Welcome to the future, technologies and innovations that sculpt our industry.
This episode brought to you by zSpace, deliver immersive and interactive learning experiences
for tomorrow's workforce today.
Learn more at zspace.com.
All right everyone, thank you for joining us once again.
We are on day two of the National HVACR Education Conference.
We're hanging out with Nikki Lester from zSpace.
How are you doing?
I am well, thank you very much.
So we have spent so much time talking about innovations and transitions in the industry
and zSpace is right at the forefront of introducing technology into the classrooms.
And for some of us, introducing technology can be a little intimidating.
You know, we grew up with learning some technology, but not with the technology that we have today.
No, no, our students are actually now living in smart homes, right?
So it's very different than we grew up with our lock and key.
So they're surrounded with technology, they carry a plethora of tools in their hand at
all times, they're tied to technology.
And technology is coming to our industry in some very important ways.
When we talk about training, particularly in our younger students, like if we're in the
K through 12 environments, we actually have limitations.
It would be a really fun thing to go into a middle school and go, all right, boys and
girls, I'm getting a torch and we're going to burn something.
Anyone interested?
You're probably going to get quite a few that want to see what's going on.
But in reality, we can't do that.
Correct.
We have tools that can allow us to get involved and be embedded into that in new ways, new
ways of visualizing using things like augmented reality and even AI coming into the mix now.
That is correct.
So let's talk about that because there's probably educators that are listening that don't even
know what we're talking about.
And for me, it was an interesting introduction into what zSpace is doing.
You're in so many different fields and HVAC is now coming into that spectrum.
So you have years of experience in developing this technology for a variety of curriculums.
And now it's coming into our space.
So let's talk about zSpace in our space.
zSpace in our space.
That's fun.
That might be the podcast name for this episode everyone.
That's right.
So well, just to let everybody know, if they don't know what zSpace is, it is an augmented
virtual reality hardware software platform for training from kindergarten all the way
through industry.
And right now, so it's basically an experience in the laptop.
And then you have things that you can explode and dissect and do it over and over again
and remove that danger.
And so one of the things I really tell people when they're looking at zSpace or the why
of zSpace, there's a really important concept and I go with the dice.
And that is we help to remove the danger.
We make the impossible possible because now you can see electricity flow, you can see
refrigeration, you can see all these things that were abstract.
That's correct.
When we talk about our consumables and the counter-productiveness, we can either have
longevity over our consumables or we need less of them because we can experience some
of these things in this reality.
And then the expense.
We have a technology, there is an expense that's incurred.
But when you levy that out with everything that's going on in education and what you
can offer, literally it balances out for some of those costs.
And it's a media that our younger students probably prefer.
Absolutely.
So where we find the gaming, and I know not everybody enjoys that term, but literally
students are living in these different worlds with this augmented virtual reality and they're
thriving in it.
And what we find from obviously the technology goes faster than what the data and the research
can show us.
So we now have the research and data to show where cognitively these worlds they're living
in are actually landing, right?
And how it is influencing and helping education.
And a lot of these trainers, not just mine, but a lot of these experiences are offering
the capabilities for students to learn three to four times faster than traditional educational
methods.
So that's where the research is.
And then you flip the script and now you can, just like you said, you can offer things at
all different levels.
Whereas I may not want even some of my high school kids, unfortunately, to have a torch.
Yeah, right.
We different levels and it's per student, right?
So you know when the student is ready a lot of times, especially as, yeah, parents, teachers,
those types of things.
So we're not saying that all students can have those different ways.
But what about students that don't get those experiences or don't have the extra people
around to help them?
You can bring in a platform to a student even as low as kindergarten.
And when we talk about aptitudes and interest, right, we know in education, we have all the
academic data we can throw up on, right?
We collect it from the time that they're born.
But what we're starting to see and what businesses have done for years is they also collect that
aptitude and interest, right?
Build teams, they do things and they're more successful.
So if you take that approach with younger students, career readiness, right?
That's part of the conversation is for them to go out and explore.
