| [Previous Story] [Next Story]
A LIFETIME OF POLYMER LEARNING
Akron's online academy will focus on education and training from kindergarten through retirement
STEPHEN K. RITTER, C&EN WASHINGTON
The University of Akron is creating a unique Internet-based initiative in polymer science and polymer engineering that when fully operational will provide a continuous learning experience from kindergarten to college to career online job training. Called the Global Polymer Academy (GPA), the venture will eventually link corporations and school districts with the university for a range of education, training, and team-based research programs.
PHYSICAL REALITY Akron's new Polymer Engineering Academic Center will be a home base for the university's Global Polymer Academy.
PHOTOS BY JOHN ASHLEY/UNIVERSITY OF AKRON
"A four-year base set of university learning currently is the biggest piece of education to prepare someone for a career," notes GPA Director R. Byron Pipes. "In that program, a student packs all of the learning into a short time and then sets out on a career with it. But the broader scope is really to look at learning as a lifetime experience that may cover 40 years or more. That's an order of magnitude difference of learning. So we began to think what the role of the university should be to cover all that extra time. The academy is thus a vehicle to show the way that this can be done."
The goal of GPA is to incorporate interactive classrooms, labs, and other Web access for K–12 science education, degree and certification programs, and online job training. Another thrust will be a synchronous online laboratory that allows remote operation of instrumentation and exchange of information for degree courses and for potential collaborative research projects by groups at different schools and universities, government agencies, and industry sites. The latter is a potential jumping-off point for commercializing some of the developments, Pipes believes.
The polymer science and polymer engineering programs at the University of Akron have been recognized over the years as being among the best in the world. The university's proximity to important polymer manufacturing facilities and research centers in northeastern Ohio has been a valuable asset for its development, including the formation of GPA, Pipes says.
EVERY INDUSTRY has a pipeline of human resources, Pipes observes, but the polymer industry in particular is a great place to start because it involves a large number of chemists and engineers in a broad spectrum of the chemical community. "As we started thinking about forming the academy and began talking with other faculty groups, they began to see a potential benefit of the online concept for their area. So we began expanding the breadth of the program to include K–12 and then on-the-job training."
GPA is the brainchild of Pipes and Frank N. Kelley, dean of Akron's College of Polymer Science & Polymer Engineering. Pipes is a member of the National Academy of Engineering who recently joined the university as Goodyear Professor of Polymer Engineering.
Pipes comes to Akron from the College of William & Mary. Previously, he served as president of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (1993–98), where he worked on several award-winning programs that use cutting-edge technology for enhanced learning. Prior to his tenure at Rensselaer, Pipes was dean of the College of Engineering at the University of Delaware and directed the university's Center for Composite Materials, which is one of the first six National Engineering Research Centers that were formed in 1985 by the National Science Foundation.
Pipes and Kelley began to fully develop the academy idea in 1999 and worked together to prepare the funding proposal. The state of Ohio has provided an initial grant of $1.3 million for fiscal 2001 and an additional $980,000 each for fiscal 2002 and 2003.
"The Akron Global Polymer Academy is an ambitious undertaking, but we have good leadership and strong support from our university and the state legislature," Kelley says. "It is up to us to demonstrate that the investment of dollars and good faith is worthwhile."
As envisioned, transmission of lessons for the K–12 educational programs will be provided at no charge to the school districts that use them, Pipes says. But as degree and certificate programs and research initiatives are implemented and the initial funding is used up, GPA is expected to become self-supporting through tuition, corporate-sponsored research, and fees from multi-institution research programs.
GPA is housed in Akron's new Polymer Engineering Academic Center and has offices and lab space in the university's nearby Goodyear Polymer Center. Each of these campus buildings has fully automated distance-learning classrooms configured for live audio and video delivery over the Internet. The University of Akron polymer programs' director of administrative services, R. Kent Marsden, will also serve as GPA's associate director for operations. GPA will utilize Akron's existing support staff for the advanced technology classrooms.
|
 |
|
NO LIMITS Pipes seeks to enhance delivery of science education and the conduct of research over the Internet. |
|
|
"THROUGH THE USE of the Internet, e-mail, and conventional video systems, multi-institutional sites will be developed and used for educational, training, and research programs as needed," Pipes says. "Ultimately, any facility or site with Internet access--whether a school, remote research laboratory, or isolated manufacturing facility--could be used as a 'physical facility' for GPA."
The academy's K–12 curriculum program is expected to be available starting in April; it is being developed by a cooperative effort between faculty from the university's education and science departments. The program is being directed by GPA Associate Director for Educational Programs Charles R. Parsons, who recently retired as superintendent of Wadsworth, Ohio, public schools.
The K–12 program, designed to meet Ohio and national science education standards, will focus on chemistry, mathematics, and physics while introducing students to fundamental concepts in polymer science and polymer engineering. GPA will provide a website with model lesson plans and support materials for teachers. Loaned materials, live workshops, and virtual field trips will allow teachers and students in remote locations to benefit from interacting with scientists, business leaders, and education professors.
"Our K–12 model deals with the realities of having a critical shortage of properly trained and licensed science teachers," Pipes says. "We can use distance-learning techniques to capitalize on the 'anytime, anywhere' benefits of Web-based instruction. Teachers and educators will be able to share the most effective practices for teaching science while presenting interesting, well-developed lessons to students that will become a part of their routine, daily activities."
Key to most of GPA's programs is an online laboratory that will be available 24 hours a day for students, online training, and team-based collaborative research. The lab will allow property sharing to avoid duplication of specialized instrumentation. Control over the Internet also will allow researchers to distribute and analyze data, Pipes explains. "Today, it is straightforward to monitor and image experiments over the Internet," he says. "However, to achieve robust, team-based collaborative lab activities where researchers can access, control, and utilize instruments that never sleep, there is more work to do."
