US Ignite: Collaborative Research: Cloud Computing and Software-Defined Networking Enhancements to Support Collaborative, Problem-based STEM Education

需要创新的想法来提高STEM教育的相关性和学生的参与度。众所周知，学生的积极性和参与度可以通过用开放式的现实问题挑战他们，并让他们在多学科团队中工作来提高。拟议的研究将实现这些目标，并通过将课程内容和评估与深度STEM学习和现实世界的工程问题解决方案联系起来，传授STEM知识和21世纪技能。使用基于云的软件基础设施，学生可以使用拟议的C3STEM环境与同龄人合作完成知识密集型任务，进行联合实验，并通过将复杂问题分解为更小，更易于管理的任务来解决复杂问题。这种方法将提高学生的技术能力，帮助他们发展成为全球领导者。该项目将研究、设计和验证新技术，以实现无处不在的协作STEM教育。该团队将利用Cloudlet和Locavore模式与云计算相结合来设计新的软件系统。软件定义网络（SDN）的新技术将被设计和验证，以动态创建和管理网络带宽，以支持预期的应用。资源分配、可扩展性和服务质量问题将在SDN与Cloudlets混合的集成环境中得到解决。该调查将探讨云计算和网络虚拟化应用于协同工程问题解决的新方向的见解和科学基础。该团队将使用现实世界的应用来设计STEM课程单元，例如城市街道的交通流和针对高中和本科生的离散制造系统。研究人员将设计、仪器和验证下一代测试平台，使用多种移动设备和计算平台进行远程访问，以便远程团队执行实验和解决问题。例如，田纳西州纳什维尔市的高中生团队将能够与范德比尔特大学的研究生和本科生合作，并与俄亥俄州阿克伦市的学生互动，同时使用位于阿克伦大学的制造测试平台。分布式团队将能够通过移动设备协作收集来自测试平台的实时数据，编程新的行为，验证他们的设计，并参与解决具有现实意义的复杂问题。

Innovative ideas are needed to improve the relevance of STEM education and student engagement. It is known that student motivation and engagement can be improved by challenging them with open-ended, real-world problems and having them work in multi-disciplinary teams. The proposed research will achieve these objectives and impart STEM knowledge and 21st century skills by connecting course content and assessments to deep STEM learning and real-world engineering problem solving. Using cloud-based software infrastuctures, students can use the proposed C3STEM environment to collaborate with their peers on knowledge intensive tasks, conduct joint experiments, and solve complex problems by decomposing them into smaller, more manageable tasks. This approach will improve the technological competence of students and help them to develop into global leaders. The project will research, design and validate new technologies that will enable ubiquitous and collaborative STEM education. The team will design new software systems by exploiting the Cloudlet and Locavore patterns in conjunction with Cloud Computing. New techniques for Software Defined Networking (SDN) will be designed and validated to dynamically create and manage network bandwidth in support of the envisioned applications. Resource allocation, scalability and Quality of Service issues will be addressed in the integrated context of SDN blended with Cloudlets. The investigation will address insights and scientific foundations that inform new directions in Cloud Computing and Network Virtualization as applied to collaborative engineering problem solving. The team will design STEM curricular units using real-world applications, such as traffic flow in city streets and discrete manufacturing systems that are directed at high school and undergraduate students. The investigators will design, instrument, and validate next-generation test beds for remote access using multiple mobile devices and computing platforms for performing experiments and problem-solving by remote teams. For example, high school student teams in Nashville, TN will be able to collaborate with graduate and undergraduate students at Vanderbilt University and interact with students in Akron, OH while using a manufacturing test bed located at the University of Akron. The distributed team will be able to collaboratively collect real-time data from the test beds via mobile devices, program new behaviors, validate their designs and engage in solving complex problems of real-world significance.