{"id":{"repo_id":"uiuc","oai_identifier":"oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/130232"},"canonical_url":"https://search.dev.ndltd.org/etd/uiuc/oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/130232","repository":{"repo_id":"uiuc","name":"University of Illinois - Urbana-Champaign","base_url":"https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/oai-pmh"},"display":{"title":"Enhancing complex technical environment training with immersive digital twins","abstract":"Submission published under a 24 month embargo labeled 'Closed Access', the embargo will last until 2027-08-01","abstract_html":"Submission published under a 24 month embargo labeled 'Closed Access', the embargo will last until 2027-08-01","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Wei, Jionghao"],"institution":"University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign","degree_name":"M.S.","degree_level":"Thesis","degree_discipline":"Electrical & Computer Engr","degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":["Caesar, Matthew"],"advisors":[],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":2025,"date_issued":"2025-07-25","date_published":"2025-07-25","updated_at":"2026-07-22T22:25:06Z","subjects":["Immersive Digital Twin","3d Gaussian Splatting","Computer Vision","Scene Reconstruction","Iot","Cleanroom Simulation"],"languages":["en","eng"],"rights":["All Rights Reserved."],"rights_urls":[],"identifier_entries":[]},"links":{"outbound_url":"https://hdl.handle.net/2142/130232","outbound_label":"Handle","outbound_source":"dc:identifier"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:contributor","label":"Contributor","values":["Caesar, Matthew"]},{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Wei, Jionghao"]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"dc:date","label":"Dc Date","values":["2025-07-25","2025-08"]},{"key":"dc:type","label":"Dc Type","values":["text"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_discipline","label":"Discipline","values":["Electrical & Computer Engr"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_level","label":"Degree Level","values":["Thesis"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_name","label":"Degree Name","values":["M.S."]},{"key":"thesis:institution_name","label":"Thesis Institution Name","values":["University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign"]}]},{"id":"subjects_keywords","label":"Subjects and Keywords","entries":[{"key":"dc:subject","label":"Dc Subject","values":["Immersive Digital Twin","3d Gaussian Splatting","Computer Vision","Scene Reconstruction","Iot","Cleanroom Simulation"]}]},{"id":"language_rights","label":"Language and Rights","entries":[{"key":"dc:language","label":"Dc Language","values":["en","eng"]},{"key":"dc:rights","label":"Dc Rights","values":["All Rights Reserved."]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier","label":"Identifier","values":["https://hdl.handle.net/2142/130232"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description","label":"Description","values":["Submission published under a 24 month embargo labeled 'Closed Access', the embargo will last until 2027-08-01","The student, Jionghao Wei, accepted the attached license on 2025-07-25 at 14:19.","The student, Jionghao Wei, submitted this Thesis for approval on 2025-07-25 at 14:19.","This Thesis was approved for publication on 2025-07-25 at 14:46.","DSpace SAF Submission Ingestion Package generated from Vireo submission #22741 on 2025-10-25 at 15:54:39","Immersive digital twins hold great promise for advancing training and education in complex technical domains, offering interactive, spatially rich alternatives to traditional instruction. In semiconductor cleanrooms—environments where access is restricted and procedures are intricate—novices often rely on passive materials such as manuals and orientation videos, which do little to foster spatial understanding or procedural fluency. While recent photorealistic reconstruction techniques, such as NeRFs, have improved visual fidelity, they struggle to scale to large environments and do not readily support interactive simulation, thereby limiting their effectiveness for experiential learning. This thesis investigates whether an immersive digital twin with continuous photorealistic rendering and integrated environmental simulation can effectively support users in acquiring spatial and functional knowledge of a complex technical environment. To facilitate the investigation, we developed a realistic digital twin pipeline that constructs a cleanroom digital twin using 3D Gaussian Splatting (3DGS) for enhanced visual realism. This pipeline was integrated into Unity, incorporating a structural skeleton and dynamic simulations of airflow, temperature, pressure, and humidity. We conducted a mixed-methods evaluation consisting of a pre-test/post-test user study with 24 students unfamiliar with cleanroom environments, as well as expert interviews with nine graduate researchers and one cleanroom engineer. Results show significant learning gains among users and positive feedback from experts regarding the system’s realism and training value. These findings provide empirical evidence that immersive digital twins, when designed with both visual and functional fidelity, can enhance learning outcomes in complex technical environments."]},{"key":"dc:format","label":"Dc Format","values":["application/pdf"]},{"key":"dc:title","label":"Title","values":["Enhancing complex technical environment training with immersive digital twins"]}]}],"canonical_facts":{"dc:contributor":["Caesar, Matthew"],"dc:creator":["Wei, Jionghao"],"dc:date":["2025-07-25","2025-08"],"dc:description":["Submission published under a 24 month embargo labeled 'Closed Access', the embargo will last until 2027-08-01","The student, Jionghao Wei, accepted the attached license on 2025-07-25 at 14:19.","The student, Jionghao Wei, submitted this Thesis for approval on 2025-07-25 at 14:19.","This Thesis was approved for publication on 2025-07-25 at 14:46.","DSpace SAF Submission Ingestion Package generated from Vireo submission #22741 on 2025-10-25 at 15:54:39","Immersive digital twins hold great promise for advancing training and education in complex technical domains, offering interactive, spatially rich alternatives to traditional instruction. In semiconductor cleanrooms—environments where access is restricted and procedures are intricate—novices often rely on passive materials such as manuals and orientation videos, which do little to foster spatial understanding or procedural fluency. While recent photorealistic reconstruction techniques, such as NeRFs, have improved visual fidelity, they struggle to scale to large environments and do not readily support interactive simulation, thereby limiting their effectiveness for experiential learning. This thesis investigates whether an immersive digital twin with continuous photorealistic rendering and integrated environmental simulation can effectively support users in acquiring spatial and functional knowledge of a complex technical environment. To facilitate the investigation, we developed a realistic digital twin pipeline that constructs a cleanroom digital twin using 3D Gaussian Splatting (3DGS) for enhanced visual realism. This pipeline was integrated into Unity, incorporating a structural skeleton and dynamic simulations of airflow, temperature, pressure, and humidity. We conducted a mixed-methods evaluation consisting of a pre-test/post-test user study with 24 students unfamiliar with cleanroom environments, as well as expert interviews with nine graduate researchers and one cleanroom engineer. Results show significant learning gains among users and positive feedback from experts regarding the system’s realism and training value. These findings provide empirical evidence that immersive digital twins, when designed with both visual and functional fidelity, can enhance learning outcomes in complex technical environments."],"dc:format":["application/pdf"],"dc:identifier":["https://hdl.handle.net/2142/130232"],"dc:language":["en","eng"],"dc:rights":["All Rights Reserved."],"dc:subject":["Immersive Digital Twin","3d Gaussian Splatting","Computer Vision","Scene Reconstruction","Iot","Cleanroom Simulation"],"dc:title":["Enhancing complex technical environment training with immersive digital twins"],"dc:type":["text"],"thesis:degree_discipline":["Electrical & Computer Engr"],"thesis:degree_level":["Thesis"],"thesis:degree_name":["M.S."],"thesis:institution_name":["University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign"]},"updated_at":"2026-07-22T22:25:06Z"}