Michael Georgiopoulos - US grants

0203446
Michael Georgiopoulos
University of Central Florida
Orlando, FL
"Machine Learning Advances for Engineering Education"

This project, at the University of Central Florida (UCF), integrates research results from the theory and applications of Machine Learning into the Engineering/Computer Science curricula. Two new courses and several revised courses include material from Adaptive Reasoning Theory, Genetic Algorithms, Human Behavior Representation, and Simulation Meta-modeling. The objectives of this CRCD project include: 1. Incorporating current state-of-the-art Machine Learning research results into the undergraduate and first year graduate curriculum to enhance students' critical thinking, intellectual growth and communication skills, 2. Offering a unique curriculum, by traditional undergraduate standards, where the PIs integrate their current research results into the curriculum. This curriculum is timely and dynamic, reflecting the PIs' and the machine learning community's research interest changes with time, 3. Offering the opportunity to a multi-disciplinary group of students (spanning the spectrum of electrical, computer, industrial, civil, mechanical, and computer science students) to benefit from research and its transfer into curricula, 4. Assessing and evaluating the educational impact of the project through a sequence of carefully chosen evaluation instruments developed by an educational consultant, and 5. Disseminating the curriculum development efforts to a number of affiliate Universities.

0216381
Wei

The phenomenal growth of wireless systems in thc last 15 years represents a major paradigm change for society. Today, wireless, personal, and mobile communications are essential for our modern economy and the general well being of the country. Wireless technologies have not only brought in USA billions of dollars in technology export, but also significantly increased the productivity of the whole nation.

The instrumentation the PIs are requesting in this proposal is a wireless communication systems emulator. In short, it can transmit and receive not only standard wireless signals and display them in detail, but it also allows them to deviate from these standards. It contains a universal wireless signal generator/transmitter, a universal wireless signal receiver, a high resolution network analyzer and a multi-input network analyzer.

Wireless communications has been a major research focus area in the School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (SEECS), UCF, over the past few years. A major mission of SEECS is to advance the future of wireless communications through education and research. The PIs involved in this effort have been conducting research in wireless communications for a number of years now. Some examples of the state-of-the art that they have been engaged are included below:

(a) Invented new decoding algorithms that are not only best known for block lengths from 100-250 bits, but also specifically geared towards practical implementation and compatibility with existing wireless systems. With the proposed emulator, they will be able to test these algorithms for applications in the real world.
(b) Introduced a new intelligent packet network architecture, called a cognitive packet network (CPN), in which the packets have intelligent capabilities for routing and flow control themselves. The PIs currently have a network test-bed, with fixed wire-line linkage, and their plan, with the help of the emulator, is to extend it to incorporate wireless linkages. With the proposed instrument, they can also increase the intelligence of the packets using the information gained from link-quality, channel state information, power levels. etc.
(c) Teleoperated robots have wide application from search-rescue operation to factory operation. The robotics and controls lab has several robots, real-time control systems, and other equipments. The proposed instrument will enable the PIs to extend their capability to mobile robots with advanced wireless communication capabilities.

The faculty members on this team have published several hundreds of papers in leading technical journals and conferences. In fact, all PIs and senior personnel have served or are serving as Editors / Associate Editors for prestigious international journals in the areas of their expertise. This state-of-the-art instrumentation will help them verify their research results, extend their capabilities, and justify their future research directions.

This equipment will also enhance their educational capabilities. The PIs currently offer a Wireless Communications option for their electrical engineering undergraduate students and have several graduate students working on projects in the field of wireless communications. This emulator will not only help demonstrate to the students the theory presented in the classroom, but also provide a hands-on platform for thesis and dissertation works.

This project is implementing a coordinated recruitment and retention effort targeting students who are declared STEM majors, yet present low mathematics SAT scores. Institutional data indicate that this group exhibits particularly high attrition from their intended STEM programs. Principal activities include the development of learning communities consisting of students taking designated STEM courses in cohorts through block scheduling, and interacting through the on-campus STEP tutoring center. Furthermore, the project is integrating educational activities, improved advising, faculty development opportunities, and diversity efforts into the curriculum so as to improve student learning and increase retention rates. New courses emphasize applications of pre-calculus and calculus and provide an introduction to research in the sciences and engineering. Industrial affiliates are providing internship and career opportunities in various STEM fields.

