A university professor uses Kingdom Tears to teach engineering

Link’s new capabilities in The Legend of Zelda: Kingdom Tears Allows you to build all kinds of contraptions, from Functional computers To uh, flamethrower dicks. Thanks to these building powers, a university professor uses… TotakMechanics and physics engine to teach students a little about engineering and robotics.

spotted on Nintendo Switch subredditRyan Suchol, associate professor of mechanical engineering at the University of Maryland and director Bioinspired advanced manufacturing laboratory (BAM), Nintendo’s popular open-world action-adventure game, is used to enhance students’ knowledge of machine construction and design. As Sochul explained in Video on YouTube dated November 12“class,”The Legend of Zelda: Link to Machine Design“You’ll take advantage of different aspects of the game, from physics to Rune abilities like Fuse and Ultrahand, to give mechanical engineering students a window into the world of robotics. It’s actually pretty sick.”

“What surprised me, while I was playing [Tears of the Kingdom]“The unexpected focus was on machine design and engineering,” Suchul said in the video. “Therefore, the game includes a number of different types of machine elements such as missiles, robotic wheels, [and] Fans. What’s interesting is that each of the different components of the machine uses energy differently. “

Read more: Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom The site will help you create those wild designs you see [Update]
He buys The Legend of Zelda: Kingdom Tears: Amazon | Best buy | GameStop

The way the cycle breaks down is fascinating. Students are grouped into teams — three to four people per group — and given a Nintendo Switch with a physical copy of Kingdom tears and a professional console, which students can take home with them during the semester.

Students first learn the basics TotakGame machine items to complete in-game problem-solving challenges (such as finishing the shrine in a creative and unexpected way). Next, teams are tasked with investigating a particular component of the machine to discover how it performs under different types of conditions. Finally, students take what they’ve learned to take on the Machine Design Challenge, with tests that see teams create a prototype and build a transformative, biologically inspired amphibious robotic vehicle for an in-class race. The team with the fastest robot on land and sea wins an A+.

“We believe the trial run of the course for this semester is just the beginning,” Suchul said at the end of his YouTube video. “We hope to capitalize on this special opportunity in which a video game is truly capable of providing authentic and reasonably relevant learning experiences for students to inspire lasting interest and confidence in machine design, engineering, and robotics.”

Gaming engineering with the hero of time

Sokol appears to have done just that. In a phone interview with KotakuCreating a one-credit college course was a bit of a scramble, he said –Totak Launched in May, Social wanted to start the semester by June, and ended up enrolling far more students than he could reasonably teach. In fact, not only did he have to cut records, he also took away points.

“I had to set limits on how many Nintendo Switch consoles I could buy and all that stuff,” Sokol told me. “And also, can I find a classroom that has all these TVs and such. So, I had to cap my class at about 20 people or so [students]. I had to hold a lottery for students so they could apply for the class [because] Over 100 people filled out this sweepstakes and I had to stop accepting responses at some point. It’s just getting ridiculous.

Curious students were asked a questionnaire asking about their history with Legend of Zelda More specifically, Kingdom tears. People who were more familiar with both were more likely to join the course, but when the dust settled — a random number generator was eventually used to select students — Sochul said half the course was never played Zelda Game. never. Meanwhile, only one student was beaten Totak By the time the tournament started, only four had played it. Despite this unfamiliarity, Sokol said the less experienced team won the midterm challenge race.

What’s also cool is that Sochol paired the game with it Industry-standard computer-aided design (CAD) is used by other engineers – including himself – to build robots and products. Students will, for example, build a car Totak Then try replicating it in CAD format, detailing the differences side-by-side to see how the game’s virtual world relates to the real world. In this way, students learn some complementary computer-aided design (CAD) skills for IRL application while testing theories in 3D space.

It is also significantly cheaper to do it this way, such as computer-aided design (CAD) software in particular SolidWorks software Engineering courses at Sokol University and the University of Maryland can be used to generate hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars for an annual subscription. However, he said the class itself, while more cost-effective than signing up for a computer-aided design program, is still a drain on his wallet. Sokol explained:

This is the really funny thing. I think if you’re outside of the academic world or the engineering world, you might look at it [as expensive]. But to give you a frame of reference, the CAD software I’m talking about using? The license we personally got for my lab for one computer for a year is $10,000. Even one of the major emulators my group uses, which I feel is not that expensive, is still $3,000 for a one-year license. And I have to keep signing up for that every year so my students can simulate floating interactions and things like that. […] Through this course, I got six Nintendo Switches, six game cartridges, and got six Pro Controllers. So we were left with less than $3,000 and they would never go away. I can use these forever. It’s a one-time purchase, and honestly, all together it’s still less than the computer I had to buy to even start this whole process of getting a license.

The hope as the course enters its final weeks is to expand the course’s curriculum — making it a more intensive, three-credit class — and structure it so other colleges can offer something similar, Suchol said. he shown on his LinkedIn page How he built the class to inspire other professors to do the same. He also intends to run the course in the spring semester — and the next, and the next — as long as there is funding and students. It’s a one-credit elective course, which is like sitting in a seminar for an attendance grade, but Sokol has aspirations to make it a class with much more weight in the long term. For now, Suchul is very impressed with his students’ progress.

Read more: Sales of Kingdom Tears prove that open-world Zelda is here to stay
He buys The Legend of Zelda: Kingdom Tears: Amazon | Best buy | GameStop

With tremendous success that Kingdom tears, Which has sold nearly 20 million units since its launch on May 12Sokol hopes other developers will follow suit Play in learningOr “game-based learning,” which is the use of video games to teach students a variety of curricula. Would love to see this too. It shows that the medium is capable of more than we realize.

Oh, and in case you’re curious: Project Sokol is complete Totak (With his wife no less) and his favorite Zelda the game Ocarina of Time.