TECHNOLOGY TRANSFER USING XRSIM AS A TRAINING TOOL Bruce Crouse Cowley County Community College Arkansas City, KS 67005 Joe Gray Center for Nondestructive Evaluation Iowa State University Ames, IA 50011 Brian Larson Center for Nondestructive Evaluation Iowa State University Ames,IA 50011 INTRODUCTION In a collaboration between Cowley County Community College and Iowa State University, unique capabilities at the institutions are being combined to develop an NDE simulation teaching tool. The tool, based on XRSIM [1-4], will allow physically accurate radiographic inspections to be simulated using a computer aided design (CAD) model of a part. XRSIM was developed primarily as an industrial problem-solving tool; however, it has much to offer as a teaching tool. Cowley County Community College is leading the effort to develop the course material that will allow instructors to use XRSIM to teach students the fundamentals of radiography. There are a number of benefits to using the simulation program in the classroom. One of the main benefits of using the program is that students receive immediate feedback on the effects that variables have on radiograph quality. The program allows the student to modify his or her major variables, note the effect and optimize the parameters before proceeding on to actual exposure of the film. This will improve the learning experience, reduce time on task for the student and considerably reduce material costs for the school. This paper discusses the use of computer based quantitative NDE simulation programs for NDE training and introduces the first of a series of training modules that are being developed. RI!View of Progress in Quantitative Nondestructive Evaluation. Vol. J 7 Edited by D.O. Thompson and D.E. Chimenti" Plenum Press, New York, 1998 2085