Award for best ongoing engineering project

At the XVII Regional Meeting of Research Seedbeds RedCOLSI Bogotá Node, student José Manuel Bobadilla Rivera won the award in the category of Best Project in Progress in Engineering.

The XVII Regional Meeting of Research Seedbeds RedCOLSI Bogotá – Cundinamarca Node, had the participation of 1,000 research projects from 40 Higher Education Institutions, among which were 36 students from the University of Cundinamarca, from which the student of the Industrial Engineering program (Soacha Extension) José Manuel Bobadilla Rivera stood out by winning first place in the category Best Project in Progress of Engineering with the project: “Application of virtual reality for the operation and preventive maintenance in the chassis dynamometer laboratory”, located in the Center of Transport Technologies (CTT), SENA”. .

“It is important to participate in the different events presented by the University of Cundinamarca, to represent it and to seek support and dissemination of the alma mater that allowed us to train and undertake the project: Virtual Chassis Dynamometer,” said José Manuel Bobadilla, student and winner in RedCOLSI.

This project aims to perform and visualize torque-power tests, gas emissions, and preventive maintenance.. Research management is based on the rational unified process methodology (RUP), a tool with a dynamic structure that allows a fundamentally iterative process, comprising six (6) stages (Business modeling, requirements, analysis and design, implementation, testing and deployment), where each one goes through four (4) implicit phases (Initiation, elaboration, development and closure).

This project developed a virtual reality application based on the RUP methodology as a support tool in the training of internal users of SENA (Apprentices, instructors and administrative staff) and the external community belonging to entities or people at the national level who wish to visualize the operations of the laboratory -Chassis Dynamometer-.

“It has been proven that implementing a virtual reality application for Android mobile devices reduces time and costs,” stated José Manuel, a tenth-semester student and member of the Invensoft research group. This group conducts its research activities primarily at the Chía Extension campus under the leadership of Professor Edison Gustavo Cañón Varela. With this project, José Manuel has participated in other academic events, such as the First Graine Research Group Meeting at the San José Higher Education Foundation, where he achieved third place, and the Seventh SENA-CTT Automotive Entrepreneurship and Innovation Project Fair, where his project received recognition as a SENNOVA innovation project.

“The story of my project”

By José Manuel Bobadilla

In 2017, I began searching for an idea to develop a research project. The idea arose during an academic forum for sharing projects from the different university campuses, held in the auditorium of the Soacha campus. A project was presented there that taught the anatomy of a fish using augmented reality, and that's when I thought about creating an augmented reality project that would illustrate a machine and, at the same time, represent an industrial process.

The following semester, the professor who teaches Environmental Management mentioned that the first Academic Meeting of Creativity and Innovation (EACI 2017) was going to be held, offering an incentive to participants. So, without an advisor and only with the idea and motivation, I registered with the project: “Augmented Reality Management for Industrial Equipment.” That day I arrived with only the poster; however, I presented the idea, and the project won second place.

This initial achievement indicated to me that I was on the right track, and from then on I began searching for a director to help guide the idea. The road was difficult. The project faced rejection for various reasons, such as its industrial focus, lack of expertise, and insufficient commitment—in short, there were numerous obstacles. Subsequently, the 6th International Engineering Congress CIIUDEC 2017 was held at the Fusagasugá campus. This event provided an opportunity to integrate, inform, and update the community on the various scientific advancements in the field of engineering.

Engineer Edison Gustavo Cañón Varela was conducting a Unity 3D game development workshop. I attended and explained the idea to him, and he confidently agreed to lead the project. Following the project's recognition and increased visibility in academic circles, and with a director on board, another challenge arose: finding the right software to implement the project.

In this regard, I decided to take my project to the SENA (National Learning Service) at the Cazucá campus, and it has been evolving there. I won't give up… The story will surely continue with its implementation in the productive sector.

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