This second installment in the Stevens NSF Grant Series highlights the research projects funded through NSF grants that directly impact students.

Another essential element in the National Science Foundation’s mission is support for science and engineering education, from pre-K through graduate school and beyond. “The research we fund is thoroughly integrated with education to help ensure that there will always be plenty of skilled people available to work in new and emerging scientific, engineering and technological fields, and plenty of capable teachers to educate the next generation.” (National Science Foundation At-a-Glance)

While Stevens receives grant funding in many different areas, many of the projects funded in this past year have had a direct impact on students. Whether they have funded support for students to travel to design competitions or studies to measure the impact of new approaches to K-12 education, the National Science Foundation also honors the efforts made by educators and researchers to improve the methods of teaching at all levels.

Many grants that may not be predominantly student-centered still have an educational component: Stevens’ own Center for Innovation in Engineering and Science Education (CIESE) has been the direct recipient of two grants so far this year. CIESE Director Beth McGrath knows the impact these awards have for Stevens on a national scale. “These awards really validate the leadership role that Stevens is playing in engineering and science education and research.”

The following projects by Stevens faculty and staff have been funded by the NSF during this calendar year, and all focus on student-centered projects.

Principal Investigator: Susanne Wetzel; Co-Principal Investigators David Naumann, Rajarathnam Chandramouli, Koduvayur Subbalakshmi
This project produces graduates with Master's degrees (or combined Bachelor/Master's degrees) who are committed to enter the federal workforce and prepares students for careers as information assurance and computer security professionals. The project builds upon two prior NSF SFS capacity building grants at Stevens: one that supported the developing of degree programs in cybersecurity on both the undergraduate and graduate levels and one that supported the establishing of a hands-on cybersecurity laboratory.

Principal Investigator: David Cappelleri
This award obtained travel funding for students (undergraduate and graduate) participating as finalists in the 2009, 2010, and 2011 American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) Student Mechanism and Robot Design Competition. This event is designed to: showcase cutting edge research and accomplishments; enrich the educational experience in these fields; advance the understanding of the base of knowledge in mechanism design and robotics that all researchers and educators will collectively draw upon in the years ahead to meet the challenges and realize the opportunities of a globally competitive economy. Finalists are invited to present their work at ASME International Design and Technical Conferences (IDETC) each of the years of this grant. Finalists are judged on the basis of creativity, practicality, integrity of analysis and design methodology, quality of the fabricated prototype, quality of the final report and the conference presentation.

Principal Investigator: Yi Guo; Co-Principal Investigators Hong Man, Arthur Ritter
The project focuses on the development of a set of learning materials and laboratory modules in bio-nanorobotics to be used in undergraduate biomedical, electrical and computer engineering curricula. The learning materials being developed will use a challenge-based pedagogy and incorporating active learning and include units on micro- and nanorobot components and design, case studies on the use of micro- and nanorobots in biomedicine, and an open ended design problem involving pill sized robots for the gastrointestinal tract. The laboratory modules use a combination of computer simulation and a small robot test bed to teach robot navigation and multi-robot cooperation.

Principal Investigator: Susan Staffin Metz; Co-Principal Investigators Patricia Campbell, C. Diane Matt
Stevens Institute of Technology along with WEPAN and other partners will work with 30 engineering schools over five years to deliver an Extension Service project that will include professional development, materials, technical assistance and mini-grants. The goal of ENGAGE is to increase the capacity of engineering schools to retain undergraduate students by facilitating the implementation of three research-based strategies to improve student day-to-day classroom and educational experience. The strategies include: integrating relevant examples into selected 1st and 2nd year engineering courses; improving student spatial visualization skill development; and building faculty knowledge and skill to better engage and interact with students inside and outside of the classroom.

Principal Investigator: Debra Brockway; Co-Principal Investigators Cary Sneider, Sandra Alberti
Stevens Institute of Technology and the New Jersey Department of Education are addressing the challenge of assuring that all students have appropriate opportunities to learn significant STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) content. The project will develop high school biology and chemistry instructional materials that incorporate engineering design and inquiry activities closely linked to the content, while simultaneously introducing students to cutting-edge research in STEM fields. The goal of this project is to strengthen the technology and engineering components in high school STEM courses taken by a majority of students. The hypothesis is that increasing the presence of engineering and technological design at the high school level, specifically by integrating activities in bioengineering and chemical engineering into high school biology and chemistry classes, improves student understanding of science concepts and strengthens students’ 21st century skills more than traditional instructional methods. The study employs an experimental design with matched pairs of classrooms randomly assigned to treatment or control conditions and is intended to contribute to the body of research on the effectiveness of engineering design activities in improving student understanding of science concepts as compared to other teaching methods.

Principal Investigator: Elisabeth McGrath; Co-Principal Investigators Karen Peterson, Edward Leach, Victor Lawrence, Jason Sayres
This "scale-up" project uses engineering as well as science to bring engineering experiences to underrepresented communities. The investigators will build under-water robots, create social networks, and produce a webcast. This project is based on evidence gained from a previous ITEST Strategies grant that showed that an underwater robotics curriculum can increase student learning of science and engineering concepts, their practice of 21st century skills such as problem-solving and collaboration, their enjoyment of science, and their engineering career interest. The goal of the project is to create and assess an adaptable scale-up model that enables the participation of underserved audiences (female, minority and low status youth) in intensive, experiential STEM learning, acquisition of 21st century skills, and increased engineering career awareness and interest. The project will be initiated in four new regions (hub sites) by working with well-established partners whose K-12 programming engages girls and underserved youth in informal education environments, while expanding an in-school implementation model.