About 25 people visited Virginia Peninsula Community College's Trades Center in Toano on Wednesday, May 29, to see the integrated Digital Shipbuilding Mobile Experience (MX), courtesy of Huntington Ingalls Industry and Newport News Shipbuilding. The MX is a 1,000-square-foot training facility fitted with innovative technologies and software associated with ship repair. Guests had the opportunity to visit five stations in the trailer: virtual reality training, visual work instruction (VWI), virtual welding, laser scanning, and augmented reality. HII purchased the trailer in 2017 and it has been traveling the country ever since, with stops in Houston, Chicago, Washington, D.C., Richmond and many other locations. More than 55,000 visitiors have attended the exhibits. The shipyard, which has openings for engineers and employees in all the trades, uses the trailer for recruiting purposes as well as training.
At the event, VPCC also showed off its 7,800-square foot facility, which offers training in welding, carpenty, facilities maintenance, masonry, and CNC machining. Plans are in the works for another similar event in late summer or the beginning of fall. For more information on VPCC, visit www.VPCC.edu.