COLLABORATIVE: A Gaming Environment to Teach Students About Complex Distributed Systems

Information

• NSF Award
• 0942864

Owner

• POLYTECHNIC UNIVERSITY

• Award Id

  0942864

• Award Effective Date

  3/15/2010 - 14 years ago

• Award Expiration Date

  2/28/2013 - 11 years ago

• Award Amount

  $ 153,287.00

• Award Instrument

  Standard Grant

Computing Science (31)<br/><br/>Complex distributed systems are critical in the modern computing experience, yet many undergraduate computing curricula give students little exposure to the full complexity of these systems. Investigators have developed a prototype gaming environment, called DWORLD, to provide students more realistic experiences with distributed systems. The current project extends the capabilities of this environment. Students compete by addressing a variety of issues in a virtualized distributed system in order to keep the system healthy and operating normally. Game scenarios are designed to enhance student skills and knowledge of key concepts such as scalability, robustness, fault-tolerance and the ability to build a distributed system. Expected outcomes include a software package that can be easily adopted by other faculty and a collection of lab modules and assignments.<br/><br/>The game is being piloted in undergraduate courses at Polytechnic University of New York and CUNY Brooklyn College. Workshops are used to train faculty how and why to use the gaming environment in their courses. As part of a broader context, the project assesses the potential for games as an important tool in STEM education.

• Program Officer

  Paul Tymann

• Min Amd Letter Date

  3/10/2010 - 14 years ago

• Max Amd Letter Date

  3/10/2010 - 14 years ago

• ARRA Amount

• Name

  Polytechnic University of New York

• City

  Brooklyn

• State

  NY

• Country

  United States

• Address

  15 Metrotech Center

• Postal Code

  112013826

• Phone Number

  7182603360

• First Name

  Katherine

• Last Name

  Isbister

• Email Address

  katherine.isbister@ucsc.edu

• Start Date

  3/10/2010 12:00:00 AM

• First Name

  Joel

• Last Name

  Wein

• Email Address

  wein@mem.poly.edu

• Start Date

  3/10/2010 12:00:00 AM

• First Name

  Carl

• Last Name

  Skelton

• Email Address

  cskelton@poly.edu

• Start Date

  3/10/2010 12:00:00 AM

• Name

  Human Subjects

• Code

  116000