VOSS: Collaborative Proposal: CyberGRID Networks - Cyber-enabled Global Research Infrastructure for Design Networks

这项研究需要：(1)CyberGRID网--开发一个集成到现有全球虚拟工程团队工作环境中的研究数据收集和分析工具，以及(2)CyberGRID网络--利用该工具对全球分布的工程团队如何在虚拟环境中共同开展复杂的设计工作并提供费用提出基本见解。CyberGRID网将是一个研究工具，它扩大了调查人员为全球设计工作开发的现有虚拟环境。它将利用以下面向研究的特征来扩展当前的教学工具功能：(1)现有的TeamWall模型共享显示将检测和跟踪对象引用动作的位置(例如，指向设计中的特征)，并且将为参与者添加功能以自我指示何时发生研究感兴趣的现象，(2)当发生研究人员指定的交互时，将对虚拟环境记录进行时间标记，(3)将检测化身-化身和化身-对象交互以及关于该交互的元数据，以及(4)将添加用于协作讨论的功能，在一系列实验中，将使用CyberGRID网络研究基础设施来解决关键的组织研究问题：如何将虚拟环境中的建筑信息模型(BIM)用作边界对象，以解决全球虚拟工程团队知识系统中的冲突？在化身-化身互动中，冲突是如何出现的？新出现的虚拟团队领导者如何解决虚拟团队中相互冲突的义务？边界客体如何在跨文化语境中使用？当团队成员来自代表不同文化和实践标准的不同国家时，领导风格和实践社区的形成有何不同？这些问题将在三个独立的实验中进行探索，采用多方法方法，包括人种学观察、社会和互动网络分析以及用户反思。他们将涉及国际活动，将包括美国、印度和芬兰的工程学研究生，以及在工业测试案例中使用CyberGRID的行业参与者。这项研究将利用计算思维开发一种新的研究工具，以改变全球虚拟团队的研究方式，并将化身-对象交互联系到网络分析中，以改变在全球虚拟团队中建模知识系统的方法。将在实验中使用CyberGRID网络工具，以扩展知识系统动力学理论以及虚拟团队网络形成和领导理论。这项研究可能会导致设计教育学的根本性转变，进而可以提供新的令人兴奋的工程职业道路。这项研究还可能改善工程公司和政策制定者的战略，他们担心美国工程师在全球劳动力中的领导作用。

This research entails: (1) CyberGRID Net - developing a research data collection and analysis tool integrated into an existing global virtual engineering team working environment, and (2) CyberGRID Networks - utilizing that tool to develop fundamental insights into how globally distributed engineering teams enact complex design work together and with affordances in the virtual environment. The CyberGRID Net will be a research tool that augments an existing virtual environment developed by the investigators for global design work. It will extend current pedagogical tool functionality with the following research-oriented features: (1) the existing TeamWall model-sharing display will detect and track locations of object referencing actions (e.g., pointing to a feature in a design) and functionality will be added for participants to self-indicate when phenomena of research interest occur, (2) virtual environment recordings will be time-stamped when researcher-specified interactions take place, (3) avatar-avatar and avatar-object interactions will be detected along with metadata about the interaction, and (4) functionality will be added for collaborative discussion, data analysis and annotation across a global virtual research team.In a series of experiments, the CyberGRID Net research infrastructure will be used to engage critical organizational research questions: How are Building Information Models (BIM) in the virtual environment used as a boundary objects to resolve conflicts in the knowledge system of global virtual engineering teams? How do conflicts emerge in avatar-avatar interactions? How are conflicting obligations resolved in virtual teams by emergent virtual team leaders? How are boundary objects used in a cross-cultural context? How do leadership styles and community of practice formation vary when team members come from different countries representing different cultures and standards of practice? These questions will be explored in three separate experiments employing a multi-method approach which includes ethnographic observation, social and interaction network analyses, and user reflection. They will involve international activities and will include graduate engineering students in the U.S., India and Finland, as well as industrial participants utilizing the CyberGRID in an industrial test case.This research will utilize computational thinking to develop a new research tool to transform the way global virtual teams are researched, and to link avatar-object interactions into network analyses to transform approaches to modeling knowledge systems in global virtual teams. The CyberGRID Net tool will be used in experiments to expand knowledge system dynamics theory as well as theories of virtual team network formation and leadership. This research may lead to fundamental transformations in design pedagogy which, in turn, can provide new exciting engineering career paths. The research may also improve strategies of engineering firms and policymakers concerned about the leadership role of U.S. engineers in the global workforce.