Mixed Reality and Mobile Gaming for 21st Century Engineering Education

最近的极端天气，如桑迪飓风和卡特里娜飓风，已经表明了基础设施恶化和公民没有准备好应对这种规模的自然灾害相结合的后果。岩土工程专业的本科生需要实际的经验，使他们能够理解和处理防洪设计中固有的风险。因为游戏使人们能够在虚拟世界中体验陌生的事物，并以多种方式进行实验和失败，而不会产生在现实世界中发生的后果，所以它们是在高风险环境中学习设计的绝佳工具。研究团队将开发并实施一个可转移和可扩展的混合现实和移动（MR&amp；M）教育游戏，“地理探索者”，可以与传统的岩土工程教育相结合。它将在伦斯勒理工学院、南卫理公会大学、曼哈顿学院和加州州立大学富勒顿分校现有的岩土工程课程中进行测试和实施。该项目将1)开发一个新的MR&amp；M游戏，专注于防洪设计和现场测试，包括实时游戏嵌入式工具，以监测学生在学习岩土工程学科方面的进展；2)开发并实施一个课程模块，将MR&amp；M游戏环境整合到岩土工程课程课程中，包括实际实验室测试、虚拟现场测试、理论体系设计和虚拟实践体验；3)开发和实施混合（面对面和在线）传播模式，以扩大岩土工程教育工作者对游戏环境的使用；4)评估项目在完成前三个目标方面的有效性。

Recent weather extremes, e.g., Hurricanes Sandy and Katrina, have shown the consequences of the combination of a deteriorating infrastructure and a citizenry that is unprepared to deal with natural disasters of this scale. Undergraduate students in geotechnical engineering need realistic experience that enables them to understand and process the risks inherent in flood-protection design. Because games enable people to experience the unfamiliar in a virtual world and to experiment and fail in multiple ways without the consequences that occur in the real world, they are an excellent vehicle for learning about design in a high-risk environment. The research team will develop and implement a transferable and scalable Mixed Reality and Mobile (MR&M) Educational Game, "Geo Explorer," that can be integrated with traditional geotechnical engineering education. It will be tested and implemented in existing geotechnical engineering courses at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Southern Methodist University, Manhattan College and California State University, Fullerton. The project will 1) develop a new MR&M game focused on flood-protection design and field testing that includes real-time game-embedded tools to monitor student progress toward learning geotechnical engineering subjects; 2) develop and implement a course module, which integrates the MR&M gaming environment into geotechnical course curricula and will include actual lab testing, virtual field testing, theoretical system design and virtual practical experience; 3) develop and implement a hybrid (face-to-face and online) dissemination model for expanding the use of the gaming environment to geotechnical engineering educators; and 4) evaluate the project effectiveness at accomplishing the first three goals.