Project Description
When approached in June 2009 to create an educational learning application that would help building services engineering students grasp the basic concepts of domestic electric/gas supply, heating systems, control systems and sound reflectance/ absorbtion I knew I was in for an intense time of programming.
With the aim of meeting five learning objectives from the foundation degree in building services at Grimsby college, the client team and I decided upon showing as many of the concepts in one environment as possible. The piece was built as both a standalone application and a web-ready version so that both lecturers and students could explorer the concepts as a group or in their own time, the piece could also be viewed in either 2d or in a 3d stereoscopic format should the facilities be available.
The piece allows the user to:- look at the construction of an underfloor heating system; look at the different properties of an insulated external wall construction; examine the parts of a combi-condensing boiler, see the condensing and heat transfer take place, examine the flow of hot water through both underfloor and radiator based heating systems; examine electrical supply, fuseboxes and different circuits and much more.
The hardest part of the project was modelling the boiler internals and showing the flow of heat from the boiler, but after 12-14 weeks of work all was complete and the project deemed a success in terms of conveying some of the more difficult to understand concepts to the students in a simpler and clearer manner.