This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5)

This engineering education research award to Pennsylvania State University will employ researchers to develop and assess educational gaming capability for a virtual construction engineering simulator to obtain a better understanding of the application and use of simulation games in engineering education. This will enable students to develop a comprehensive understanding of the construction process and critical skills such as resource utilization, sequencing, site layout, and risk management. In the virtual environment students will manage a complete construction project and be able to explore alternative solutions. Other areas of engineering are also faced with the challenge of how to best educate students to understand the broad and complex real-world context in which discipline specific content will be applied. Virtual reality games offer a promising approach to accomplish this using currently available cyber-technology. The guidelines for future development derived from this research will be valuable in improving engineering education to better prepare students for engineering jobs.

Agency
National Science Foundation (NSF)
Institute
Division of Engineering Education and Centers (EEC)
Type
Standard Grant (Standard)
Application #
0935040
Program Officer
Alan Cheville
Project Start
Project End
Budget Start
2009-09-01
Budget End
2011-08-31
Support Year
Fiscal Year
2009
Total Cost
$150,000
Indirect Cost
Name
Pennsylvania State University
Department
Type
DUNS #
City
University Park
State
PA
Country
United States
Zip Code
16802