CRCD: Wireless Multimedia Communications for Virtual Environments

Iowa State University, Ames IA

Investigators

Abstract

0088071 Dickerson, Julie A. Iowa State University CRCD: Wireless Multimedia Communications for Virtual Environments This project involves the transfer of research from several areas into an unusual curriculum that serves upper-level undergraduate and introductory-level graduate students at this university. The project integrates concepts from communications, radio frequency (RF) and very large scale integrated (VLSI) hardware and software design, with virtual environments into an interdisciplinary program that teaches students hardware/software co-design. The curriculum (that includes three new courses) brings together teams of students and faculty who create solutions to complex problems that combine human factors, real-time systems, compact wearable computers, and highly sophisticated graphics. The three new classes cover software engineering for real-time software, the design of practical wireless devices, and the design of virtual environments. The curriculum developed in this project continually incorporates advanced research topics in virtual reality, sensor design, and wireless multimedia. By providing a venue for interdisciplinary work in communications, VLSI circuit design, and immersive environments, the curriculum offers coordinated experiences in complex system co-design and significantly broadens student skills in this area.