Transforming Engineering Curricula through Web-based Interactive Visualization and Simulation Modules

This paper discusses pedagogical improvement in engineering education that can be made through integration of visualization and simulation modules in undergraduate curricula. The authors are leading a planning effort to transform the existing engineering curricula to visualization and simulation enhanced curricula. The emphasis is on providing interactive visualization and simulation modules that will transform classrooms from being vehicle of passive transfer of knowledge to an interactive learning environment. This will accelerate the pedagogical changes that would transform learning process from being teacher-centric to student-centric. The web-based modules also have potential of becoming the building blocks for web-based engineering programs. These web-based programs when created will become the agent for global cooperation among educational institutions in different countries. Various factors that currently favor engineering curricular transformation using visualization and simulation are also described. Two examples of web-based visualization and simulation modules are discussed. The first one, the web-based virtual supersonic module, is a comprehensive tool that provides students the engineering principles, governing equations, physical configurations and applications of high speed nozzles. It also has an interactivity feature that allows students to create and visualize various flow regimes in one-dimensional compressible flows. The second example pertains to a web-based virtual experiment that replicates many features of its physical analog. The virtual experiment titled “Virtual Venturimeter” is a part of development effort to map the Thermo/Fluids Lab into a web-based virtual lab.