Background
Big Bend Technical College, part of Taylor County Schools in Perry, Florida, runs an Industrial Engineering Technology program in a rural county working to rebuild its economy after two mill closures and hurricane damage. The college is opening a 10,000-square-foot Advanced Manufacturing facility to house the program, training students in automation, robotics, welding and millwright skills.
The deployment
The program's lab is already equipped with Amatrol hydraulic and pneumatic trainers, together with fault-based systems trainers built around industrial robotic arms. Working with instructors, the college identified an opportunity to add zSpace Inspire, a headset-free AR/VR learning platform that runs on a laptop, so students can safely explore and practise on virtual versions of that same equipment before stepping into the lab.
The college's zSpace curriculum spans three strands, each mirroring a physical trainer students will later use hands-on:
- Advanced Manufacturing - hydraulic, mechanical and pneumatic systems
- Industrial Robotics
- Process Technology
Why it is set up this way
The college has a limited number of physical trainers, so lab time is scarce and shared. Because the virtual equipment runs on a laptop, an entire class can work through self-paced, hands-on practice simultaneously - something the physical trainers alone cannot support. Students who arrive at the lab already familiar with the components and procedures spend their limited bench time mastering skills rather than meeting the equipment for the first time.
The college plans to keep running the two side by side, with the virtual trainers building foundational familiarity and the Amatrol equipment reinforcing real-world mastery.
Reported effect
No measured outcomes have been published. The benefits described - faster, more confident progression through the physical lab, and exposure to work environments rural students would not otherwise encounter - are the college's own qualitative account rather than results from a study.
Wider context
The approach reflects a broader pattern in career and technical education, where AR/VR is used alongside physical trainers to close the gap between classroom instruction and the systems used in modern manufacturing, without a school having to buy enough physical equipment for every student to train on at once. zSpace scheduled a free panel discussion featuring the college's director for 25 August 2026, hosted as part of the AMTEC Institute for Industry 4.0 Innovation's Community of Practice series.