And as you gather aptitude and interest, they ask questions such as, do you like to build
cabinets?
Do you like, well, how does a student know?
Yeah, they don't know what that even looks like.
There's no context, right?
And unless you can put them in a shop or something to give them that experience to have that
context, there is none.
So now we go ask questions where there's no context.
So how do they, how does that then give relevant data?
So if you can bring an experience or a platform or a situation, whatever the case you want
to call it down to the student, right, to the student level of whatever grade or level
that they're at and give them some of those real practical experiences almost because
what we do is almost the practical.
It's almost lifelike.
It's pretty young.
It's lifelike.
It is telling the brain in a sense, it is almost that practical experience.
Next best thing.
So if you can bring those types of experiences down to whatever age you want to start to
open up that door for students, then you can start to gravitate and get more of their
aptitude and interest, I think on a more relevant basis because now they have context.
So we can take down an engine.
We can have them disassemble that engine.
We can have them do some welding.
We can have them do all the dissections or learn about all of the different types of
chemistry or biology or lots of different things.
So ZSpace right now covers 12 of the 16 national career clusters in something of experience
wise for students.
Yeah, and I've really seen that developing significantly in our industry.
And as an educator, I know personally, it's difficult to take an item and say inside of
this, this is what is going on.
So I don't function like that.
I'm a hands on.
I need to be able to see what it is, move it around a little bit and be able to get
a picture of it from a multiple dimension.
I'm not real great with just pictures.
I need to be able to see how something functions.
And so in my classes, I would just simply take that part and I would spend hours cutting
it open and cleaning up the cut edges so that no one slices their fingers on my solzol shell
of a filter dryer or a compressor or whatever it is, and then try to keep things organized
to the point.
So I like with the filter dryer so that the distant beads are not just rolling around
on the table when I set it down.
Trying to keep things contained to where it actually looks as close as what it should
to how it started before I tore it apart and then be able to say, okay, now this is how
each of these things work.
So some components we can successfully do that, but many of them we can't, especially
when we add things like fluids and when we have air movement, when we have other properties
that we just can't duplicate.
Well, we can with technology.
Yes, we can.
Yeah.
And that's the interesting thing that we just don't put into understanding until you see
it.
And then you go, oh my gosh, that's what I'm trying to say right there.
Right.
So I'm a prior diesel mechanic many, many, many, many, many, many moons ago.
Right.
That was one of my first careers.
I've had many.
So when you talk about those abstract concepts, gear rotation, fluid flow, electricity, right,
things that you couldn't visualize, they now can be very visual, right?
You can actually see how the fluid is flowing through as the gears are rotating.
Right.
You can see how the pressurization for refrigeration is coming through.
Right.
And what does that what's that look like?
And there's no risk of escaping into our environment.
So again, all of the danger, whether it's to the student or to the environment, all
of these things are possible now within these environments from these platforms.
Wow.
And I have seen so many different organizations, especially non for profit organizations coming
to the forefront going, hey, we want to get education and awareness into our younger students
to build, at least show them that there are different paths and to show them that there
are things in their world that they might be interested on working on someday.
But boy, you better be on your game to catch their attention.
And this is a great way to do that.
It's that introductory to, hey, if you just want to take a peek at how, you know, how
things can be, let me show you, or if you're already involved with this and you want to
dive really deep and get advanced into this, we can actually continue.
You can actually start from the thousand foot view and then work all the way into the interior
of that component.
Right.
We actually have some of our platforms even at medical schools.
Right.
So I can believe it.
Yeah.
You know, up, up towards the top.
But going back to your comment about AI, when we talk about our younger generation, right,
we now are offering a career readiness solution, which is new, and it has an AI component to
it.
And so we call it a career coach.
And it is with the thought process of what we talked about before, being able to bring
that platform down to our younger students.
But who's driving the bus?
Yeah, where's the teacher in this?
And so, you know, I'm a prior career and tech ed director, administrator, and those types
of things.
I've lived and grown up in this world.
