According to CBS19 News in Fluvanna county, Virgina, the Workforce Services program at Piedmont Virginia Community College (PVCC) purchased AugmentedArc augmented reality (AR) welding system to help welding students learn in a safer environment before doing the real thing at the Virginia School of Metal.
“This is designed to make you a perfect welder – as close to perfect as you can get.” said Steven Brownell, president of the Virginia School of Metal. “There’s no UV rays, there’s no flame, there’s nothing, there’s no metal puddle, there’s no sparks. You can’t get hurt on this.”
Aimed at PVCC students who are just starting out in the welding program, Brownell says he’ll have all first-time students start on the AugmentedArc before switching over to real-life welding. This approach allows students to get a taste of introductory welding to see if the career pathway is for them, thereby saving time and money while training for high paying technical work.
“It feels different as there’s less resistance. but other than that, it’s pretty much the same,” said Hunter Sveadeba, a PVCC student looking to get into underwater welding.
Commitments from education institutions to train their students on and with the world of extended realities (XR) can prepare them for all sorts of skills and implementations that they’ll be facing when they enter the workforce. As another school in Virginia develops an AR lab, the Holberton School partners with Unity to create AR/VR learning centers, and PTC uses the virtual twins for practical manufacturing applications in VR, programs like these will give these students another skill in their virtual tool belt. We also chat about how AR specifically can assist the manufacturing sector with Nigel Burton, the CTO of Realmax.
