Virtual Signals/Controls Laboratory for Distance Education

布鲁斯·L·沃尔科特博士和迈克尔·A·马拉博士认识到，传统的工科学生不再是传统的学生。在肯塔基大学，超过一半的本科生属于非传统类别(即，有过或现在工作经验的学生，他们可能有家庭，经常通勤)。这一趋势在过去十年中稳步增长，而且很可能会持续到下一个千年。此外，身体残障和学位受限的学生与非残障学生相比，没有平等的机会获得教育/实验室经验。沃尔科特博士和玛拉博士已经开发了自主实验室实验，以增强他们在肯塔基大学的本科信号/系统和控制课程。然而，这些实验仍然需要学生亲自出现在实验室中。由于许多州州长(包括肯塔基州)和总统都拥护虚拟大学的优点，重要的是教职员工努力创建必要的基础设施，以便通过一个或多个互联网实现有效的低成本教育。因此，这项提案寻求资金，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沃尔科特博士和玛拉博士能够在任何可以使用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工作者的兴趣。

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.