?Protocols must be developed that provide for the intellectual and physical security of users and instrument sites, Pipes says. At GPA, a dedicated computer server will be used to connect to instruments and machinery, with LabVIEW application software planned as the operating platform. LabVIEW is an Internet-based application that allows control of lab apparatus, data collection, and data analysis. Motion control of equipment will be provided through stepper motors and servos, and video can be integrated so that real-time data can be collected.
"Many of the polymer courses and degree programs now offered on campus will be available via distance-delivery systems within five years."
THE FIRST USE of the online laboratory was demonstrated this past November for the electrospinning of polymeric nanofibers. The fiber-spinning apparatus at Akron was successfully controlled by researchers at the National Aeronautics & Space Administration's Langley Research Center in Hampton, Va.
Fiber spinning is part of a NASA program to develop biocompatible polymers for applications such as artificial skin and to develop lightweight materials for use in the space program. During the process, a liquid polymer is pumped through a spinnerette where a potential is applied to the polymer and the polymer is directed at an opposing plate. As the polymer extrudes, it stretches continuously by charge repulsion, creating very fine fibers that can't be obtained by regular mechanical processes.
"The online laboratory has the potential for a broad spectrum of applications," Pipes says, "including students and research collaborators observing the conduct of experiments by others to conducting live, advanced tests from remote sites such as laboratories, homes, or offices--all via the Internet."
|
 |
|
Marsden |
|
 |
|
Parsons |
|
|
Pipes is unaware of any similar programs in place or under development that have the scope and reach that GPA will have. Many university courses now have Web pages where course notes, assignments, and other course materials are posted, and there are a growing number of courses--generally in business--at accredited schools that are offered exclusively on the Internet.
But for chemistry and other sciences, where lab work is essential, offering courses online has been a challenge. Most online chemistry courses currently being offered are those at the introductory level that don't require a lab. Some universities have successfully crafted hybrid courses that include video-based lectures followed by an on-campus lab section, generally used as part of a continuing-education program.
The University of Akron already offers some online instruction and training, but it will be one of the first universities to offer a full degree program exclusively online, and it likely will be the first to offer a lab-based science degree online. Key to the degree program will be fully developing interactive online demonstrations and experiments so that both lecture and laboratory course material can be delivered over the Internet.
"The online degree and certificate programs will be designed so that some initial contacts with students will be on a face-to-face basis," Pipes says. "However, the Internet will be our primary vehicle as we develop the methodology and functionality of the approach." Face-to-face contact is necessary, he adds, to build trust between the faculty and students and between students. "We are anticipating that many of the polymer courses and degree programs now offered on campus will be available via distance-delivery systems within five years."
THE CONCEPT WILL be to start with individual courses and eventually work up to full degree programs, Pipes says. He is uncertain whether this will first include undergraduate or graduate degrees in polymer science and polymer engineering, but the determination will be based on the needs of the community.
Some of the labs for lower level courses likely will be demonstrations delivered on video. For higher level courses, students will be able to use GPA's online laboratory to carry out their own experiments. "We expect that we will be able to offer students the chance to manipulate experimental parameters in specialized laboratories not otherwise available to them," Pipes says.
Online job training will make up a significant component of GPA programs as well. The academy plans to develop remote sites and the corporate relationships necessary for training that can share experimental apparatus or machinery and cut travel costs. In effect, users will be able to acquire online professional development ranging from simple machine operations to sophisticated troubleshooting and testing techniques, Pipes explains. The training is expected to address education levels ranging from production workers who have a high school education to postdoctoral instruction for lab and management staff.
GPA will coordinate the training programs with those already available through the 11-year-old Akron Polymer Training Center, the noncredit arm of the College of Polymer Science & Polymer Engineering. The academy also will cooperate with the American Chemical Society through the Intersociety Polymer Education Council and the ACS Rubber Division, which has its headquarters on the University of Akron campus. In addition, programs of the Society of the Plastics Industry, the American Plastics Council, and the Society of Plastics Engineering will be utilized "to ensure the maximum benefit to students and to the global polymer community," Pipes says.
Pipes expects that, as technology is improved and data exchange rates significantly increase, the online lab will be even more versatile. He envisions that the lab will help advance the emerging paradigm of online scientific research and development. The "down sun" product development concept in the information technology field is a good model, he notes.
"It is now an accepted practice in the IT [information technology] field to establish collaborative technology groups located in three time zones that are separated in time by approximately eight hours," Pipes says. "Progress accomplished by the first group in a normal eight-hour workday is passed on to the second group that is just beginning its day. After the second group has added a day's work to the project, it in turn passes the project on to the third group. Upon completion of the workday of the third group, the project is returned to the original team. In this way the project never sleeps, and the product development cycle time is reduced by as much as two-thirds."
Pipes believes the down-sun concept could be used to gradually develop a virtual technology park to help commercialize some of the ideas that are generated and developed within GPA. "The Akron community is very inventive, and the state of Ohio sees the benefit of a program like the polymer academy in part because of its interest in higher education but also because it could be important for the economy of the region," he says.
"I love being a part of pioneering adventures," Pipes adds, which is why he is beginning work on a new project at an age when many people would consider retiring after a stellar career. "It has been my life's work to focus on creating interactions between academe, industry, and the public, and I expect to continue to do this for 20 more years."
[Previous Story] [Next Story]
Chemical & Engineering News
Copyright © 2002 American Chemical Society |
