Distributed Engineering Communication and Collaboration Systems

Within the department, applied research and development is underway that seeks to enhance interpersonal communications in higher education by making use of emerging information technology (IT) solutions. The effort studies how people communicate and identifies, develops, and evaluates user-friendly IT solutions for enhanced communication (particularly distributed collaborations over a distance). Current projects are examining:

1. How students might develop a global perspective on engineering through live, interactive courses that co-enroll engineering students in other countries,
2. How students, teaching assistants, and faculty can connect after class as a distributed community of learning and practice, using an IT solution that indicates a person’s real-time presence on the Internet and supports interactive sharing of voice, video, and course-related content,
3. How faculty might enhance student engagement and learning through the inclusion of expert speakers brought to class using distributed communication solutions,
4. How the university can support economic development through distance learning at the undergraduate and graduate levels (the Engineers PRODUCED in Virginia initiative and the Commonwealth Graduate Engineering Program, respectively), and
5. How to evaluate the performance of the IT solutions employed, considering metrics that range from quality of service delivered by the systems, to quality of support provided by staff, to academic success of students using the systems.

Future efforts are expected to look at:

1. How students can prepare for careers through distributed seminars and mentoring discussions with alumni located around the globe,
2. How faculty might more efficiently deliver instruction at a time of constrained resources in higher education, and
3. How faculty can increase the efficacy of their research programs by using distributed collaboration solutions to connect with colleagues around the globe.