High-tech application designed for training in manufacturing sector
By CHUCK MASON, The Daily News, cmason@bgdailynews.com/783-3262
There’s now an app – Precision Measurement Training – that bears a Bowling Green stamp.
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| Mary Helen Hendrix, of Franklin, Ky., Director of the Interactive Digital Center (left) demonstrates how to use the microscope iPad app for Addi Hinojoza, of Bowling Green, Ky., at the The Kentucky Advanced Technology Institute Campus of BGTC Monday, Oct. 1, 2012, in Bowling Green, Ky. (Photo by Alex Slitz/Daily News) |
Look on iTunes and you’ll find an iPad app developed by SKYCTC-IDC in Bowling Green. It sells for $9.99. On the cover page, the app notes, “Seller: Bowling Green Technical College.”
The app contains virtual versions of a vernier slide caliper, a dial caliper and a micrometer.
Just after 11 p.m. Thursday, the technical college released the first app that was developed by a college staff headed by Mary Helen Hendrix, director of the Interactive Digital Center for the Kentucky Advanced Technology Institute at 1127 Morgantown Road.
SKYCTC is acknowledgment of the technical college’s new name, Southcentral Kentucky Community & Technical College, and the IDC in the title notes it comes from the college’s Interactive Digital Center.
“This has been a vision of college President Nathan Hodges and Provost Phil Neal,” Hendrix said. “Their vision has enabled us to have this (tool) out there.”
The Gartner Research Group recently noted that “simulation-based learning has become a standard part of an enterprise’s operating model and a competitive differentiator.”
The Stamford, Conn., company is a “world leader” in information technology research, the company’s website said.
Hendrix said details took a while, but the college and iTunes were able to work out an arrangement to market the app.
Now that that process has been conducted, the second app, a virtual microscope, should be on the market more quickly, she said.
Hendrix said the college is excited to enter into a market arena that will expand in the future.
“More and more faculty are interested in these tools for their students,” she said.
The app is found on iTunes under the education category and is Version 1.2.1. The size is 29 megabytes and it is compatible with the iPad and requires iOS 6.0 or later.
The app’s development was chronicled in a story in the Daily News on Oct. 9. The app allows students using it to work a device on their iPad in a three-dimensional format.
The app duplicates the features students would find on the real instrument if it were sitting on a desk or held in a hand.
An app still under development allows students to virtually slice a cow.
Hendrix also is working on an app that puts the student in a virtual warehouse and also a virtual Bunsen burner.
A micrometer measures one-tenth of 1,000th of an inch. A caliper measures plus or minus 1,000th of an inch.
The page on iTunes notes the precision measurement app “is of fundamental importance to manufacturing industries – not only from the point of view of the consumer but also for those involved in manufacturing.
Both groups must have confidence in the accuracy and reliability of the measurements upon which they depend.”
The course description notes: “The focus of this training is to provide the student with a higher level of understanding and training on various precision measurement tools found in a manufacturing environment. The training format provides an immersive and personal learning experience for the student, allowing them to progress at their own pace.
“This comprehensive self-paced study course is designed to help a student master the principles and practices of using precision measurement instruments found in any standard shop setting. This product provides both mastery training as well as a final exam at the end that helps to document student learning and mastery of the material.”
Hendrix said there is interest by other institutions of higher learning about how to develop and market other education apps.
