Coventry University invests 3.5 million Euros in immersive tech drive
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The university’s School of Health and Care has opened a new VR CAVE environment, while the university’s College of Engineering Environment and Science has installed a Powerwall.
The investment was funded from a £5 million grant for the UK Office for Students, and supplied by Animmersion UK and ArtAV. The CAVE features a simulation screen wrapped around three walls on which different healthcare settings and scenarios are simulated, while students can interact with simulated patients by using 3D headsets.
The engineering department’s Powerwall is a floor-to-ceiling HD screen with 3D ‘immersive’ technology, enabling students to collaborate on projects using visualisation tools.
The CAVE enables students practice clinical events in a safe environment, allowing students to zoom in on interactive organs such as the heart to understand the structures of the muscle, or interact with a healthcare mannequin connected to the screen.
They can practice patient interactions, treatment procedures, and diagnostic techniques specific to courses including diagnostic radiography, occupational therapy and physiotherapy.
Dr Natasha Taylor, Curriculum Lead for Healthcare Simulation at Coventry University’s School of Health and Care is an expert on simulation technology and has spearheaded several of the university’s projects in the area.
Dr Natasha Taylor, curriculum lead for healthcare simulation, Conventry University, commented: “The CAVE is a totally immersive environment, it allows our learners at the touch of a button to move between environments such as a hospital ward, an operating theatre, the back of an ambulance or outside. We also have a model viewer that allows our learners to take parts of the body and look at them in depth, move them around and even go inside them.
“Simulation is threaded throughout all our curricula here at Coventry University, it’s a central pillar of what we do. It’s really important that our students can learn in a completely safe environment that allows them to make mistakes, and learn from their mistakes so when they go out into actual practice and see actual people they feel confident and competent. In our experience our learners really enjoy and benefit from simulation.”
Source: Inavate