NASHVILLE (TSU News Service) –The College of Engineering and Technology at Tennessee State University continues to build awareness around STEM programs in Metro Public Schools. The college is now focused on helping Stratford STEM Magnet High School develop a computer simulation and gaming laboratory.  With academic tracks in science and engineering, Stratford students can now pursue career pathways in national security, computer simulation and gaming, automotive operations and green technology.

“Virtual Reality Systems is one of 14 engineering challenges promoted by the National Academy of Engineering to improve our quality of life,” said Dr. S. Keith Hargrove, dean of the College of Engineering and Technology at TSU.  “Simulation and gaming systems can be used for training, education and cognitive development that excites students about STEM occupations and provide a learning experience that prepares them for future employment opportunities.”

Under the leadership of Dr. Sharon Matthews, Academy Coach at TSU, a task force was developed to provide expertise on designing the laboratory of hardware and software, and assisting with the curriculum. Dr. Sachin Shetty, Assistant Professor of Electrical & Computer Engineering, is the principal investigator of a National Science Foundation (NSF) project to develop a virtual reality game to encourage more high school students into careers in engineering.  In this NSF funded project, the team designed and implemented a virtual reality game system that infuses cyberinfrastructure (CI) learning experiences into the technology based high schools to promote metacognition for science and engineering design in context.

The CI features metacognitive strategies, context-oriented approaches as well as their seamless integration in the game system are elaborated in detail through two game modules, Power Ville and Stability. Both games involve students in the process of decision-making that contributes to different aspects of city infrastructures (energy and transportation). The project is in collaboration with College of Engineering at Rowan University and Educational Information and Resource Center (EIRC).

Dr. Hargrove serves on the Task Force for the integration of the simulation game at Stratford, and the design of the new laboratory.  The Task Force also includes Lipscomb University and industry representatives.  The TSU-Rowan University project will also provide training for Stratford teachers in gaming and simulation.

NASHVILLE (TSU News Service) – Look! In the air, is it a bird or a plane? If you are near the campus of Tennessee State University chances are what you see is a TSU Unmanned Aerial Vehicle from the college of engineering.

Since 2006 Tennessee State University’s College of Engineering and Computer Science has been involved in research to detect moving targets from aerial vehicles.

Specifically, students are conducting research in the area of Automatic Target Recognition (ATR) project funded by the U. S. Air Force Research Laboratory under the Minority Leadership Program (MLP).

The primary objective of the research is to develop real-time algorithms for detecting moving targets, identifying targets and tracking in cluttered environments. TSU’s research is led by Dr. Fenghui Yao, professor in the department of computer science, and Dr. Mohan Malkani, associate dean in the college of engineering.

“Both undergraduate and graduate students in engineering have an opportunity to take part in the research project,” said Dr. Yao. “Our intent is to expose as many students as possible to the research. The students can learn how to develop these technologies and apply them to corresponding fields.”

On clear days professor Yao, along with electrical engineering professor Saleh Zein-Sabatto, can be seen with students conducting test flights around campus by flying a small research helicopter. The XR-20 Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV), the helicopter equipped with a moving sensor platform containing a camera with tilt, zoom and pan capabilities is used to generate the aerial video data for the development and evaluation of the real-time target detection and tracking algorithms.

The technology, when fully developed, will have several objectives including moving-object detection.  In addition, the UAV must avoid detecting non-stationary background objectives such as moving leaves, rain, snow, and shadows caused by moving objects.

According to Dr. Yao, perfection of these objectives will give the UAV technology a wide range of applications and not just the stereotypical wartime spy use usually associated with surveillance technology.

“This technology has wide application areas besides battlefield application,” Yao said. “The UAV can be used as border control,

NASHVILLE (TSU News Service) –The need to protect and secure cyberspace for U.S. military and consumer use will continue to be a major challenge in the future.  In response to this need, the College of Engineering at Tennessee State University is aggressively pursuing research opportunities to support and provide solutions to industry and government.

Cloud Computing Security research at Tennessee State University will get a significant boost thanks to a $616, 278 grant from Air Force Office of Scientific Research. The goal of the project is to enable development of novel security methods to ensure protection of vast amounts of information in cloud computing platforms.  The research activities will include development of new approaches for intrusion detection, active response and recovery from attacks on the cloud.

The project will be a joint effort between TSU and Pennsylvania State University. The team, led by Dr. Mohan Malkani, associate dean of the College of Engineering, includes Dr. Sachin Shetty, assistant professor of the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department, and Dr. Peng Liu, professor of Information Sciences and Technology at PSU.

“The Air Force is extensively adopting the cloud computing infrastructure to improve information technology efficiency, reduce costs and provide a standard platform for delivering government services,” said Malkani. “The development of a secure cloud computing infrastructure is capable of supporting defense and intelligence networks.”

According to Shetty, cloud-computing services are gaining universal acceptance. “Computer users probably already utilize a ‘cloud’ in some form or another while browsing the web, checking e-mail, or backing up files,” he said. “Security of these cloud-based services is unproven and we are currently unaware of the level of protection of our data in the cloud.”

The grant will also fund a large cloud computing datacenter to conduct the research activities. The datacenter will contain 50 compute nodes, each with quad-core Intel Xeon X5550 processors running at 2.66 GHz, providing a total of a 200 cores. The datacenter will also serve as an experimental test bed for undergraduate and graduate students to enhance the quality of their senior design projects, theses and dissertations.

“This research thrust area is one of four areas that support the future TIGER (TSU Interdisciplinary Graduate Engineering Research) Institute, to open this semester in the Research & Sponsored Programs building,” said S. Keith Hargrove, Dean of the College of Engineering.

The mission of the Air Force Office of Scientific Research is to manage the discovery and initial development of the leading edge of research while identifying potential new concepts and opportunities that will serve the Air Force in the future. To accomplish this role, AFOSR focuses the basic research community (government, academia and industry), including numerous Nobel Laureates, on the vital task of supporting Air Force warfighter requirements. Basic research provides the essential foundation for technology development and systems acquisition.