Computer Science (31)

The collaboration between the Florida Institute of Technology and the University of Central Florida is building a machine learning community of scholars and learners. They are introducing two undergraduate courses at the host universities, involving undergraduate students in machine learning research, and creating a curated repository for machine learning materials. These materials are being evaluated by a set of seven institutions around the country and the assessed materials are being disseminated nationally.

Title: REU Site: Collaborative Research: Advances of Machine Learning in Theory and Applications (AMALTHEA)

PI: Georgios C Anagnostopoulos
Institution: Florida Institute of Technology

PI: Michael Georgiopoulos
Institution: University of Central Florida

AMALTHEA is a collaborative effort between two closely-located universities, Florida Institute of Technology in Melbourne and University of Central Florida in Orlando, Florida. The project seeks to provide top quality educational experiences to a diverse community of learners through research participation in the area of Machine Learning (ML). Machine Learning is nowadays a high-importance, ever- expanding discipline that draws concepts from a variety of fields, including artificial intelligence, cognitive sciences, information theory, statistics, mathematics, physics, philosophy and biology among others. On the other hand, automatic target recognition, earthquake prediction, gene expression discovery, intelligent credit fraud protection and affectionate computing, to mention just a few, are examples of cutting-edge applications of ML in various technological and scientific domains. The project's thrust area is the theory of ML and how it can be integrated and applied to important real-life problems, thus exposing participants to both theory and applications.

AMALTHEA involves ten undergraduate students annually in ML research over ten weeks in the summer. Overall, the project will impact a diverse group of 30 students, as well as 12 graduate students, which will participate in undergraduate teaching and mentoring activities.
The undergraduate students perform supervised research on ML topics that have the potential to impact the field of ML itself, as well as how ML is applied to other scientific disciplines. REU research results are expected to be published in interdisciplinary conferences, and, potentially, technical journals. Additionally, these REU research advances are fed back and integrated into the teaching of ML-related courses at the partnering institutions.

The project involves four faculty who have significant overall experience in ML research and education; they have mentored over 50 undergraduates in research and co-authored over 20 conference and journal papers with them. The project is also supported in its endeavors by an actively participating Advisory Board consisting of industry and government professionals with interest and expertise in ML.

URL: http://my.fit.edu/amalthea

This project is awarding scholarships to academically talented and financially needy students and is supporting the scholars through a variety of structures and programs. Students from underrepresented groups are being especially targeted for support. Student scholars are enrolled as engineering or computer science majors and have been identified as those who are interested in either pursuing an entrepreneurial career path or who are interested in pursuing graduate research studies. The scholarship program is integrated with a successful STEP program on campus, extending support and mentoring activities into the junior and senior years for targeted students. The objective of the program is the creation of enhanced educational opportunities to enable success of the scholars. The methods being employed in the project include a strong academic support structure, a mentorship program that involves research faculty and industry partners, a Distinguished Speaker seminar series aimed at the scholars, and a learning community infrastructure.

This project is developing a university/community college partnership between the University of Central Florida (UCF) and Seminole Community College (SCC) that is designed to strengthen the mathematical foundations of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) community college students. To achieve this goal, a number of important objectives are identified:
1. Creating Teaching Strategies incorporates an innovative partnership between a two-year institution and a research university through adaptation of the infrastructure of a successful NSF funded STEP program (EXCEL) at the partnering research university to better fit a two-year institution's setting. This is being achieved by developing a team-taught, STEM-interdisciplinary course sequence. The courses in this sequence are Applications of College Algebra, Applications of Trigonometry, and Applications of Pre-Calculus.
2. Developing Faculty Expertise at the community college by working jointly with EXCEL faculty and the Faculty Center for Teaching and Learning (FCTL) at UCF.
3. Creating a Learning Community of Learners and Scholars from SCC and UCF with the common goal of enhancing the mathematics abilities of college underclassmen through emphasizing applications of mathematics. This is further reinforced by the creation of a center on campus for these students. At the center students have a "home base" on campus where they may engage in group study and receive tutoring in their mathematics and applications of mathematics coursework.

