Enhancing Multidisciplinary STEM Undergraduate Education through Living Labs

This project will serve the national interest by developing an undergraduate program of study that uses a living lab approach to enable students to learn to create and maintain intelligent systems for the health domain. Living labs provide students with hands-on learning opportunities that combine academics and campus facilities to develop real-world skills. A living lab will be implemented in the Department of Computer Science of the College of Engineering with the support of the Department of Neurology of the School of Medicine at Virginia Commonwealth University. This lab will help to address the shortage of qualified professionals who can create and maintain intelligent systems for the health domain and will serve as a national model of experiential learning of multidisciplinary STEM undergraduate training in artificial intelligence systems for the health domain. The living lab for intelligent health systems will be integrated into the computer science undergraduate program at Virginia Commonwealth University. Students will complete a one-year-long curriculum focused on engineering of intelligent health systems, receive a certificate, and develop practical experience working on supervised projects in the living lab. The research component of the project will study the questions: (1) Does the living lab model transfer effectively to undergraduate STEM education and train students to develop and maintain intelligent health systems? and (2) What are the benefits of experiential learning activities in education of intelligent health systems? The NSF IUSE: EDU Program supports research and development projects to improve the effectiveness of STEM education for all students. Through its Engaged Student Learning track, the program supports the creation, exploration, and implementation of promising practices and tools. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.