Press Release

PACCAR gift builds Office of the Future
In the virtual office of the future, engineers will design projects together without ever shaking hands.

A recent gift from the PACCAR Foundation is making this future office a reality with equipment and an upgrade of the Virtual Reality Laboratory in the Engineering Teaching and Research Laboratory building. The laboratory is directed by Sankar and Uma Jayaram, professors in the School of Mechanical and Materials Engineering.

"These studios represent what the next generation engineer can expect to find in the workplace in terms of hardware, software, and interaction methods,’’ said Belakavadi Ramaprian, Director of the School of Mechanical and Materials Engineering.

A combination of two individual engineer design offices of the future and one design studio with a 9x12 stereo projection wall will be created with the $100,000 equipment grant. Washington State University will provide a matching grant.

Each design office will have a small screen as one wall, integrated with a computer and a video conferencing system. Latest CAD, visualization, human modeling, assembly, and manufacturing software will be available in these offices. Students will use these offices to go through the design process, simulating a geographically distributed design team using video-conferencing and data sharing.

The existing Virtual Reality laboratory (with some upgrades) will function as the large screen design studio during the product development process. New equipment will be purchased and some existing equipment will be upgraded to meet this goal.