Enhancing Additive Manufacturing Education with Cybersecurity and Virtual Reality

在NSF改善本科STEM教育计划：教育和人力资源（IUSE：EHR）的支持下，该项目旨在通过建立国家的增材制造工程劳动力来服务于国家利益。 增材制造，也被称为3D打印，正在重新定义制造业，使其越来越接近普通公民。 它还通过数字平台和互联网深度连接。 这种连接提供了机会，例如允许在一个地方进行零件设计，并在其他地方进行零件的3D打印。 然而，这种连接性也使增材制造面临网络威胁。 据报道，制造业是基础设施相关网络攻击的主要目标，比能源和公用事业部门遭受的攻击更多。 因此，教育下一代工程师、计算机科学家和其他STEM专业人员了解增材制造的网络安全对国家安全和国家财政增长至关重要。未来的STEM专业人员将需要能够检测，解决和防止增材制造网络攻击。 为了支持网络安全-增材制造的教育，该项目包括使用虚拟现实，这是一种在教育中使用越来越多的新兴技术。 在强大的计算能力的推动下，虚拟现实可以模拟几乎无限的环境，允许学生访问和探索历史上只能被动观看图像和视频的环境。 南方大学巴吞鲁日是一所历史悠久的黑人学院/大学，该学生学习项目探索使用多种形式的虚拟现实来教育学生识别和解决增材制造中的网络安全威胁。 无论是增材制造等技术的开发和使用，还是网络安全增材制造等复杂开放性问题的解决方案的开发，都需要深厚的知识和高阶思维能力。 因此，除了开发网络安全增材制造课程外，该项目还旨在研究在网络安全增材制造背景下使用虚拟现实来发展计算思维。 计算思维是一种解决问题的方法，起源于计算机科学中的编程方法，现在被广泛认为是解决所有学科中开放式问题的有效方法。 在这个项目中，学生将接触到适合他们的专业和兴趣的虚拟现实网络安全增材制造培训。该项目将使用计算思维量表来调查从事网络安全增材制造的学生。 管理和分析前和后的调查应该揭示暴露在虚拟现实环境中的学生的计算思维发展。 该研究还结合了半结构化的学生访谈，以探索虚拟现实保真度和可扩展性之间的关系。 预计研究结果将确定与虚拟现实和计算思维相关的相关性和新兴主题。 同行评审的出版物，演示文稿，研讨会以及与美国制造的合作伙伴关系，国家增材制造和3D打印加速器，将为教育工作者和行业提供项目的网络安全-增材制造课程材料和项目结果。 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 building the nation's additive manufacturing engineering workforce. Additive manufacturing, also known as 3D printing, is redefining manufacturing in ways that make it increasingly accessible to the average citizen. It is also deeply connected through digital platforms and the Internet. This connectivity provides opportunities, such as allowing design of parts to happen in one place and 3D printing of the parts to happen elsewhere. However, this connectivity has also exposed additive manufacturing to cyber-threats. Reportedly, manufacturing is the leading target for infrastructure-related cyberattacks, sustaining even more of these attacks than the energy and utilities sectors. Therefore, it is critical to national security and the nation's financial growth to educate the next generation of engineers, computer scientists, and other STEM professionals about cybersecurity for additive manufacturing. Future STEM professionals will be needed who can detect, address, and prevent additive manufacturing cyberattacks. To support education in cybersecurity-additive manufacturing, this project includes the use of virtual reality, an emergent technology with increasing uses in eduation. Fueled by powerful computing that can simulate nearly unlimited environments, virtual reality allows students to access and explore environments that, historically, have only been available for passive viewing in images and videos. This Engaged Student Learning project at Southern University Baton Rouge, a Historically Black College/University, explores using multiple forms of virtual reality to educate students to identify and resolve cybersecurity threats in additive manufacturing. Both the development and use of technology such as additive manufacturing, and the development of solutions to complex open-ended problems such as cybersecurity-additive manufacturing require deep knowledge and higher-order thinking skills. Thus, in addition to developing a cybersecurity-additive manufacturing curriculum, this project also aims to study the use of virtual reality, in the cybersecurity-additive manufacturing context, to develop computational thinking. Computational thinking is a problem-solving methodology that originated as a programming approach in computer science and is now widely recognized as an effective method for solving open-ended problems in all disciplines. In this project, students will be exposed to virtual reality cybersecurity-additive manufacturing training appropriate for their major and interests. The project will use the Computational Thinking Scale to survey students engaged in cybersecurity-additive manufacturing. Administration and analysis of pre- and post-surveys should reveal computational thinking development in students exposed to virtual reality environments. The research study also incorporates semi-structured student interviews to explore the relationship between virtual reality fidelity and scalability. The results of the study are anticipated to identify correlations and emergent themes related to virtual reality and computational thinking. Peer reviewed publications, presentations, a workshop, and partnership with America Makes, the national accelerator for additive manufacturing and 3D printing, will provide educators and industry access to the projects' cybersecurity-additive manufacturing curricular materials and project findings. 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.