The objective of this project is the creation of a comprehensive, multi-disciplinary approach to engineering informatics education. The team will use the domain of biologically-inspired robotic systems as a means of engaging engineering and computer science students in the creation of physically realized systems. These systems have been shown to have important applications in medicine, civil engineering, search and rescue, and homeland security. This project will also develop and deploy the novel cyber-infrastructure and software tools needed to advance the state-of-the-art in bio-inspired robotic systems and biologically-inspired robotics education. A repository of educational materials, designs and models will be made available over the Internet and provided for use by educators and researchers around the country. In this way, this project aims to create mechanisms for education and training of multi-disciplinary engineers who are versed in the cyber-infrastructure tools and understand how they can use them to transform and harness collective human problem solving capabilities.
The project contributes to the transformation of engineering into an ``informatics'' discipline and tightens the interaction computer science and engineering. Ultimately, engineering informatics will become an instrumental part of undergraduate and graduate curricula in engineering and computer science. In addition, the bio-inspired robotics domain will prove to be a source of exciting and attractive materials and demonstrations. These materials and demonstrations will be used in outreach and secondary education activities to expose students to engineering and computer science concepts and increase the participation of under-represented groups in these professions. The team plans to leverage numerous ongoing outreach and training activities at the respective institutions to maximize the impact of the project.