Intellectual Merit: The collaborative effort is designed to implement and test educational practices at the community college, modeled after the EXCEL program. The effect of this educational model applied to diverse environments of learners and scholars (SCC and UCF) contributes to the knowledge base of undergraduate STEM education and advances identification of best practices in teaching mathematical applications to diverse student populations (community college and university students).

Broader Impacts: The university/community college partnership established in this project is intended to be a pilot program for future implementation at other universities in partnership with neighboring community colleges to improve mathematical foundations of STEM undergraduates. Because a significant number of the nation's community college students are from groups underrepresented in STEM fields, similar programs at community colleges all over the nation would broaden STEM participation among underrepresented groups.

The University of Central Florida Community Embraces a Knowledge-Based Economy brings together NSF awards from the EHR STEM Talent Expansion program (STEP), Engineering Education, and Research Experiences for Undergraduates around the I3 themes of broadening participation and the integration of research and education. The project goals are to provide coherence to multiple internally and extramurally funded STEM projects at the University of Central Florida (UCF) and integrate STEM research and education activities. The project targets UCF students, faculty, and staff by providing resources for communication, research, education, professional development, STEM program improvement, and K-12 educational enhancement.

The project objectives are as follows: increase STEM education program interactions, improve STEM fluency, and integrate STEM research and education. Activities undertaken to accomplish the objectives include increased program interactions through the development of the UCF STEM Research and Education Council (STEMREC) and the comprehensive STEMREC web-based management program. The innovative Science and Technology Gallery encourages collaborations between science and non-science students and faculty through science inspired art and design based on STEM research. Project activities also include the integration of NSF research findings into service learning, an annual "State of STEM" conference, and a variety of television and web-based programming designed to encourage ongoing communication across the UCF community and beyond. The project provides increased undergraduate student and K-12 teacher research opportunities through grant supplements. The Summer Faculty Development Conference promotes the integration of NSF STEM grant findings into course content and applications. Finally, there is the potential for new STEM courses, tracks, and minors in addition to K-12 student education modules, demonstrations, and learning tools.

This project will reach over 550 undergraduates, faculty members, undergraduate researchers, and classroom teachers. Communication via UCF television programming, web broadcasts, and other electronic media further extend the project's reach in addition to the Science and Technology Gallery displays in the local community. A comprehensive mixed-methods evaluation will be conducted by the Program Evaluation and Educational Research Group (PEER). Overall, the consistent emphasis on the integration of STEM research and education activities, combined with a creative project design will ensure that UCF students, faculty, and staff are well prepared to meet the challenges of a knowledge-based economy.

This award provides funding for a new collaborative Research Experiences for Teachers (RET) Site focused on Signal and Image Processing at the University of Central Florida and Florida Institute of Technology. Each year 13 high school teachers from school districts in four Central Florida counties will participate in research projects at the universities. The teachers will also develop modules related to their research which they will implement in their classes in the following school year. The teachers will organize annual science events to share their work with the communities around their schools and they will participate in the Florida Science Olympiad. Through participation in the RET Site the teachers will have an enhanced knowledge base in engineering and computer science and the skills to translate this into their classroom practices, thus impacting their students and motivating them towards science, technology, computing, and engineering disciplines.

The intellectual merit of this project revolves around the expertise of the research team and outstanding research environment in which the teachers will work. The research projects are compelling and are in areas that are of current interest.

The broader impacts of this project include substantial impact on the area schools and dissemination to a broad community. Teachers will incorporate new computing and engineering topics into their classes and develop hands-on ways to impart these topics to secondary students. The teachers will also engage in public outreach to convey the concepts and appreciation of computer science and engineering to the public. Through this project, a long-term relationship between the university and the schools will be forged and cemented. The partners will work together to build a foundation of outstanding computing and engineering education in the region.

