Full HTML for

Basic foilset Master Set for Physics and Engineering Education and Outreach with Modern Information Technology

Given by Geoffrey C. Fox at HPCC Seminar Series at Penn State on Jan 25 99. Foils prepared Jan 30 99
Outside Index Summary of Material

Given to graduate HPCC/Computational Science seminar
Initially motivate reason for change based on shift of employee and then student interests to information technology
Describe relevant Syracuse activities and why they fit together to support new curricula; better educational materials in existing fields and novel technology support for new models of teaching and learning
We describe Internetics as key applied computer science knowledge
We give a brief description of
  • TangoInteractive for distance delivery
  • NeatTools for Universal Access
We comment on "business model" for both computer science research and for Universities

Table of Contents for full HTML of Master Set for Physics and Engineering Education and Outreach with Modern Information Technology

 Denote Foils where Image Critical
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1 Physics and Engineering Education and Outreach with Modern Information Technology
2 Abstract of Penn State Presentation
3 Possibly Useful Syracuse Activities
4 Why and What could one Do?
5 Why/What is Internetics in a Nutshell
6 Synergy of Parallel Computing and The Grid Internetics as Unifying Principle
7 Internetics and Physics I
8 Internetics and Physics II
9 Why use TangoInteractive?
10 Some Principles in Tango Support of Distance Education I
11 Some Principles in Tango Support of Distance Education II
12 NeatTools and Universal Access
13 New Enterprise Models for University Research?
14 New Enterprise Models for Universities?
15 Useful Links

Outside Index Summary of Material

HTML version of Basic Foils prepared Jan 30 99

Foil 1 Physics and Engineering Education and Outreach with Modern Information Technology

From Master Set for Physics and Engineering Education and Outreach with Modern Information Technology HPCC Seminar Series at Penn State -- Jan 25 99. *
Full HTML Index
Presentation at Penn State Jan 25 99
http://www.npac.syr.edu/users/gcf/pennstateeducjan99
Geoffrey Fox
Syracuse University NPAC
111 College Place Syracuse NY 13244 4100
3154432163
HTML version of Basic Foils prepared Jan 30 99

Foil 2 Abstract of Penn State Presentation

From Master Set for Physics and Engineering Education and Outreach with Modern Information Technology HPCC Seminar Series at Penn State -- Jan 25 99. *
Full HTML Index
Given to graduate HPCC/Computational Science seminar
Initially motivate reason for change based on shift of employee and then student interests to information technology
Describe relevant Syracuse activities and why they fit together to support new curricula; better educational materials in existing fields and novel technology support for new models of teaching and learning
We describe Internetics as key applied computer science knowledge
We give a brief description of
  • TangoInteractive for distance delivery
  • NeatTools for Universal Access
We comment on "business model" for both computer science research and for Universities
HTML version of Basic Foils prepared Jan 30 99

Foil 3 Possibly Useful Syracuse Activities

From Master Set for Physics and Engineering Education and Outreach with Modern Information Technology HPCC Seminar Series at Penn State -- Jan 25 99. *
Full HTML Index
1) New Curriculum: Internetics Concept as novel and powerful way of linking Computing to Applications
  • Concept generalizes computational science
  • An Internetics Certificate which we will offer over Internet both in USA and internationally
  • Interest in Integration with physics for new degree options
2) Improved curriculum in existing fields as in Physics-NPAC-Engineering-Cornell Collaborative Applets and web-based simulations
3) NeatTools for universal access allowing those with disabilities to be effective teachers and learners
4) TangoInteractive and WebWisdom as web-based distance education technology to allow broad dissemination of curriculum starting locally
  • Ongoing experience using technology
5) Collaboration with NSF PACI (NCSA,UCSD supercomputer centers) to accelerate national outreach and ensure top quality
6) Note NPAC was once a parallel computing center -- now 40% of its activities are either delivery of or technology development for education
HTML version of Basic Foils prepared Jan 30 99

Foil 4 Why and What could one Do?

From Master Set for Physics and Engineering Education and Outreach with Modern Information Technology HPCC Seminar Series at Penn State -- Jan 25 99. *
Full HTML Index
One can integrate best information technology and leading physics and engineering research into new curriculum with both existing and new educational programs and outreach activities
This will invigorate traditional majors; integrate them into interdisciplinary education and improve broad based science understanding
One needs Internetics as key information technology curriculum
One needs good curricula authoring tools with universal Web API
One needs NeatTools to enable universal access to web-based curriculum
One needs TangoInteractive/WebWisdom to broadly disseminate
One needs outside collaboration (such as NSF PACI EOT) to ensure integration with national agenda
One needs physics and engineering researchers and teachers to design and develop new curriculum materials
One needs innovative universities interested in new "enterprise models for education" and willing to experiment
HTML version of Basic Foils prepared Jan 30 99

