Virtual Signals/Controls Laboratory for Distance Education

Bruce L. Walcott博士和Michael A. Marra博士认识到传统的工程专业学生不再是传统。在肯塔基大学，超过一半的本科生属于非传统类型（例如，有先前或当前工作经验的学生，可能有家庭的学生，不需要通勤的学生）。这一趋势在过去十年中稳步增长，很可能在下一个千年中继续下去。此外，身体残疾和地方限制的学生不能与非残疾学生一样享有平等的教育/实验室经验。沃尔科特博士和马拉博士已经开发了自主实验室实验，以加强他们在肯塔基大学的本科信号/系统和控制课程。然而，这些实验仍然要求学生亲自出现在实验室里。由于许多州的州长（包括肯塔基州的州长）和总统都支持虚拟大学的优点，教师们必须努力创建必要的基础设施，通过互联网或内部网实现有效的低成本教育。因此，本建议寻求资金，使信号/系统和控制实验能够通过互联网进行。该系统的成功实施，将使博士们的工作更加顺利。Walcott和Marra在任何有浏览器和互联网的学校举办他们的工程/科学/数学高中研讨会，从而激发未来工程师和未来工程教育者的兴趣。

Dr. Bruce L. Walcott and Dr. Michael A. Marra recognize that the traditional engineering student is no longer the tradition. At the University of Kentucky, more than half of the undergraduate population falls under the category of non-traditional (i.e., students who have prior or current work experience, who may have families, who rnay commute). This trend has steadily increased over the past ten years and will more than likely continue through the next millenium. Also, physically handicapped and place bound students do not share equal access to education/laboratory experiences as do their non-handicapped counterparts. Dr. Walcott and Dr. Marra have already developed autonomous laboratory experiments to enhance their undergraduate signals/systems and controls courses at the University of Kentucky. However, these experiments still require for the student to be physically present in the laboratory. With many state governors (including Kentucky's) and the President espousing the virtues of virtual universities, it is important that the faculty make efforts to create the necessary infrastructure to enable effective low- cost education via the Intemet or intranets. Consequently, this proposal seeks the funds to enable signals/systems and controls experiments to be conducted via the Internet. The successful implementation of this system will enable Drs. Walcott and Marra to give their engineering/science/math High School seminars at any school that has access to a browser and the Internet, thereby stimulating the interest of future engineers and future engineering educators.