Collaborative Project: MUSE - A Model for Undergraduate Learning of Complex-Engineered Systems

工程-电气（55）该项目是一个合作，涉及北方亚利桑那大学（NAU），夏威夷大学（UH），南佛罗里达大学（USF）和佛蒙特大学（UV）。 它正在开发材料和策略，以提供系统思维的指导，这种技能使学生能够想象复杂的多层工程系统的架构。在这个项目中，正在开发的本科生跟踪无线传感器网络作为研究这些系统的车辆。 它的特点是大三的教程，一个在线的，以系统为中心的高级技术选修课，一个强调大学间合作的终极设计课程，以及一个分布在大学之间的硬件/软件测试平台，为项目的连续性提供标准化的基础设施。作为一项推广工作，该项目正在扩大现有和计划的方案，包括在暑期项目中激励和招募高中生，并在第一年的入门工程课程中进行接触。为了测试可移植性，正在NAU，USF和UV开发的课程正在UH的第三年实施。至少来自其他四所大学的教职员工是该教材的部分采用者，并在其开发过程中担任非正式顾问。与独立评估专业人士合作，深入的定量评估工作集中在该计划的三个关键组成部分：（1）学生在系统思维方面的知识，（2）多所大学的学习环境和（3）多所大学的课程开发过程。该项目更广泛的影响包括通过出版物、会议演示、电子媒体和教师研讨会传播课程产品、评估工具、方法和多所大学课程设计指南。 强调与代表性不足的人口接触的外联工作也有助于项目产生更广泛的影响。

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.