Mostafa A. Bassiouni - US grants

This award is for the purchase of a Datacube MaxVideo 20 Image Processing System and two Sun SPARCstations each with an image database server. This equipment will support research in image understanding and image compression for dynamic scences. Research in image understanding and image compression requires high computational power and large memory space. The University of Central Florida will purchase equipment to build a real-time vision system to support several research projects in image understanding and image compression for dynamic scenes.

A system incorporating very large storage capacity and high computational power will be developed for this project involving special purpose VLSI applications. These applications include: * VLSI architectures for compression algorithms. * VLSI Algorithms for computer vision. * VLSI Algorithms for signal processing. * High level synthesis tools for VLSI.

This award provides funding to the University of Central Florida for the support of a Combined Research-Curriculum Development (CRCD) project entitled, "Combined Research-Curriculum Development and Optical Networking," under the direction of Dr. Guifang Li. The goal of this three year program is to develop a series of courses in fiber-optic communications with an aim of not only increasing the number but also improving the quality of the skilled workforce entering the fiber-optic communication industry. In particular, the objectives are: 1) Fill a void in quality and up-to-date optical fiber communication educaton at both the upper undergraduate and introductory graduate level by developing four courses by incorporating the latest knowledge and techology base. 2)Design, test, and refine course content and delivery methods to a diverse audience employing appropriate learning theory and instructional technologies. 3) Design ways to institutionalize the courses into existing curriculum. 4) Dissemination of the course materials on a national scale.

EIA-0086251
Guha University of Central Florida
Guha, Ratan K.

CISE Educational Program: Introducing Fundamental Concepts and Evaluation Methods for Distributed Systems and Applications in the Computer Science Undergraduate Curriculum

This CISE Educational Innovation award supports the development of innovative curricula for teaching contemporary concepts of distributed computer systems, computer network technologies, and principles of distributed applications to undergraduate students at the University of Central Florida and three collaborating institutions. The focus of the project is on the development of modules, course materials, courses, a delivery infrastructure, faculty enhancement workshops, and web-based data collection. Module topics include: networks and the Internet, mobile and wireless computing, network management, concepts of distributed systems, network security, performance evaluation, distributed applications, and parallel and distributed simulation. This project provides a web and CD-ROM based mechanism for distribution of modules, courses, support-software and evaluation instruments. A one-week workshop for faculty, government, and industry covering these topics will be conducted in 2002 and 2003. In addition to transferring current research in distributed systems into the undergraduate curriculum at the University of Central Florida, the project also enables three partner institutions with underrepresented student populations (Grambling State University, Florida A&M University, and the University of Houston) to actively participate in the project. The collaborating institutions are involved in development and evaluation of the instructional modules and use them in their programs either as new courses or thread the modules through existing undergraduate courses.

The University of Central Florida will establish an IGERT program with a multidisciplinary research theme in Optical Communications and Networking to train 30 Ph.D. students over the next five years. This program is a joint effort of twenty scientists, engineers and educators from the Departments/Schools of Mathematics, Statistics, Optics, Physics, Material science, Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, and Education at UCF. Optical communications and networking is a particularly well-suited IGERT theme because the diverse multidisciplinary technologies that need to be developed to enable next-generation information infrastructure. Major research efforts are grouped in four areas: advanced components, transport, switching, and networking and network management. Each IGERT thesis project is designed to build upon expertise from at least two different groups in realizing an enhanced functionality that is greater than the sum of the parts, over and above what the two groups would pursue independently. The advising team of each IGERT student, consisting of two or more faculty members from different departments, an industrial advisor and a non-technical advisor, is designed to ensure the successful integration of education, research and training. Industry, the users of technology considered in this effort, will be involved at the onset of the thesis research for each student. The research framework is complemented by the existing multidisciplinary courses, new courses in optical communications and networking to be developed under this IGERT program and being developed under an existing NSF CRCD grant, on-site training on state-of-the-art equipment at UCF, off-site training in industry, and non-technical training including business, communication/ interpersonal skills and ethics. The objective of this IGERT program is not only to train the participating Ph.D. students to become leaders in industry and/or academia but also for this program to serve as a national model for training scientists and engineers in today's globally competitive and technology-driven market economy.

IGERT is an NSF-wide program intended to meet the challenges of educating Ph.D. scientists and engineers with the multidisciplinary backgrounds and the technical, professional, and personal skills needed for the career demands of the future. The program is intended to catalyze a cultural change in graduate education by establishing new, innovative models for graduate education and training in a fertile environment for collaborative research that transcends traditional disciplinary boundaries. In the fourth year of the program, awards are being made to twenty-two institutions for programs that collectively span all areas of science and engineering supported by NSF. The intellectual foci of this specific award reside in the Directorates for Engineering; Computer and Information Science and Engineering; Mathematical and Physical Sciences; and Education and Human Resources.

Computer Science (31)

This project develops innovative learning materials for undergraduate courses in
different domain areas, namely, i) security in general computing applications, ii) information security and the underlying enabling technology of cryptography, iii) hardening of operating systems, system vulnerabilities and safe system administration, and iv) security and intrusion detection in networks and the Internet. The project uses WebCT, Tegrity (for capturing, storing and indexing class presentations), and the Florida Engineering Education Delivery System (for distance learning) to provide "Any Time, Any Place" education to students.

The project is developed using a modular curriculum with spiral feedback. The learning materials are designed in a flexible way so that they can be synthesized suitably to be used in the four courses at various levels of detail and for students of different backgrounds. The learning materials include a rich set of laboratory exercises and projects to enhance the subject matter of the four courses and to assist students in learning the emerging set of new security techniques and skills needed in today's workforce. The subject modules are accompanied by a pool of questions to support active learning assignments and an extensive set of acronyms and a glossary to facilitate student learning. The development of the learning materials is enhanced by using and refining methods derived from the existing knowledge base on undergraduate security education and from the resources available from public course repositories.

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.