Virtual engineering is a process by which engineers can combine the world around them with a digitally-generated environment, allowing them to visualize an object or location from a totally new perspective.

Credit Advanced VR Research Centre (AVRRC), Loughborough University

While the fundamentals of virtual technology and simulation have been around for some time, particularly in first-person computer games, the application of this technology in the engineering setting is less familiar to most.  Yet virtual and immersive simulations have, and are, revolutionising the engineering industry.

Virtual engineering systems are allowing engineers to evaluate product design and customer requirements without the need for hardware or prototype samples and are becoming increasingly common in the automotive and aerospace sectors.

These data-driven simulations enable designers to accurately determine how best to integrate new components into a vehicle before fabricating and testing them, ensuring more efficient and effective products while reducing costs and improving safety.

These virtual processes are however only as good as the digital and mathematical tools and algorithms that drive them, and the design and calibration of these tools requires expert knowledge from across a wide array of engineering subjects. 

Credit Advanced VR Research Centre (AVRRC), Loughborough University

Helen's guest is Professor Roy Kalawsky, Royal Academy of Engineering and Airbus Research Chair in Digital and Data Engineering Information Systems at Loughborough University.  In addition, Roy is also the Director of the Advanced VR Research Centre and a Fellow of the IET and RSA.

Roy is a pioneer of virtual engineering and has lead the development of numerous VR and AR systems, having established the UK’s first VR lab during the early 1980s.  As well as working for BAE Sysems in his early career, he has been involved in highly classified projects for NASA, the US Navy, McDonnell Douglas, Dassault Aviation, the MOD and many others.

His research experience spans the fields of next generation modelling, simulation and visualization and he has undertaken work in the development of digital-twins, co-simulation and machine learning. Whilst his primary research focus is in the aerospace sector, he has achieved important developments in healthcare and other sectors.

Useful Links:

Loughborough University Advanced VR Research Centre (AVRRC)

Virtual Reality in Engineering Blog

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