This project is supporting a workshop to explore issues relating to sustainability and institutionalization of projects funded under the STEM Talent Expansion Program (STEP). In particular, the workshop is bringing together Principal Investigators of both new and established STEP projects with representatives from regional Workforce Development organizations from around the country. The seeds of this effort lie in the experiences of the STEP project leadership at the University of Central Florida who have successfully engaged with staff at Workforce Central Florida (WCF), which is that region's authority for workforce planning, programs, and the regional labor market. The primary expected outcome of this workshop is the creation of a set of new partnerships between STEP grantees and Workforce Development organizations from the different projects' respective regions.

This STEP Type 1B Project (compass: Convincing Outstanding-Math-Potential Admits to Succeed in STEM) is implementing a sustainable model for recruiting freshman students into STEM majors and helping them to persist in STEM to a bachelor's degree. Towards this goal, the main objectives are:
- Recruit new freshmen with strong SAT mathematics scores who are undeclared majors into enrolling in the COMPASS STEM Explorations course, offered in both the fall and spring, and convince them to choose a STEM major by the end of their freshman year by reinforcing the course with additional experiences (described in the next paragraph);
- Retain a majority of the recruited majors in STEM through graduation; and
- Determine how career interest and career readiness assessments influence student choice of STEM majors and retention in STEM through graduation in order to improve this model.

Undeclared majors entering college for the first time are encouraged at orientation to register for a course in Career Planning. All registered students with high mathematics SAT scores are placed into the STEM section of this course called Explorations in STEM Careers, which teaches self-assessment, explores the world-of-work with STEM specifics, and provides experiential learning through job shadowing. Following course completion, more extensive job shadowing experiences are offered, followed up by sophomore undergraduate research experiences and industrial internships. These experiences are intended to develop and strengthen participating students' emerging identities as scientists and engineers. The COMPASS learning community is supported by a network of mentors made up of peers, graduate students, staff, faculty, administrators, and industrial STEM professionals.

This Type 1B model expects to produce 473 more degrees during the grant's lifetime. The institutionalization of the project's activities has the potential to sustain a gain of 95 additional STEM degrees per year after the grant is completed.

Preparing highly qualified Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) graduates who are well prepared for the workforce is a national challenge. The University of Central Florida (UCF), the second largest university in the nation with more than 11,000 students majoring in STEM fields is building upon the prior, successful, Young Entrepreneur and Scholar (YES) program. The expanded Career Advancement Mentoring Program for Young Entrepreneurs and Scholars (CAMP-YES) includes various graduate school preparation activities, a wide variety of internship opportunities to include mid-and large-size companies, and a host of academic and entrepreneurial learning opportunities to help launch new business ventures in partnership with the Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership (CEL) at UCF. Strong industry letters of support from Lockheed Martin, Disney World, Siemens, Duke Energy and others define a network of employers who are committed to providing mentors or advisory board members for the (CAMP-YES) program.

CAMP-YES creates a direct S-STEM pipeline through three formal pathways, the Research Path,the Internship Path, and the Entrepreneurship Path, to either the workforce or graduate school. A wide array of enhanced educational activities is added. The advantage of offering these opportunities and experiences through one program is to create a one-stop, cohesive, structured learning community for students to explore career pathways and develop their professional identity. Students stay in a Path or switch Paths to explore their professional interests and gain real-world experience to help make informed decisions about their career or education plan with guidance from their faculty or industry professional mentors. Research Path students participate in the Graduate School Preparation Academy. Internship and Entrepreneurship Path students participate in any of the activities that interest them. Entrepreneurship Path students register with Blackstone Launchpad, an entrepreneurship advising service supported by a $1.4 million grant to UCF from the Blackstone Foundation. The project evaluation plan involves formative and summative assessment instruments to ensure that all project outcomes are met in a timely manner. A mixed method approach is used to assess the effectiveness of the proposed educational strategies in fulfilling the desired learning outcomes from both educators' and learners' perspectives. The effectiveness of persistence to graduation efforts and preparation for transition to the workforce or graduate school is evaluated. Summative program evaluation in year five will be conducted by external evaluators. An education research component of CAMP-YES will examine how students perceptions change over time in terms of how they see themselves as becoming a professional in the field, and how they feel they are accepted as a professional in the field.