Foil 5 Why/What is Internetics in a Nutshell

From Master Set for Physics and Engineering Education and Outreach with Modern Information Technology HPCC Seminar Series at Penn State -- Jan 25 99. *
Full HTML Index
Computational Science is Interdisciplinary field in between Computer Science and "large scale Scientific and Engineering simulation-based" applications
  • Academic fields: Aerospace engineering, physics etc.
Internetics is Interdisciplinary field between CS and Both Simulation and Information-based applications
  • Bioinformatics, Public Communication ...
  • As information applications dominate commercial world, internetics has an information flavor (analysis of physics data is an "information" application; QCD Monte Carlo is a simulation application)
Enrollment in Classic Computational Science at Syracuse has dropped from 50 to 10; enrollment in Internetics has risen from 6 to 100 (95-98)
Current Internetics Curriculum starts with High School Java Academy;undergraduate and graduate programs, through the four course continuing education certificate
HTML version of Basic Foils prepared Jan 30 99

Foil 6 Synergy of Parallel Computing and The Grid Internetics as Unifying Principle

From Master Set for Physics and Engineering Education and Outreach with Modern Information Technology HPCC Seminar Series at Penn State -- Jan 25 99. *
Full HTML Index
The two forms of Large Scale Computing Scale Computer for Scale Users in Proportion Power User to number of computers
Parallel Distributed Information Systems Computers Computational Grids
<--------------- Internetics Technologies --------------->
1% market
99% of market driving
student interest and (Java) technologies
HTML version of Basic Foils prepared Jan 30 99

Foil 7 Internetics and Physics I

From Master Set for Physics and Engineering Education and Outreach with Modern Information Technology HPCC Seminar Series at Penn State -- Jan 25 99. *
Full HTML Index
Physics is declining in popularity as a major even though
  • Physics research is flourishing
  • Science (and Engineering) are critical to Society (Information technology is built on micro devices and communications infrastructure)
Physics is in many ways a BETTER educational background than computer science to today's major computer science challenge -- designing and building distributed systems
  • We can quite easily train people to program in Java but it is not so easy to design what should be programmed and how it fits together
  • Physics trains students to look at systems from a fundamental point of view and to analyze quantitatively (See Feynman's role in Challenger disaster)
  • All senior people in NPAC have a science or engineering Ph.D.
HTML version of Basic Foils prepared Jan 30 99

Foil 8 Internetics and Physics II

From Master Set for Physics and Engineering Education and Outreach with Modern Information Technology HPCC Seminar Series at Penn State -- Jan 25 99. *
Full HTML Index
A combination of Physics and a minor in Internetics is an interesting background for many areas such as:
  • Systems Engineer designing global information systems
  • Experimental physicist designing new data analysis systems
  • K-12 science teacher
More generally will make Physics a more attractive major ...
Further comparing "books" with the Web, we see that the Web offers opportunities for "technical people" as well as those with good "communication skills" (of a traditional kind)
  • Java applets combined with numerical algorithms or physics experimental instrument connected to Web may sometimes be more effective than streams of beautiful English words and nifty drawings
This implies a "Computational Science/Internetics" minor including base information technology and optional elective in "science communication" prepared by physics/engineering
  • At Syracuse, attractive as Newhouse School of Communications gets excellent students
HTML version of Basic Foils prepared Jan 30 99

Foil 9 Why use TangoInteractive?

From Master Set for Physics and Engineering Education and Outreach with Modern Information Technology HPCC Seminar Series at Penn State -- Jan 25 99. *
Full HTML Index
New Academic Curriculum suggest the use of distance education as it will allow a few experts to deliver instruction to more students and this
  • addresses shortage of trained faculty
  • cost of developing new curriculum requires many students to amortize cost
Internetics technology such as TangoInteractive and WebWisdom (web-linked multimedia database) enables distance education
Assume future of all education and training is "web-based" and that base Web Technology supports self paced asynchronous learning
  • Database (linked to web) allow management and assessment
  • Synchronous(Interactive) and Project based learning enabled by Web Collaboration systems
Both delivery mechanism and identification of knowledge nuggets (such as Internetics or computational science) that are smaller than a traditional degree suggests different approaches to certification
HTML version of Basic Foils prepared Jan 30 99

Foil 10 Some Principles in Tango Support of Distance Education I

From Master Set for Physics and Engineering Education and Outreach with Modern Information Technology HPCC Seminar Series at Penn State -- Jan 25 99. *
Full HTML Index
One needs both asynchronous (self paced) and synchronous learning
Asynchronous learning implies that a Web server supplies data from a multimedia Web Site or a backend database
Synchronous learning implemented by sharing SOME but not all information (guided tour) from an asynchronous site and combining it with audio video conferencing, chat rooms, white boards etc.
Must support unstructured modest size data sets ( a "few" pages from a single instructor) of disparate type and
Large more uniform structured datasets such as collections of courses from a large institution.
Web Site is unstructured and web-linked database is structured
HTML version of Basic Foils prepared Jan 30 99

