Impact of Interactive Holographic Scenes in Developing Engineering Students' Competencies in Sensing Technologies

在NSF改进本科STEM教育计划：教育和人力资源（IUSE：EHR）的支持下，该项目旨在通过培养建筑工程和管理学生在建筑工地使用现代传感器技术来服务于国家利益。 近年来，建筑行业在建筑工地广泛采用传感技术，带来了运营和安全方面的好处。 这些传感技术的使用引发了对建筑工程毕业生的需求，他们可以通过成功部署传感器系统来加强行业运营，创新和安全。然而，这是很难准备一个未来的劳动力，是在技术上有能力使用传感技术，因为安全，时间表和天气相关的限制限制学生进入建筑工地。 该提案旨在克服这些限制，部分通过使用混合现实教学框架与全息远程呈现技术相结合。 这种教育方法旨在使建筑工程和管理专业的学生具备传感器技术方面的能力。该项目通过让行业从业人员参与确定相关的建筑工程能力和制定适当的教学方法，促进建筑业与行业的伙伴关系。为本科生开发的学习活动也将适用于K-12课程。在该项目中，全息远程呈现将数字参与者和远程位置以3D形式带入工程教室，从而允许难以到达的施工现场人员和经验以真实的时间导入工程教室。目标是创建和评估一个教学框架，为建筑工程和管理专业的学生提供建筑项目现场所需的能力。具体来说，拟议的框架涉及到投影到教室环境中的建筑工地的交互式全息场景，使学生可以探索战略，寻找数据传感解决方案的行业问题。将进行混合方法研究，以回答研究问题，解决毕业建筑工程师的预期核心能力的性质和交互式全息场景在培训建筑工程师的价值。研究结果将作为开发的指导：（1）一个创新的建筑工程和管理教育课程;（2）针对提高现有的建筑劳动力的技术能力的培训计划。这些计划包括在3D全息环境中调查人口对学习和空间推理的影响，这可能会产生关于扩大工程参与的有趣见解。该项目对社会的一个重要好处在于，它有可能证明我们的教育机构可以利用负担得起的全息远程呈现技术，在STEM教学和学习过程中提供更高水平的参与。NSF IUSE：EHR计划支持研究和开发项目，以提高所有学生STEM教育的有效性。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

With support from the NSF Improving Undergraduate STEM Education Program: Education and Human Resources (IUSE: EHR), this project aims to serve the national interest by preparing construction engineering and management students to use modern sensor technologies at construction sites. Over recent years, the construction industry has adopted widespread use of sensing technologies at construction sites, with resulting operational and safety benefits. The use of these sensing technologies has triggered a demand for construction engineering graduates who can enhance industry operations, innovation, and safety through successful deployment of sensor systems. However, it is difficult to prepare a future workforce that is technologically competent in the use of sensing technologies because safety, schedule, and weather-related constraints limit student access to construction sites. This proposal aims to overcome these limitations, in part, by using a mixed reality pedagogical framework combined with holographic telepresence technology. This educational approach is intended to equip construction engineering and management students with competencies in sensor technologies. The project promotes academia-industry partnerships by involving industry practitioners in determining the relevant construction engineering competencies and in developing an appropriate pedagogical approach. The learning activities developed for undergraduate students will also be adapted for use in K-12 programs.In this project, holographic telepresence is being employed to bring digital participants and remote locations into the engineering classroom in 3D, thereby permitting hard-to-reach construction site personnel and experiences to be imported into the engineering classroom in real time. The goal is to create and assess a pedagogical framework for equipping construction engineering and management students with the competencies required on construction project sites. Specifically, the proposed framework involves projecting interactive holographic scenes of construction sites into the classroom environment, so that students can explore strategies for finding data sensing solutions to industry problems. A mixed method research study will be conducted to answer research questions that address the nature of the expected core competencies of graduating construction engineers and the value of the interactive holographic scenes in training construction engineers. The findings will serve as a guide for developing: (1) an innovative construction engineering and management education curriculum; and (2) a training program tailored towards improving existing construction workforce technical competencies. The plans include investigation of demographic influences on learning and spatial reasoning in the 3D holographic environment, which is likely to yield interesting insights regarding broadening participation in engineering. An important benefit of the project to society lies in the potential to demonstrate that affordable holographic telepresence technology can be harnessed by our educational institutions to provide higher levels of engagement in the STEM teaching and learning process. The NSF IUSE: EHR Program supports research and development projects to improve the effectiveness of STEM education for all students. Through the Engaged Student Learning track, the program supports the creation, exploration, and implementation of promising practices and tools.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.