The Smithsonian is using 3D scanners and printers to create “digital surrogate” models, exhibits, and scientific replicas to make more of its objects available to the public, without placing them at risk.

Adam Metallo and Vince Rossi 3D digitization coordinators at the Smithsonian are slowly setting out to begin building a new Smithsonian digital archive. Although the models are not currently available to the public, this should lead to scores of 3D printed exhibits, as well as countless 3D models that could theoretically be used in the museums, in schools throughout the globe.

Photo by: RedEye on Demand/Smithsonian/Studio EIS

Between now and January 27th, HP labs has the initial phase of the 2012 Innovation Research Program (IRP).

HP Labs' Innovation Research Program (IRP) is designed to create opportunities at colleges, universities and research institutes around the world for collaborative research with HP. Through an annual, open Call for Proposals (CfP), HP labs solicits the best ideas on a range of targeted research topics with the goal of establishing new research collaborations. Proposals are reviewed by HP Labs scientists and selected to receive funding awards based on their alignment with the chosen research topic and expected impact of the proposed research.

Awards made through the IRP are primarily intended to provide financial support for a graduate student to assist the Principal Investigator in conducting a collaborative research project with HP Labs. Awards provide cash support for one year, typically in the range USD $50,000 - $75,000 inclusive of overheads, renewable up to a maximum of three years at HP's discretion.

A list of the HP Labs’ 2011 IRP awards made last year is publically available.

These collaborative efforts don’t stop there. Educators interested in HP’s Social Innovation in Education programs should visit HP Global Social Innovation for more information.

I was looking at the IEEE site TryEngineering.org. This site is focused on helping students select an engineering profession as well as help teachers to expand their curriculum. One of the pages on the site is dedicated to Playing Games, that demonstrate some of the concepts and issues that engineers encounter.

By performing tasks like designing a parachute for the Mars lander or engineering a Bionic Arm (among many others), students get a feel for the kind of issues engineers need to think about.

These are useful tools for an individual to make a decision about their lives, but games have moved on from the one person playing in isolation to much more of a social, fluid foundation for multiplayer interaction and development. It does make me wonder how more serious gaming in a multiplayer environment can influence the way businesses train and shift behavior. There are more conferences every year that try to expand educational gaming into the business world, but other than in the government space, I can’t think of any examples being used.

Yet as we move into this information explosion enabled world where we need to use simulation and modeling to generate an advantage, the use of gaming techniques will have to increase. Are there any good examples out there?

Technology is being used in schools today, but incorporating cloud into education is still in its infancy. It is something that HP has been working on:

classlink.com has an FAQ page that covers many of the details of HP’s investment in SchoolCloud. SchoolCloud is a private cloud solution that provides a virtual instructional desktop that connects students and teachers wherever they go and lets IT managers manage a few servers versus hundreds of PCs. The solution combines infrastructure, software and on-site, instructor-led professional development for teachers. Plus, with ClassLink software, it gives administrators access to real-time usage data that indicates how technology affects student outcomes. There is an SchoolCloud interactive demo as well.

All that is needed is an Internet connection on any PC---or Mac. It’s that simple. So, if a student is anywhere from a library, a school room or a relative’s house, all they need is an Internet connection and they can gain immediate access to all of their files and applications.

Since the definition of a classroom is changing, the abundance of resources available can be applied to maximize what is scarce -- the quality interaction between the student and the teacher.

There are fears about young people having too much access to the Internet. Embracing the existing capabilities should help everyone get more out of the limited time available, safely.

As user interface research shifts the interaction using 3D techniques and distance learning as well as haptic technologies, the whole perspective of educational computing will shift hopefully making the experience more rewarding for all involved.

I've written a couple of times (here and here) about changes to engineering organizations curriculum.

I came across an interview with Bjarne Stroutrup on some similar concerns.

When I studied engineering, the professor always assumed his class knew the language (no matter how obscure). We were never really taught programming, style, or even basic design. It was survival of the fittest. If you couldn't handle the basics on your own, you quickly dropped out.

Hopefully things have progressed since the dark ages. The nice thing about this approach was that we had a very solid understanding of the underlying structures of the computer, but we were doing much of our work at a fairly low level with a higher level specialty language thrown in as needed. Now with all the higher level language use, libraries, and reusable capabilities, the students may not be forced to understand what is actually going on. Having clear and clean interfaces and documentation is more important than ever. I also looked at the most common 25 dangerous programming errors and wondered how this information will be used by universities.

Standards for modeling interfaces, workflow and other interface definition techniques will be more important than ever as these people enter the workforce, and yet many organizations do not teach the advances in these areas. It may be that there is a bifurcation of the curriculum, with a concentration on lower level approaches and another around higher level industry standards and solution integration. Some view this as a difference between computer science and a trade school. I for one, do not. Automation is the strategic solution to the current monopoly of the IT budget by maintenance and operations.