After 20 years, the driving simulator brings back the admission exam
The driving simulator is a new technological revelation, because we live in an age of speed, in which time is never enough, everything develops quickly, many fail to adapt or refuse to, lose out and fall behind; sometimes we can be surprised by where progress begins.
Let's get straight to the point: like any institution or business, we want success. But what does success mean for an educational institution? Its students.
To our pleasant surprise, the first school in Romania to take the step towards innovation was Liceul Tehnologic Cadea nr. 1, a small provincial school that drew on European investment funds and, with the help of Inovum SRL, bought a simulator for construction machinery.
The lovely story of this high school is that until now only local students wanted to go there, perhaps because they had no way of going to another school, but now the tables have turned: after more than two decades, an admission exam is needed, because the number of students who want to study there is far too high.
Driving simulator
The driving simulator and its benefits
To keep it simple: the simulator makes a realistic transfer from physical learning, on farm machinery, a car, a lorry, a bus, an ambulance, heavy or construction machinery, to virtual learning, which cuts carbon emissions from the 120 g CO2/km of an ordinary car to 0 g CO2/km and cannot cause accidents to either the machine or the driver, so it lowers the overall risk of material damage during training.
This transfer to the virtual world prepares students in a novel way, stimulates almost all the senses, builds automatic responses and reflexes, lets them practise situations they may meet in reality, and lets them understand those situations fully before using the system on a real vehicle.
Why risk accidents in which students overturn or hit the vehicle? It has happened so many times; let's learn from mistakes.
This lets the person driving the simulator live and feel the whole process, the start and the authentic sound of the engine, with realistic technology but without risk: this is where the student's adventure begins.
The simulator has two important parts: the hardware, which includes 4 realistic screens and the controls for each machine or vehicle, and the software, which represents the machine or vehicle, meaning one simulator can have several programs (ambulance, car, bus, etc.). An artificial-intelligence assistant scores every attempt, measured against quality, safety and economy; a very important feature is the camera that looks straight into the driver's eyes, to see their reactions and analyse their progress.
For good performance and conduct, the multi-machine environment lets several users work on the same site; this encourages communication and teamwork. To do this, at least two simulators are needed.
How the driving simulator helped Liceul Tehnologic Cadea
The students were delighted with the device, and their enthusiasm showed in thousands of posts, photos and videos on social media, and in the best marketing of all, word of mouth.
It all grew enormously: on top of the thousands of posts, the school made it onto TV and Bihor radio, all of which gave the school a great reputation, and students are eager to enrol.
Experience and recommendations from the high school
Why are we short of skilled tradespeople if vocational schools say everything is going well?
Students who have access to this device will have an edge over everyone else, because they will have hundreds of hours on the machine, compared with those who get a certificate in 10 hours. Over their 4 years of high school, students will learn to cope with any situation, gain experience and may discover their passion.
Students can be recommended to construction companies, logistics companies or other fields; all of this makes the school practical and attractive to many students, offering studies that benefit everyone and a livelihood right after graduation or even before.
Romania used to have a system in which students finishing such a high school received a certificate, but with the fall of communism this system could no longer be sustained.
These simulators are the revelation of the 21st century. Although they seem a large investment, and they are, if we were to buy all the machines separately, with their maintenance, the risk of breakdowns and their wear, the costs would be much higher. The simulator brings all the machines together in a single system.
Which will be the first school in Romania to create a system of simulators?
