Research and Education in Computational Science and Engineering

Over the past two decades the field of computational science and engineering (CSE) has penetrated both basic and applied research in academia, industry, and laboratories to advance discovery, optimize systems, support decision-makers, and educate the scientific and engineering workforce. Informed by centuries of theory and experiment, CSE performs computational experiments to answer questions that neither theory nor experiment alone is equipped to answer. CSE provides scientists and engineers of all persuasions with algorithmic inventions and software systems that transcend disciplines and scales. Carried on a wave of digital technology, CSE brings the power of parallelism to bear on troves of data. Mathematics-based advanced computing has become a prevalent means of discovery and innovation in essentially all areas of science, engineering, technology, and society; and the CSE community is at the core of this transformation. However, a combination of disruptive developments---including the architectural complexity of extreme-scale computing, the data revolution that engulfs the planet, and the specialization required to follow the applications to new frontiers---is redefining the scope and reach of the CSE endeavor. This report describes the rapid expansion of CSE and the challenges to sustaining its bold advances. The report also presents strategies and directions for CSE research and education for the next decade.Comment: Major revision, to appear in SIAM Revie

The Artificial Intelligence Course at the Faculty of Computer Science in the Polytechnic University of Madrid

This paper presents the experience of teaching an Artificial Intelligence course at the Faculty of Computer Science in the Polytechnic University of Madrid, Spain. The objective of this course is to introduce the students to this field, to prepare them to contribute to the evolution of the technology, and to qualify them to solve problems in the real world using Artificial Intelligence technology. The curriculum of the Artificial Intelligence course, which is integrated into the Artificial Intelligence Department's program, allows us to educate the students in this sense using the monographic teaching method

Innovative teaching of IC design and manufacture using the Superchip platform

In this paper we describe how an intelligent chip architecture has allowed a large cohort of undergraduate students to be given effective practical insight into IC design by designing and manufacturing their own ICs. To achieve this, an efficient chip architecture, the “Superchip”, has been developed, which allows multiple student designs to be fabricated on a single IC, and encapsulated in a standard package without excessive cost in terms of time or resources. We demonstrate how the practical process has been tightly coupled with theoretical aspects of the degree course and how transferable skills are incorporated into the design exercise. Furthermore, the students are introduced at an early stage to the key concepts of team working, exposure to real deadlines and collaborative report writing. This paper provides details of the teaching rationale, design exercise overview, design process, chip architecture and test regime

SOCR: Statistics Online Computational Resource

The need for hands-on computer laboratory experience in undergraduate and graduate statistics education has been firmly established in the past decade. As a result a number of attempts have been undertaken to develop novel approaches for problem-driven statistical thinking, data analysis and result interpretation. In this paper we describe an integrated educational web-based framework for: interactive distribution modeling, virtual online probability experimentation, statistical data analysis, visualization and integration. Following years of experience in statistical teaching at all college levels using established licensed statistical software packages, like STATA, S-PLUS, R, SPSS, SAS, Systat, etc., we have attempted to engineer a new statistics education environment, the Statistics Online Computational Resource (SOCR). This resource performs many of the standard types of statistical analysis, much like other classical tools. In addition, it is designed in a plug-in object-oriented architecture and is completely platform independent, web-based, interactive, extensible and secure. Over the past 4 years we have tested, fine-tuned and reanalyzed the SOCR framework in many of our undergraduate and graduate probability and statistics courses and have evidence that SOCR resources build student's intuition and enhance their learning.

