"Making Welding More Approachable Through VR"
Project Title: Spark-Smith Studio
Team Members: Yuelin Liu, Barry Yuan, Ethan Wills, Alvin Li, Zelin Chen
Faculty Advisors: Scott Stevens, Derek Ham
Partners: Industrial Arts Workshop, Manufacturing Futures Institute, CMU School of Design
The Idea
Due to a combination of a rapidly aging workforce and an anticipated increase in demand due to infrastructure projects, the United States is projected to need more than 300,000 new welding professionals by 2029. Despite that demand, few young people are entering the trade. Learning to weld is intimidating; it requires specialized equipment, strict safety procedures, and plenty of practice.
Carnegie Mellon University’s Manufacturing Futures Institute has been working on designing new ways to train welders by developing an XR welding helmet and torch system. But the simulation initially developed for the hardware focused solely on skills — it was an effective way to teach people to weld, but not to interest them in becoming welders.
That’s where the Spark-Smith Studio team came in. They were tasked by School of Design Associate Professor Dina El-Zanfaly with creating a simulation that was as entertaining as it was educational. After meeting with their client, the Spark-Smith Studio team set a goal of creating a gamified VR experience that would build players’ interest and confidence in welding and motivate them to learn more about the trade.
"Working on this project gave us the opportunity to address a real-world issue — the national metalworker shortage — by using narrative storytelling to make XR welding approachable for teens. As the producer, managing production schedules, running stakeholder meetings, presenting in major events (like GDC), and maintaining partnerships with outside organizations reshaped how I approach product management and team leadership."
Yuelin Liu
Spark-Smith Studio Producer
The Process
The first step for the team was defining exactly what they wanted to accomplish. They quickly agreed on the game’s narrative: a lone welder in space repairing meteor damage to their spacecraft in order to save the crew and the mission. But in order for the game to succeed, they knew they needed to have a good grasp of the actual mechanics of welding. With that in mind, they reached out to outside experts at Mill 19 and the Industrial Arts Workshop.
At Mill 19, they consulted with researchers and learned more about robotic welding systems and manufacturing testbeds, ensuring their game would be grounded in real industrial practices. At Industrial Arts Workshop (IAW), the team learned how to do it themselves — practicing line welds and combining line and point welds to create an art piece. In the process, they made several important discoveries: that beginners naturally weld much faster than they should, that visual and audio feedback are essential for evaluating weld quality, and that welding often creates a calm, focused "zen" state — an emotional quality they wanted to preserve in the VR experience. The visit also kicked off a series of discussions that led to IAW joining the project as an official partner, giving the Spark-Smith Studio team access to IAW students for playtesting.
What they learned at IAW directly informed the game's mechanics. To teach pacing, the team developed a metaball-based welding system that rewards steady movement while providing immediate visual feedback when players move too quickly or too slowly. They also built dynamic audio, visual effects, mission boards, and environmental cues to help players understand the quality of their work without overwhelming them with technical information.
The team conducted playtesting sessions with high school and Industrial Arts Workshop students, which revealed issues around first-time VR use, the experience’s visual design, and a lack of guidance. In response, the team redesigned their instructional materials, improved interaction feedback, and strengthened the narrative framing so players better understood both what they were doing and why they were doing it. By the end of the semester, nearly every major feature in their final product had been shaped through observation and iteration.
“The work the students did is a great exploration of the nature of learning itself. While it’s true that VR’s impact on learning has already been studied, the team’s gamified narrative approach demonstrates the importance of motive and retention in learning environments. Simply put, story matters — even in learning applications! I look forward to seeing many more experimentations like this that situate skill and trade learning in the context of fictional stories.”
Derek Ham
Faculty Advisor
The Impact
- Established an ongoing partnership with Industrial Arts Workshop (IAW) and CMU School of Design
- Demonstrated the value of gamified education experiences through qualitative and quantitative data gathering
- Presented a prototype of the experience at GDC 2026
The team accomplished exactly what they set out to do: developing a 15-minute, gamified VR experience centered on welding. Throughout the playtesting process, the Spark-Smith Studio team had carefully collected both quantitative and qualitative data to understand how players responded to the experience. Among testers, 65% reported feeling confident in their skills after playing, and 85% said welding itself was their favorite part of the experience.
Their final product was shared with El-Zanfaly and the Manufacturing Futures Institute, as well as Industrial Arts Workshop, who now use the experience in the classroom with students. The Spark-Smith team also plans to continue working on the experience with the goal of expanding gameplay and adding more welding mechanics that bring the game even closer to reality.