Collaborative Research: A Virtual and Active Learning Approach to Digital Manufacturing Education for the Future of Manufacturing Workforce

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This project aims to serve the national interest by investigating the use of virtual and active learning approaches in undergraduate education in digital manufacturing. Virtual learning can enable participation for those who may not be able to be present on a physical campus, due to financial restrictions, full-time employment, disability, or immigration, among many other circumstances. Teaching of digital manufacturing for undergraduate engineering students, whether in virtual or in-person learning environments, is critical to the future of manufacturing domestically and abroad. The focus of the project will be on developing effective approaches for educating students about transformative advances in manufacturing productivity through digital technologies, particularly through use of embedded systems, big data and their integration using rapidly maturing cloud computing platforms.The project seeks to understand how virtual learning affects student ability to understand and retain core concepts in digital manufacturing and how active learning experiences can be deployed in fully virtual learning environments for digital manufacturing. To accomplish this, a digital manufacturing course will be deployed in a virtual learning environment using a mixture of traditional lecture and active learning activities in order to improve student engagement, retention of core concepts, and self-efficacy. A new undergraduate digital manufacturing course for virtual learning environments will be developed and iteratively deployed at Georgia Tech incorporating active learning approaches. Different types of virtual-based, hands-on learning experiences for manufacturing will be designed and piloted, including virtual training simulators for embedded systems for cybermanufacturing. Course materials will be disseminated to partner organizations and institutions for broad deployment nationally. Finally, the project team will evaluate materials for facilitating learning of concepts fundamental to digital manufacturing through virtual active learning environments. This unified effort will drive educational innovation in the domain of digital technologies applied to manufacturing systems. By enabling virtual delivery of this training, more students will be able to access opportunities to understand digital manufacturing theory more deeply and will become stronger members of the future manufacturing workforce when they graduate. 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.