Foil 11 Some Principles in Tango Support of Distance Education II

From Master Set for Physics and Engineering Education and Outreach with Modern Information Technology HPCC Seminar Series at Penn State -- Jan 25 99. *
Full HTML Index
Need to support
  • Synchronous and Asynchronous Delivery
  • Web-linked Databases
  • Archiving of classes as linked "events" including digitized audio-video recording; cursor positions etc.
Four Authoring Models
  • Simple HTML or PowerPoint
  • Medium level (enhanced Web) Systems such as WebCT, Cornell Virtual Workshop
  • High level Web such as Java Simulations
  • Macromedia and other web exportable but not easily fully web integrated authoring systems
HTML version of Basic Foils prepared Jan 30 99

Foil 12 NeatTools and Universal Access

From Master Set for Physics and Engineering Education and Outreach with Modern Information Technology HPCC Seminar Series at Penn State -- Jan 25 99. *
Full HTML Index
Universal Access aims at providing the capability of accessing (computer generated) information to all members of society -- current NSF wide focus
  • e.g. generate audio versions of images and text for the blind
  • e.g. provide alternatives to mouse and keyboard for those with physical difficulties using conventional devices.
"Webwindows" simplifies this task as implies all information has a pretty uniform interface and it appears that it is now technically possible to provide very powerful universal human computer interfaces
NeatTools allows general body signals (e.g. muscle movement) to be read into PC, calibrated and used to mimic keyboard and mouse
This technology allows enhanced multimodal HCI for those without disabilities
TangoInteractive's shared event model of collaboration allows one to share information with different optimized views for each participant
HTML version of Basic Foils prepared Jan 30 99

Foil 13 New Enterprise Models for University Research?

From Master Set for Physics and Engineering Education and Outreach with Modern Information Technology HPCC Seminar Series at Penn State -- Jan 25 99. *
Full HTML Index
So computer science research is very difficult these days as major challenge and opportunity is development of large scale distributed systems
  • Can't be done with traditional faculty + 2 graduate student model
  • Can't be done without 75% of resources going into "non-research" activities such as maintaining software infrastructure in a rapidly evolving world -- this is familiar in fields such as experimental physics and astronomy
  • Industry will probably have much more resources and do better RESEARCH anyway (no analogy for physics!)
All projects today are collaborative -- communication revolution has dramatically increased need for travel -- I made 42 "business" trips in 1998
Academia tends to give same person marketing and technical leadership responsibilities -- Industry separates
So NPAC will hopefully be restructured with 75% of activities transferred to 3 small businesses: WebWisdom.com(education), Translet(distributed computing), MindTel (HCI and universal access)
I can teach and work from a hermit's cave in a remote Adirondack hideaway
HTML version of Basic Foils prepared Jan 30 99

Foil 14 New Enterprise Models for Universities?

From Master Set for Physics and Engineering Education and Outreach with Modern Information Technology HPCC Seminar Series at Penn State -- Jan 25 99. *
Full HTML Index
Distance Education is technically sound -- both synchronously and asynchronously -- today with very robust clear implementations available over next 2 years
Separate teaching mentoring and dormitory role of University
Teaching and grading naturally performed by centers of excellence which need at least an order of magnitude more customers than a single faculty in order to be able to justify investment in course preparation and maintenance
Continuing Education of growing importance and natural area to attack first -- corporate training is serious competition here and commercial deliverers have advantage?
Not obvious that will save large amounts of money as students will need more not less mentoring in today's information-overrich world -- quality of educational experience will become more uniform and better
Unfortunately too many universities in North East -- easier to implement in South where student body growing faster?
HTML version of Basic Foils prepared Jan 30 99

Foil 15 Useful Links

From Master Set for Physics and Engineering Education and Outreach with Modern Information Technology HPCC Seminar Series at Penn State -- Jan 25 99. *
Full HTML Index
http://www.npac.syr.edu/users/gcf/pennstateeducjan99/ This Talk
http://www.npac.syr.edu/users/gcf/physicsfuturemar98 Internetics and Physics
http://www.npac.syr.edu/tango Collaboration System
http://www.npac.syr.edu/users/njm/jsuspring98/ Paper on teaching at Jackson State using TangoInteractive
http://www.npac.syr.edu/users/gcf/houstonwebedoct98/index.html Web based education technology
http://www.npac.syr.edu/users/gcf/internetics Internetics Concept
http://www.webwisdom.org/sept1998/WebWisdomCertDescription.html Internetics Graduate or Continuing Education Certificate
http://suhep.phy.syr.edu/courses/ Phy 105,106, 307
http://www.pulsar.org/ NeatTools and Related Universal Access work
http://www.mame.syr.edu/virstatics/FrameSet1.html Virtual Statics Lab
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