Students present first NASA course designs to a tough, critical audience

By David Brand

"What are the materials used?" "Did you do a risk analysis?" "Why did you use these codes?"

The questions and critiques from professors flowed across the Internet on Dec. 14 in the Meyburg Distance Learning Classroom in Cornell's Hollister Hall when a novel engineering course involving a NASA-supported collaboration between Cornell and Syracuse University had its first student design presentations at the end of its first semester.

Cornell seniors David Dlugosz, left, civil engineering, and Jun-Sang Park, mechanical and aerospace engineering, were among the students giving their design presentations during a web-based teleconference (with students from Syracuse University) in the distance learning classroom in Hollister Hall, Dec. 14. Robert Barker/University Photography

Six teams, made up of 16 mechanical, aerospace and civil engineering senior undergraduates and one graduate student from Cornell and 14 seniors from SU, connected by a web-based teleconferencing link, gave 10-minute design presentations, termed a critical design review (CDR), that simulated NASA engineering teams working at a distance.

The design course was established in March 2001 by NASA and the state of New York as a $3 million, three-year program at SU and Cornell to develop a virtual learning environment using advanced information technologies to improve student learning and on-the-job-training. The program also is supported by AT&T. The task facing the undergraduates in the two-semester course is to design parts for a reusable space vehicle called the Star Cruiser.

In their CDR, the students had to describe and support their research in areas such as structural concepts, structural risk analysis, materials analysis and estimated materials cost. Students and professors on both campuses were able to question the presenters via a video-teleconferencing link. Two cameras in both classrooms enabled students and professors to see a variety images on large wall projection screens: student presenters, student or faculty questioners, charts and graphs or a view of the entire classroom. This was achieved with two data streams: one for the audio signal and the video signal switching between classrooms and the other allowing the display of charts and graphs, either on the screens or on individual laptops.

Inevitably there were breakdowns, as one classroom lost a signal from the other. "The technology, even though it has been around for several years, is still immature, although it performs quite well," said Cornell classroom technology manager Keith Slayden. "We are completely reliant on the Internet for our connection, and network congestion and outages affect us as much as the user sitting at a computer next door."

Also linked to the presentations was Ronald Krueger, an engineer at NASA's Langley Research Center in Virginia.

"This course is helpful to NASA in terms of collaboration. It is an exercise in both organizational and informational issues," said Alan Zehnder, Cornell associate professor of theoretical and applied mechanics.

At the Cornell end, Zehnder critiqued the students' performance, as did Anthony Ingraffea, the Dwight C. Baum Professor of Engineering, and Matthew Miller, associate professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering. At SU was Barry Davidson, professor of mechanical, aerospace and manufacturing engineering.

The students were rigorously challenged. When Cornell seniors David Dlugosz and Jun-Sang Park ("Team Alpha Strike") presented their design review for the space ship's chin panel thermal protection system, they ran into a critical buzz saw, with Zehnder at one point telling them, "I have no idea what this diagram is intended to show." And SU senior Jeff Robinson ("Team Snootchie Bootchies"), after presenting his report on the underwing panel thermal protection system, was told by Davidson, "You should go back and revise your data."