The College of Science, Mathematics and Technology (CSMT) at Alabama State University is hosting a National Science Foundation Sponsored Workshop on Friday, July 26, from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. in ASU’s Life Science Building, Room 116.
The topic of the workshop is “Engaging Students in Software Engineering through Active Learning.”
The selected participants will come from all over the United States, said Dr. Cajetan M. Akujuobi, dean of ASU’s College of Science Mathematics, Technology & Engineering.
“The main purpose of this workshop is to bring together a community of teachers with the necessary background in computer science, information technology, and train them on how the software engineering concepts can impact students,” said Akujuobi. “The workshop also will allow the participants to discuss among themselves the development of possible learning materials and teaching strategies.”
Akujuobi said computer concepts taught in computer science courses expose students to a wide variety of programming languages, but that is only a small part of what is required of graduates when they enter the workforce. He said industry demands a much broader perspective. Today’s graduates must now be equipped with business skills such as estimating costs, monitoring progress, measuring effectiveness and much more. This set of activities is collectively known as software engineering process. Students who are inculcated with such software engineering skills are more attractive to employers than just having software-coding abilities.
“An important outcome of this workshop is that participants will have created innovative educational materials to take back to their own institutions to use in the classroom and share with colleagues,” Akujuobi said.
At the end of the workshop, each participant will present a sample lesson on a selected software engineering topic and have an opportunity to receive feedback from other workshop participants.
The workshop is a result of a $298,437, three-year grant, titled (HBCU-UP Targeted Infusion Project) from the National Science Foundation. The grant allows ASU to offer instructional courses to help student work in an interactive environment in which they are instructed on new techniques and then mentored in the use of those techniques through a series of hands-on exercises. The faculty at Alabama State University works in collaboration with the software engineering faculty at Auburn University to develop a software process that fits the educational environment. The principal investigators of the grant are Dr. Akujuobi at ASU; Dr. Rajendran Swamidurai, assistant professor of computer science, Department of Mathematics and Computer Science, ASU; and Dr. David Umphress, associate professor, Department of Computer Science and Software Engineering, Auburn University.
“We are leveraging on this award in the development of the Software Engineering lab, which will be part of the envisioned STEM Center of Excellence for Modeling and Simulation Research in the CSMT,” Akujuobi said.
- Hazel Scott, media relations specialist, wrote this news release
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Thursday, July 25th 2013 at 5:56PM
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