The Worldskills Aquatronics skill competition was won by the hosting country, Brazil. The Brazilian team consisted of Mrs. Francine Santiago Bucco, Mr. Edvin Ruan Pagotti Garcia, and their team expert Mr. Rodrigo Augusto Franco de Oliveira Zawadzki. Part of the Aquatronics competition included work on the Virtual Reality Aquatronics Simulator which was codeveloped by EON Reality and Festo Didactic and launched at the 43rd WorldSkills Competition in São Paulo 2015.

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As population growth places a strain on water supplies globally, there is a need for the creation of an overarching discipline, Aquatronics, which combines the key elements of several areas of study relevant to water and wastewater management. Aquatronics serves as a foundation for all water and wastewater management specializations.

The simulator features several Water and Wastewater scenarios in which users interact with a virtual water treatment plant, operate machinery, and perform emergency procedures. Through Virtual Reality, users will receive hands on experience with dangerous and difficult to reproduce situations.

Using the Aquatronics Virtual Reality Simulator allows a trainee to “learn by doing” thus increasing understanding and knowledge retention. Training in this 3D immersive environment is a vast improvement over conventional training techniques that focus on classroom lectures.

This year was the largest WorldSkills Competition in history with over 1,100 competitors representing over 60 countries and regions participating in 50 skills from trade, technology, and service-oriented careers supported by approximately 15,000 professionals and 800 volunteers. Held every two years, the WorldSkills Competition is the world’s largest professional education event. Competitors from the Americas, Europe, Asia, South Pacific, and Africa simulate real work challenges that must be completed to international standards of quality. All this took place utilizing 213,000 m² of Anhembi Park, just 7 km from the city center, the first time this entire complex has been used for a single event.