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教育和学生参与的相关性。众所周知，学生的动机和参与度可以通过挑战他们开放式的，现实世界的问题，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相结合，传授STEM知识和21世纪世纪技能。 使用基于云的软件基础设施，学生可以使用拟议的C3 STEM环境与同龄人协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，并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式STEM教育。该团队将通过利用Cloudlet和Locavore模式以及云计算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，以支持设想的应用程序。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。 调查将解决洞察力和科学基础，为云计算和网络虚拟化应用于协作工程问题解决的新方向提供信息。 该团队将使用真实世界的应用程序设计STEM课程单元，例如城市街道的交通流量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，并验证下一代测试床远程访问使用多个移动的设备和计算平台进行实验和解决问题的远程团队。例如，田纳西州纳什维尔的高中学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的学生互动，同时使用位于阿克伦大学的制造测试台。分布式团队将能够通过移动的设备从测试台协作收集实时数据，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.