Building Communities and Sharing Knowledge in Engineering Education: A University/Industry Partnership

0538934这个奖项授予威廉·马什·赖斯大学，以支持下文所述的活动36个月。该提案是为了响应创新伙伴计划征集(NSF-05566)而提交的。合作伙伴威廉·马什·赖斯大学(牵头机构)和国家仪器公司提案的主要目标如下：通过摆脱传统的教科书和基于讲座的教育来革命性地教授科学和工程学，以建立一个新的框架，其中教育工作者、学生和现场实践者社区不断互动、合作、联系和探索活跃的内容。该项目的具体目标是：1)建立由莱斯教师和NI技术传播者领导的世界范围内的数字信号处理器教育工作者、学生和从业人员社区，该社区将开发和提炼大量免费的Connecexion数字信号处理器课程材料；2)用交互式LabVIEW可视化技术丰富这些材料，使概念生动起来，并鼓励实验、探索和设计；3)开发基于MathML的语义数学表示法，用于展示和探索科学和工程概念--特别是一套用于在网络上创作、共享和探索数学的工具；4)将材料翻译成包括西班牙语在内的多种语言，以接触到当地和世界各地的观众；5)。研究与发展和维持项目相关的营销和商业问题，使项目对大学和行业合作伙伴双赢；以及6)评估项目的影响并广泛传播所学到的经验教训。潜在的教育和经济影响当今工程教育存在危机，招生人数减少，学生参与度和准备不足，以及覆盖越来越多的材料的压力。尽管研究表明，对于女性和代表不足的少数族裔学生来说，科学和工程的学习因与其他领域的联系而变得有意义，但课程越来越枯燥和脱节。此外，工业界对工科毕业生的一个主要抱怨是，他们缺乏协作和团队技能，缺乏实践设计经验。该项目的智力价值随之而来。已经确定了一种新的方法，用于建立和维持围绕活跃内容的虚拟教育社区，并将结果应用于各种工程教育场所：大学本科生和研究生课程、工业培训和继续教育、在职即时学习和高中实验室。这项研究涉及并平衡了教育、社区发展、技术开发、营销和商业规划以及影响评估。该项目的基础由Rices Connexion Project(cnx.rice.edu)和NIS LabVIEW(ni.com)DSP平台提供。Connecexion是一个免费学术材料的开放访问存储库和一个开源软件工具包，用于帮助作者发布和协作、教师快速构建和共享定制课程，以及学习者探索概念、课程和学科之间的链接。LabVIEW是一种基于个人计算机的DSP系统，用于交互地可视化、处理来自广泛应用程序的音频、图像和视频等多媒体，并与其交互。该活动的更广泛影响随之而来。这项研究包括人力资源和技术的开发，这将极大地提高工程教育工作者的业绩和能力，并将使教育进入德克萨斯州、全国和世界的欠发达地区。特别是，DSP和相关技术的教育对于维持达拉斯、奥斯汀和德克萨斯州休斯顿的高科技园区至关重要。其他教育影响包括对参与该项目的本科生和研究生进行培训，以及两个研讨会，这些研讨会将把数字信号处理器教育工作者和实践者聚集在一起，分享他们的知识并建立社区。

0538934BurrisThis award is to William Marsh Rice University to support the activity described below for 36 months. The proposal was submitted in response to the Partnerships for Innovation Program Solicitation (NSF-05566).PartnersWilliam Marsh Rice University (lead institution) and National InstrumentsThe primary objective of the proposal is as follows: to revolutionize the way science and engineering are taught by breaking away from traditional textbook and lecture-based education in order to build a new framework, where communities of educators, students, and field practitioners continually interact, collaborate, connect, and explore active content. The specific objectives of the project are to 1) build a world-wide community of educators, students, and practitioners in DSP led by Rice faculty and NI technology evangelists which will develop and refine a critical mass of free Connexions DSP course materials; 2) enrich these materials with interactive LabVIEW visualizations to make the concepts come alive and encourage experimentation, exploration, and design; 3) develop semantic mathematics representations for displaying and exploring science and engineering concepts based on MathML--in particular a suite of tools for authoring, sharing, and exploring mathematics on the web; 4) translate the materials into a number of languages, including Spanish, to reach both local and worldwide audiences; 5). Study the marketing and business issues associated with growing and sustaining the project into a win-win for both the university and industrial partners; and 6) assess the projects impact and widely disseminate the lessons learned.Potential Educational and Economic ImpactThere is a crisis in engineering education today, with decreasing enrollments, less engaged and less prepared students, and pressure to cover increasing amounts of material. Curricula are increasingly stove-piped and disconnected, in spite of research indicating that for women and underrepresented minority students, the study of science and engineering is made meaningful by connections to other fields. Moreover, a leading complaint from industry regarding engineering graduates is their lack of collaboration and team skills and lack of hands-on design experience. The intellectual merit of the project follows. A new approach has been identified for building and sustaining virtual educational communities around active content and applying the results to the spectrum of engineering education venues: university undergraduate and graduate courses, industrial training and continuing education, just-in-time learning on the job, and high-school laboratories. The research involves and balances education, community development, technology development, marketing and business planning, and impact assessment. The foundation for the project is provided by Rices Connexions Project (cnx.rice.edu) and by NIs LabVIEW (ni.com) DSP platform. Connexions is an open-access repository of free scholarly materials and an open-source software toolkit to help authors publish and collaborate, instructors rapidly build and share custom courses, and learners explore the links among concepts, courses, and disciplines. LabVIEW is a personal computer-based DSP system for interactively visualizing, processing, and interacting with multimedia such as audio, images, and video from a wide range of applications.The broader impacts of the activity follow. This research include the development of people-resources and technologies that will substantially increase the performance and capabilities of engineering educators and that will open up education into underdeveloped parts of the State of Texas, the Nation, and the world. In particular, education in DSP and related technologies is critical to sustain the high-tech complex in Dallas, Austin, and Houston, Texas. Additional educational impacts include the training of undergraduate and graduate students involved in this project and two workshops that will bring together DSP educators and practitioners to share their knowledge and build communities.