Collaborative Project: Multi-University Systems Education (MUSE) - A Model for Undergraduate Learning of Complex-Engineered Systems

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Engineering - Electrical (55)This project is a collaboration involving Northern Arizona University (NAU), University of Hawaii (UH), University of South Florida (USF), and University of Vermont (UV). It is developing material and strategies for providing instructions in systems thinking, a skill that enables students to envision the architectures of complex, multi-layered engineering systems. In this project, an undergraduate track in wireless sensor networks is being developed as a vehicle for studying these systems. It features junior-year tutorials, an online, systems-centric, senior technical elective, a culminating capstone design course emphasizing inter-university collaboration, and a hardware/software test-bed that is distributed across universities and provides a standardized infrastructure for project continuity. As an outreach effort, the project is expanding existing and planned programs to include motivation and recruitment of high school students in summer programs and exposure in first-year introductory engineering classes. To test portability, the curriculum, which is being developed at NAU, USF, and UV, is being implemented in the third year at UH. Faculty members from at least four other universities are partial adopters of the educational material and serve as informal advisers during its development. In collaboration with independent evaluation professionals, an in-depth, quantitative assessment effort is focusing on three key components of the program: (1) student knowledge in systems thinking, (2) the multi-university learning environment and (3) the multi-university curriculum development process. The broader impacts of the project include the dissemination of the curriculum products, assessment tools, methodology, and a guide for multi-university curriculum design through publications, conference presentations, electronic media, and faculty workshops. The outreach efforts that emphasize contacts with members of underrepresented populations also contribute to the project's broader impacts.