Saskatchewan Polytechnic has created and is using a virtual reality mine to help advance mining education and hands-on learning opportunities for its students.
“When they put the VR headsets on, they can actually do the job from start to finish,” said Danielle Faris, Saskatchewan Polytechnic’s academic chair for the faculty of technology and skilled trades.
The program allows students to enter a mine and conduct tests that provide results in virtual reality.
“(It) was very shocking. I didn’t expect it to be as similar (to) a real working scenario,” said Graciela Tenoro, a second-year student.
Faris says the tool allows students to “set up the total station underground and do a full survey with real co-ordinates.”
“So, they do get real data that they can then take back with them to their desks and complete the lab with,” Faris said.
The idea came about during the COVID-19 pandemic.
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“We were all remotely teaching from home and we were trying to figure out how to get the students involved or working in an environment that was very similar to the mines,” Faris said.
And since mining is a growing industry in Saskatchewan, the program will help students spend more time learning hands-on.
“It’s really accessible,” Faris said. “Mining in Saskatchewan is actually on the rise. We do have quite a few mines within the province, and we do have a shortage of workers.
“We are needing skilled workers and people to come and take programs like the mining engineering technology program so that we can supply the workforce with the skilled workers that they need to be able to provide us with all of the minerals that we need to survive day to day.”
The program also minimizes the risks involved in going into a mine.
“There’s no risk associated with it other than if they were to bump into a desk as they’re in the virtual environment,” Faris said.
Students say the program allows them to gain more experience with the mines from the comfort of the classroom.
“We don’t have to actually go to the field to learn how to use the equipment,” Tenoro said. “So, being able to do this without within our own building, in our own, a comfortable space, I would say it made it very easy for me to learn.”
Faris says the program is so realistic that “when you’re in that underground environment, it’s easy to forget that you’re actually on surface.”
This program cost $102,000 to be developed and was paid for with a grant given to the polytechnic by the International Minerals Innovation Institute.
It uses the Meta headset, which costs approximately $600 per unit. The university has 20 headsets.
For more information on the program, you can visit saskpolytech.ca.
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