(528e) Developing and Deploying Augmented and Mixed Reality Platforms for Chemical Engineering Labs and Workforce Development

Augmented reality (AR) takes inputs from a real environment (sensors and cameras), and projects a holographic, interactive virtual environment on top of it in real time to create a ‘mixed reality’ interface. In this work, we explore four implementations of mixed reality for chemical engineering education:

• Synchronous remote/hybrid unit operations laboratory
• Asynchronous laboratory unit operation training
• Workforce development on batch-to-continuous flow

The first two were conducted during the senior Unit Operations course at Worcester Polytechnic institute, and demonstrated the power and pitfalls of AR. Microsoft Hololens 2 was used to superimpose tutorials in lab for individual unit operations. The later was a custom-application developed with ACS Green Chemistry Institute and AIChE RAPID Manufacturing Institute for a batch-to-continuous processing workforce development course. It quantitatively demonstrates the power of AR to engage and promote learning for laboratory courses, specifically with a tutorial on how to construct a packed bed reactor.