Atlantic Technological University and Vodafone Ireland have successfully secured €4.6 million in funding from the EU’s Connecting Europe Facility Digital Fund to develop digital technologies for new online and on campus apprenticeship courses for engineering and construction students.
The initiative will be piloted at the Donegal campus.
The fund will be used to develop Extended Reality (XR) labs powered by a private 5G standalone network and on-campus edge computing delivered by Vodafone Ireland.
The initiative will be piloted at ATU Donegal, where students will gain access to immersive virtual and augmented reality environments that replicate physical labs and workshops.
This funding will allow students to learn in new and flexible ways, combining classroom teaching with remote and virtual training, making education more accessible, especially for people living in rural areas or those balancing work, study and apprenticeship programmes.
Specifically, the new training tools will include:
- Virtual construction labs where students can practice building using digital models
- Immersive learning platforms that simulate real building and construction environments
- 3D video streaming to help students learn technical skills through realistic simulations