We don't see those types of teachers down at the elementary school normally.
Right.
So how do they get those conversations?
By having this career coach that's driven by AI.
It has guardrails.
So it doesn't allow the students to do just anything.
It is based on a large language model.
Okay.
So it has been given all of the federal websites, those types of things for students to go out
and really do some of that career exploration and help along the side.
So if a student has a question, they can open up the AI career coach, ask the question,
and it is set on that career basis.
Whereas, like I said, your elementary teachers are not necessarily vested in the career exploration.
Sure, they may not be introduced themselves.
That's right.
And even their counselors, you know, to be fair, they're more of the social emotional
versus the workforce.
Right.
We're starting to see different variations of counseling and things like that at different
levels to incorporate more of the career and workforce awareness, right, that final output
for our students.
But at the elementary level, they still need their, you know, they need their social, emotional,
and they need all of those things that they have.
So how can you bring that?
And we feel as though having that career coach on the side is a great way to help drive that
process.
You know, you always have an adult in the room.
But if you don't have the subject matter expert, those students can still do some awareness
from those subject matter areas.
Yeah, so important, especially as we continue with our population explosion, you know, in
the availability of that student to teacher ratio that is now continually changing, it's
tough to have enough time to invest in everyone that has an interest in things.
And so now we are starting to introduce more opportunities for that.
Absolutely.
Yeah, very, very, very cool stuff.
All right.
And so is that how soon is that when is that going to be rolling out?
So it's a pilot right now.
We expect in the next six months or so it will be a live piece that will be driven.
We have some districts right now that are trying it out for us so that we get nice feedback.
So we've got, you know, a really nice coming out.
And so it is it is an additional piece that goes along with a bundling package that we
have, especially for our elementary that does a lot of our learning apps.
So some of the basic science, some of the basic physics, things like that, that they
can also use not only for career readiness, but also to help supplement some of their
other areas if they want to include that.
It's available right within the package.
So it makes it a pretty cool tool to be able to help serve some of their STEM, STEAM side
of the house.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Also, as well as the career awareness.
Nice.
And so as an educator, if I'm interested in learning more about what's happening in the
Z space space, where am I going to begin my journey?
So I always tell people zspace.com is a great place to go to.
We have a really wonderful website.
You can find out all the different types of software packages that we do have.
I mentioned 12 of the 16 national career clusters we cover from kindergarten all the way up
through industry.
We have a newer platform called Inspire.
So it is a laptop.
It can also be used as your eSports machine if needed.
So again, a multi purpose machine, right?
Kind of a computer on steroids.
So it's awesome.
And when it's not zspace, you find you've got a regular Windows 11, you see that can
be used also, right?
So zspace.com is where I tell people to go.
If you're looking, you can always go out there.
You can request a demo.
We then hop on a call, we have a blended and remote solution as well.
So that's important to know.
And then from there, we go ahead and we bring the equipment on site so that your stakeholders,
everybody, right, your kids, your administrators, your board members, your teachers, right,
because we need champions to help run the bus.
But you also need those people at the top who can help support with writing.
Yeah, absolutely.
You got to prove it to somebody.
So zspace.com is a great, great place to stop.
You'll be able to find out all the information about the products.
I always tell my teachers, go out there, go under your product tab, go under applications.
And there's little icons that are out there.
And those are all indicative of all the different software that we can run on our platform.
And you can run one software package or you can run them all.
But the point is, is going out there and finding out and clicking on those icons for the software,
it will give you a plethora of information on that specific software.
So I kind of call it my teachers homework, right?
If you want really great conversations when we come in, do a little bit of that homework.
You have a great way of identifying what software you probably need.
And then we have really great conversations to continue that movement when we come in.
Yeah, absolutely.
Sounds like it.
All right.
And you have a space here at the conference?
We do.
We do 1007.
So we're over on the side of the wall.
Please come check us out.
Definitely do.
All right.
Well, thanks, everyone, for joining us and we'll see you on the next episode.
Thank you.