The S-STEM Flit-Path (Florida IT Pathways) project will recruit, retain, and provide scholarships and curricular and co-curricular support to academically talented students with financial need in the IT related disciplines of Computer Science, Information Technology, and Computer Engineering. The goals of the project are to (1) increase retention, student success, and graduation of students who pursue a degree in the Computer Science, Information Technology, and Computer Engineering disciplines; (2) implement a model of student engagement that affects the recruitment, retention, student success, academic and career pathways, and degree attainment of students pursing a degree in these disciplines; and (3) contribute to the implementation and sustainability of effective evidence-based curricular/co-curricular activities for its students. Building on a grant from the Florida State Board of Governors, project activities include tutoring for foundation courses; intrusive academic advising; faculty, industry, and peer mentoring; and academic and career pathway support. Participation in project activities is expected to increase the graduation rate for Flit Path students by 20%. The project will recruit two cohorts of students. Cohort A will be comprised of 54 first time college students in each of Years 1 and 2 of the grant. Cohort B will be comprised of 69 first time in college senior students each year, who have the potential and interest in graduating within one year's time. Flit-Path will impact 453 students who are pursuing degrees in Computer Science, Information Technology, and Computer Engineering.

The mixed methods explanatory research design includes a longitudinal quantitative study followed by a qualitative longitudinal phenomenological study that is designed to investigate patterns observed in the quantitative data. The longitudinal quantitative study examines changes in students' persistence, computing identity, retention, graduation, and job placement of Flit-Path students compared to non-Flit-Path students. The relationships among particular experiences in the project and levels of change in the outcomes will be examined. The guiding research questions are (1) What are the relative and cumulative effects of project-related experiences on students' persistence, computing identity, and success outcomes? Are these effects different for students from underrepresented groups? (2) What are the relative and cumulative effects of social and economic supports within the program? (3) For specific effects observed, how are these types of activities experienced by students in the program and why might they affect particular educational outcomes? In addition, the project will investigate the supports and barriers that facilitate and impede a collaborative effort across three universities that creates a "community of practice" around student engagement and a sustainable partnership among institutions.

This project will contribute to the national need for well-educated scientists, mathematicians, engineers, and technicians by supporting the retention and graduation of high-achieving, low-income students with demonstrated financial need at Florida International University (FIU), University of Central Florida (UCF) and the University of South Florida (USF). Over its 5-year duration, this project will provide scholarships to 150 students who are pursuing degrees in Computer Science, Information Technology, Computer Engineering, and Cybersecurity. Undergraduate students will receive up to two-years of scholarship support and graduate students will receive up to two-years of scholarship support. The project’s focus is on (1) creating a hybrid (physical-virtual) learning community that spans the three institutions, and (2) offering professional pathway experiences (research, internship, entrepreneurship) to each of its scholars, reflecting the scholar’s interest to pursue graduate studies, work for industry/government, or work for a small company/start own business, upon graduation. The project will inform efforts to increase persistence and graduation of low-income students in the computing fields, addressing a national priority, and offering professional pathway opportunities to each scholar that will provide them with comprehensive educational experiences that will help them to identify (or verify) the desired professional pathway that they can pursue upon graduation.

The project has three research goals. First is to investigate the factors that impact low-income and underrepresented students’ perception of the value and cost of future pathways including graduate school. Second is to study the impact of the Flit-GAP hybrid learning community and planned programming on students’ belonging, persistence, and pathways. Third is to determine the enacted nature of the hybrid learning community for formative improvement and translating to other contexts. The knowledge generation component will involve three qualitative and quantitative components in parallel for a mixed methods convergent and holistic triangulation design, with primary and complementary methods to emphasize both generalizability and authenticity of context. First, a primarily qualitative interview study investigates Flit-GAP students' experiential learning experiences and perceptions of future pathways. Second, a primarily quantitative longitudinal cohort study investigates paired Flit-GAP and non-Flit-GAP students to look for significant differences in persistence, graduation, and future pathway perceptions. Third, a primarily ethnographic study observes the many planned interactions in the hybrid virtual/in-person cross institutional learning community and examines the nuanced context that supports the Flit-GAP outcomes.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.