Design Education over the Internet using VRML

Over the past few years the World Wide Web or the Internet has made its impact on almost all fields of human life, from business and entertainment to shopping and communicating with people all over the globe. Virtual Reality Modeling Language or VRML for short is a tool specifically designed for creating 3D virtual worlds on the World Wide Web. These synthetic worlds give us the ability to visualize objects on the computer screen almost as if they were in the real world and also view them from all possible angles and directions. The VRML environment is viewed on the Internet using web browsers. This paper describes the application of VRML and the Internet in imparting design education to engineering students. The VRML based design environment is a real time design environment i.e. the students can experiment by changing the values of design parameters and get the feedback immediately as the design model updates on the computer screen. This design environment also allows the user to conduct design analysis of the model. Since this method uses the Internet as the collaboration medium, it allows multiple users to log on to the VRML design world at the same time from different locations. Thus team projects and collaborative efforts for better understanding the design process are possible by the use of this technology. Working professionals and engineers who may not be able to attend traditional classes due to their full time jobs can use this web-based method to study online. An additional benefit is the design projects can be easily archived for viewing and use by students in future courses.