This Zelda fan is using Tears of the Kingdom to teach real-life engineering students at a university

gamesradar.com:

A Zelda fan - and university professor - is using Tears of the Kingdom to teach undergraduate engineering students in the US. 

Professor Ryan Sochol, of the University of Maryland, has recently launched a new class appropriately called 'The Legend of Zelda: A Link to Machine Design.' In the class, students will use Tears of the Kingdom's building mechanics and Link's new Ultrahand ability to advance their knowledge of machine design and engineering. 

In a video that explains the new course, professor Sochol says following Tears of the Kingdom's release in May 2023: "I felt like we had this unique opportunity to help students advance their understanding and knowledge of machine design and engineering." The professor continues: "What surprised me, as I was playing through the game, was the unexpected emphasis on machine design and engineering."

As Tears of the Kingdom players will already know, the game features many types of machine elements, including rockets, wheels, propellers, springs, and more. "What's interesting is that each of these machine elements uses energy differently," the professor explains. "In engineering fields, we use computer-aided design or 'CAD software' to design everything from vehicles to robots, to everyday mechanical parts." According to Sochol, the Zelda title "actually includes its own CAD interface," although a rather simplistic one compared to the real thing.

The professor then goes on to state how sophisticated the physics are in Tears of the Kingdom, going as far as revealing: "In engineering fields, we might spend tens of thousands of dollars a year to license sophisticated software to model these kinds of physics - but with a Nintendo Switch, and the video game, we're able to replicate