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

工程-电气(55)这个项目是北亚利桑那大学(NAU)、夏威夷大学(UH)、南佛罗里达大学(USF)和佛蒙特州大学(UV)的合作项目。它正在开发提供系统思维指导的材料和策略，这是一项使学生能够想象复杂、多层工程系统的体系结构的技能。在这个项目中，正在开发一个无线传感器网络专业的本科生轨道，作为研究这些系统的工具。它的特色包括三年级的教程，一个以系统为中心的在线高级技术选修课，一个强调大学间合作的顶峰设计课程，以及一个分布在各大学并为项目连续性提供标准化基础设施的硬件/软件试验台。作为一项外展努力，该项目正在扩大现有和计划中的项目，将高中生的动机和招募纳入暑期项目，并在第一年的工程学入门课程中进行接触。为了测试可移植性，该课程正在北卡罗来纳大学、USF和UV开发，并在UH大学的第三年实施。来自至少其他四所大学的教职员工是教育材料的部分采用者，并在其开发过程中担任非正式顾问。在与独立评估专业人员的合作下，一项深入的量化评估工作侧重于该计划的三个关键组成部分：(1)学生的系统思维知识，(2)多大学学习环境和(3)多大学课程开发过程。该项目的更广泛影响包括通过出版物、会议报告、电子媒体和教师讲习班传播课程产品、评估工具、方法和多所大学课程设计指南。强调与任职人数不足的人接触的外联努力也有助于该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.