Implementation of Virtual Concurrent Engineering Tools in Engineering Education 4.0

Abstract

Adoption of virtual collaboration tools enabling multi-site teaching and learning, as well as informal social interactions, is important for preparing for the digital transformation in engineering education accelerated by the coronavirus pandemic. Inspired by the concurrent design facility at ESTEC, this paper presents implementation of a virtual concurrent engineering toolbox in Engineering Education 4.0. The toolbox consists of a virtual collaboration platform enabling multi-screen streaming for virtual formative assessment, virtual desktop infrastructure enabling operative system independent access to powerful virtual workstations, an easy-to-implement product data management system enabling easy multi-site file sharing, as well as tightly integrated CAD, CAM and CAE tools. Implementation of the toolbox is supported by a case study demonstrating the use of tools and their impact on a university capstone project, as well as continuous formative assessment through multi-streaming of design applications.