Research Initiation Grant: Interactive Learning to Stimulate the Brain's Visual Center and to Enhance Memory Retention

这项工程教育研究启动补助金将支持一项调查，研究手势和身体识别的新技术如何帮助学生更好地学习与空间和视觉理解密切相关的工程概念。 该项目将吸引来自工程，计算机科学和心理学的研究人员使用经过验证的仪器进行结构良好的实验，以测试新技术是否能改善生物医学工程的学习。 该项目的更广泛的意义和重要性将主要是确定新的，负担得起的和商业上可用的技术是否可以影响困难的工程概念的学习。 不同学科的研究人员之间的强有力的伙伴关系将建立跨学科研究的网络。 此外，还计划对当地高中传统上在STEM中代表性不足的学生进行外展工作，这可以改善这些学生对工程项目的招聘。 该项目与NSF的战略目标重叠，即通过投资导致新兴的工程领域或转移现有领域来改变前沿。 此外，NSF通过支持创新学习系统的发展，实现了为社会创新的目标。

This engineering education research initiation grant will support an investigation into how new technologies for gesture and body recognition can help students better learn engineering concepts that are strongly tied to spatial and visual understanding. The project will engage researchers from engineering, computer science, and psychology in a well-structured experiment using validated instruments to test if the new technologies improve learning in biomedical engineering. The broader significance and importance of this project will primarily be to determine if new, affordable, and commercially available technologies can impact learning of difficult engineering concepts. The strong partnership between researchers in different disciplines will build networks in cross-disciplinary research. Additionally an outreach effort to students traditionally under-represented in STEM at local high schools is planned, which can improve recruitment of these students to engineering programs. This project overlaps with NSF's strategic goals of transforming the frontiers by making investments that lead to emerging new fields of engineering, or shifting existing fields. Additionally NSF's goal of innovating for society is enabled by supporting the development of innovative learning systems.