Some of our faculty have introduced / developed new course modules in a variety of topics from robotics to IoT and Cyber Physical Systems. Curriculum Activities of our Center Faculty is summarized below.

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CS 4570/5070: Introduction to Cyber Physical Systems (Dr. J. Cecil)

This course focuses on introducing students to the emerging field of cyber physical systems. Using micro robotics assembly contexts, students were exposed to…

1. fundamental concepts in Internet-of-Things (IoT)
2. design of IoT based cyber physical frameworks for micro robotics applications
3. role of planning algorithms (Genetic Algorithms, A* Algorithm) in robotics contexts
4. design of robotic work cells and automated factories
5. introduce students to GENI networking principles

The students were introduced to some of these concepts using specially designed Virtual Learning Environments (VLEs); these VLE modules focused on concepts in Genetic Algorithms, robotic assembly and work cell design; these VR based VLE modules were the outcomes of a NSF funded Curriculum Development project. We have published several papers highlighting the impact of adopting such novel 3D based cyber learning approaches.

 

 

Figure 1: Students Interacting with the Avatar-based VLE as Part of Learning Activities

 

1. A major effort was the creation of new teaching modules for this course including the creation of new interdisciplinary course content introducing students to emerging fields such as micro devices assembly, cyber-physical systems, IoT and Next Generation networking. Dr. Cecil also created new modules to introduce students to the fundamentals of designing such 3D VR based environments. Two modules related to introducing students to IoT concepts and design of IoT based cyber physical frameworks. Lab modules were developed to help students learn to use the Unity 3D game engine for building simulation applications. These modules focused on the following topics:

a.     collision detections

b.     modeling hierarchy based relationships in a scene

c.     assembly related simulation using scripts

2.     A new set of lecture modules and a lab module was created to introduce students to Next Generation Internet technologies including the networking elements in the Global Environment for Network Innovations (GENI) Test Bed.

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CS 4570/5070: Modeling of Cyber Physical Systems (Dr. J. Cecil)

This was a new course developed as a senior level elective and graduate course (offered for the first time in spring 2017 in Computer Science); it was taught with an interdisciplinary theme with an emphasis on learning both theory and software tools dealing with modeling of Cyber Physical Systems. An experiential learning approach was adopted to enable students to engage with real world projects and learn more effectively. This adoption of an experiential approach was based on the improved student performance in a previous course titled ‘Virtual Engineering for space systems’ (VESS). In terms of course content, two modules from this previous course (VESS) dealing with creation of digital mockups was modified and introduced in this new course; further, new theory modules were created and introduced in this course including…

1. design attributes of Cyber Physical Systems (CPS)
2. the role of information modeling techniques to design the CPS collaborations
3. adoption of Concurrent Engineering (CE) principles to support distributed collaborations.

Two new lab modules were created which focused on introducing student to learn to design and build cyber physical environments using VR environments using Vive (which is a recent product from HTC) and Hololens (from Microsoft). Some of the curriculum development activities were funded by a NSF grant.

 

Figure 2: View of One of the VR Simulation Environments Created by One of the Class Project Teams as part of Class Projects

Figure 3: A student interacting with a digital mockup she created using the Vive VR platform (left) and using the HoloLens MR Platform (right)

As part of class project activities, the students interacted with NASA Johnson Space Center engineers (through skype phone calls, biweekly) and worked on group projects that involved modeling and designing NASA deep space habitats for astronauts to live and work in; this experiential based learning activity enabled students to develop their modeling and digital mock-up building skills; the class students visited JSC Houston at the end of the semester to present their 3D digital mockups.