Longevity-Oriented Curriculum Enhancement for Cyber-Physical Systems

Abstract: The objective of this project is to incorporate educational modules related to the new computing paradigm, called Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS) into a number of computer science courses. CPS integrates computation and sensing into physical processes, producing a wealth of exciting applications in many domains of life. The proposed longevity-oriented approach of using several courses exposes students to these concepts over the long term from their freshman to senior years. Additionally, the modules address cross-cutting concerns such as fault-tolerance, scalability, software design and testing, resource constraints, and concurrency. This approach has the potential to prepare students for future careers in development of CPS applications, while attempting to address high freshmen attrition problems faced by computer science programs. The proposed modules allow students to develop socially-relevant applications early-on in their education and continue those practices throughout the curriculum with gradually increasing complexity. These approaches and modules specifically target the improvement of the quality of computer science education offered to academically underprepared students. This project aims to (1) develop an infrastructure suited for teaching CPSs that can be used as a best practice example in the construction of future laboratories at other institutions; (2) promote computer science education through the development of teaching modules that will be made publicly available, allowing adoption by other institutions; (3) provide students with opportunities to participate in research and development as they develop socially-relevant applications; and (4) use developed socially-relevant applications to recruit K-12 students into STEM programs.