Some of the most sophisticated three dimensional (3D) technology in the world is now available to students at Hazard Community and Technical College (HCTC).

HCTC’s Challenger Learning Center now features more than $1.2 million worth of cutting-edge 3D display technology for virtual reality learning, including rooms a student can stand within and be surrounded by a lifelike 3D image, an immersive 3D theater, and a podium that can allow a speaker or teacher from anywhere in the world to appear holographically before an audience at the college.

The technology will provide extra educational opportunities that will give eastern Kentucky students an advantage in today’s increasingly digital workplace.

The purchase and installation of the 3D technology was made possible by collaboration between HCTC and Eastern Kentucky Concentrated Employment Program, Inc. (EKCEP). EKCEP helped HCTC obtain funding for the equipment from the Governor’s Reserve portion of Kentucky’s federal Workforce Investment Act (WIA) funding.

EKCEP is a workforce development agency that helps address the recruitment, training, and education needs of employers and job seekers in 23 eastern Kentucky counties—including helping job seekers afford and access vocational training programs like those offered by HCTC.

The new 3D technology has wide-ranging applications for training. Students can use it to enter a virtual world where they can investigate an engine, step into the human brain, or rapidly build and test a prototype of a design they created, said John Handshoe, director of the project for HCTC.

“There are no limits to the applications,” Handshoe said.

The technology installed at the center was created by EON Reality, Inc., a California-based company.

The centerpiece of HCTC’s center is the EON ICube, a room where users are surrounded by a 3D image on three walls and the floor. The ICube projects a lifelike virtual environment or a detailed larger-than-life model of an object like an engine that a student can move through and explore.

The ICube can bring nearly real-world experiences to students for a fraction of the cost and none of the risks. For example, a model mine can be set up in the ICube to allow students to safely run through mine safety and maintenance scenarios that are nearly as real as if they were there. It can also be used to train for situations that are too dangerous to stage for learning purposes, like cleaning up a deadly chemical spill.

Nursing students can use the technology to learn about anatomical functions and diseases, even from inside the body, without the need to invade a living patient.

HCTC’s smaller versions of the cube unit allow students to study virtual objects up close or rapidly make virtual prototypes of their ideas and projects and test how they work.

The college’s ICatcher theater allows 3D presentations to be shown to entire classrooms at once.

The Challenger Center will also make the 3D displays available for regular use by local K-12 students, helping them virtually explore possible careers and giving them the advantage of becoming familiar with the 3D environments at an early age.

The technology also includes the EON Holopodium, a portable podium with viewing screens attached to the top. The Holopodium can virtually deliver an instructor into a classroom from anywhere in the world, adding a whole new level of interactivity to distance learning classes.

Handshoe said that HCTC now has the highest concentration of this level of 3D technology in Kentucky, a distinction that will give an advantage to local students who want to learn to use the technology as it becomes more widespread in the future.

“Everything they need is right here,” Handshoe said.

Although visitors to the challenger center are wowed by the almost-science-fiction aspects of the technology, it is the technology’s potential uses in training and business that excites Crawford Blakeman, EKCEP’s business solutions manager.

“At EKCEP we are always looking for ways to help eastern Kentucky workers stay competitive in a changing world, and we think this technology is a very worthwhile investment in doing just that,” Blakeman said.