ECS-9619267 McCalley The objective of this collaborative project between Iowa State University (ISU) and Virginia Polytechnic Institute (VPI) is to provide a course development approach to power system engineering that allows flexibility to today's fast-changing educational and industrial environment, increases learning efficiency via computer usage, builds on cooperative learning methods, modernizes course content, induces industry participation in academic course design, extends power system education into other engineering fields, and contributes towards attracting the very best students. We will accomplish these goals via implementation of a modular course development approach whereby power system-related learning packets, called basic modules, are developed in the proposed work. These basic modules, maintained and disseminated via the WEB, will each consist of a presentation, a library, and at least one MATLAB-based simulator. Each basic module is self-contained yet narrow enough to be included as a component in quickly and easily developing a set of course material, and module modification is simple, thereby allowing for module adaptation in tailoring one or more to a specific need. A clear and realistic plan for obtaining industry participation in module development is provided whereby industry is involved in the specification of the modules and ultimately their use through mini-courses held for employees. We expect to provide a new direction in power systems education that will stimulate and motivate interest simultaneously from prospective and present students and engineers in industry, providing a linkage that is critical for maintaining quality power programs and producing highly educated engineers. Our approach is also appropriate for use in other engineering disciplines, and we expect the interdisciplinary outreach embedded in this work will result in its wide dissemination, simultaneously offering the additional benefit of integrating power system problems into other curr icula.