Digital signal processing: the impact of convergence on education, society and design flow

Design and development of real-time, memory and processor hungry digital signal processing systems has for decades been accomplished on general-purpose microprocessors. Increasing needs for high-performance DSP systems made these microprocessors unattractive for such implementations. Various attempts to improve the performance of these systems resulted in the use of dedicated digital signal processing devices like DSP processors and the former heavyweight champion of electronics design – Application Specific Integrated Circuits. The advent of RAM-based Field Programmable Gate Arrays has changed the DSP design flow. Software algorithmic designers can now take their DSP algorithms right from inception to hardware implementation, thanks to the increasing availability of software/hardware design flow or hardware/software co-design. This has led to a demand in the industry for graduates with good skills in both Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. This paper evaluates the impact of technology on DSP-based designs, hardware design languages, and how graduate/undergraduate courses have changed to suit this transition

Vertical And Horizontal Integration Of Laboratory Curricula And Course Projects Across The Electronic Engineering Technology Program

This paper discusses the details of the curricular development effort with a focus on the vertical and horizontal integration of laboratory curricula and course projects within the Electronic Engineering Technology (EET) program at Texas A&M University. Both software and hardware aspects are addressed. A common set of software tools are introduced to the sophomore students in the EET curriculum; these tools are then used in several junior and senior level courses. Through early and repeated exposure to these tools, students learn to use them more effectively to solve various engineering problems in laboratory and course projects. A DC permanent magnetic motor is identified as one of the common hardware platforms for multiple course projects. By using a common platform for different course projects, the students can spend much less time preparing for the course projects. With each course adding different features to the common platform, the learning experience in several courses becomes seamlessly integrated. Surveys were conducted to show that the curriculum development effort improved the efficiency of student learning and enhanced the students’ educational experience.

The ITA Space Center and Its Role in Space Education in Brazil

This paper presents the ITA Space Center and its mission in the formation of human resources and in the research and development of space products. In 2012 the first aerospace engineers were graduated at ITA, and since then many efforts have been done to improve the engineering education. The first effort was the development of AESP-14 CubeSat project, then the development and launch of ITASAT, a 6U CubeSat. These two projects showed that small satellites projects provide a good learning approach once students were deeply involved in the development process. These two projects opened the opportunity for the creation of the ITA Space Center (CEI -acronym for Centro Espacial ITA in Portuguese). Inside its facilities the ITA Space Center provides capabilities for the development of small space projects such as electronics, software engineering, mechanical design, and simulation with the aid of systems engineering and project management. By means of the graduate and undergraduate programs the ITA Space Center is providing education and integration with the industries and other partner organizations. In developing and delivering space products, and fostering higher education in space, the ITA Space Center is accomplishing of its proposed mission

Designing experiments using digital fabrication in structural dynamics

In engineering, traditional approaches aimed at teaching concepts of dynamics to engineering students include the study of a dense yet sequential theoretical development of proofs and exercises. Structural dynamics are seldom taught experimentally in laboratories since these facilities should be provided with expensive equipment such as wave generators, data-acquisition systems, and heavily wired deployments with sensors. In this paper, the design of an experimental experience in the classroom based upon digital fabrication and modeling tools related to structural dynamics is presented. In particular, all experimental deployments are conceived with low-cost, open-source equipment. The hardware includes Arduino-based open-source electronics whereas the software is based upon object-oriented open-source codes for the development of physical simulations. The set of experiments and the physical simulations are reproducible and scalable in classroom-based environments.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

Modular Control Laboratory System with Integrated Simulation, Animation, Emulation, and Experimental Components

A typical sequence for the design of a controller, given the desired objectives, is the following: system modeling, design and mathematical analysis, simulation studies, emulation, and experimental implementation. Most control courses thoroughly cover design and mathematical analysis and utilize a simulation or experimental project at the end of the course. However, animation and emulation are seldom utilized and projects rarely cover the entire controller design sequence. This paper presents a control laboratory system developed at the University of Missouri at Rolla that integrates simulation, animation, emulation, and experimental components. The laboratory system may be applied to a wide variety of controls courses, from undergraduate to graduate. In addition to the simulation and experimental studies, students utilize animation and emulation components. Animation allows the students to visualize, as well as validate, their controllers during the simulation design phase, and emulation allows students to debug their programs on the target processor before experimentally implementing their controllers. Two experiments are presented to demonstrate the modular control laboratory system