stages of processing facilities is being developed. The learning environment makes use of a series spherical images captured across not only the facility site but also across the construction and operation period that allow students to investigate the design evolution of a particular spatial area through time by moving up and down in the time frame. It is intended to allow students to learn how engineers from a range of disciplines work together on key issues and decisions required for that part of the design. Interviews with key engineering personnel and project stakeholders will permit the students to explore the reasoning behind critical design decisions. Four learning environments are being developed and include the construction of a bulk liquid storage facility in Brisbane, a sewage treatment facility in Melbourne, a weighbridge at a truck service centre in Melbourne and the demolition of an engineering building in Brisbane followed by the construction of a new "live" building. This paper explores how it is envisaged that the learning environments will be implemented and how they will be used in practice in the class room.