Building a Workforce for Wave-Physics
Abstract
Approved for Public ReleaseCoincident with the retirement many in the DOD workforce with expertise in acoustics and electromagnetics,, the number of US students entering into fields based in these physics disciplines appears to be decreasing. Since acoustic and ele,ctromagnetic solutions are difficult and abstract, students often avoid these topics once they enter university. To resolve this def,icit, this program will increase participation in STEM by introducing a wave-physics curriculum that appeals to traditional and non-,traditional secondary school students and recent graduates, including university freshmen. In this program, the National Security In,stitute at Virginia Tech (VT) and the VT Institute for Creativity, Arts, and Technology (ICAT) will construct a curriculum that will, reach a wide variety of students and demonstrate the challenges, creativity, inventiveness and rewards associated with wave-physics,. This program will include input from teachers at nearby secondary schoolsfrom several districts in the economically disadvantaged,Appalachia region along with numerous Navy laboratories.Traditional engineering students often have little exposure to wave physics,and will most often choose paths following a small set of hot topics, while non-traditional engineering students reject the physic,s as uncreative and too difficult. Engaging traditional and non-traditional creative individuals that have the aptitude requires bui, to the physics and has a long reach into most cultures. Mor,s: High school students who take music courses score significantly better on math, science and English exams than their non-musical, peers. [DOI 10.1037/edu0000376] Imagine an intuitive curriculum introducing wave physics to these students; the students will be l,ess intimidated and connect with the creativity required to construct solutions to difficult problems.The proposed curriculum levera,ges the students interest in music and utilizes multimodal approach (physical/analog and virtual/digital) to provide motivation and, passion using a familiar reference. A multimodal exposure increases the clarity of the wave characteristics and ultimately ties the, experience back to student interests and passion. For example, a single tone is sufficient to introduce wave characteristics with d,emonstrations and measurements. The spectrum of waves will be a central educational goal along with its manipulation by user-friendl,y signal processing techniques. Additional exposure will include material effects, arrays of speakers and wave interactions, which l, by the co-PI from VT ICAT, this approach engages students by integrating music, programming, digital signal processing, and the phy,sics. The Pd-L2Ork software brings the acoustic experience to life with capabilities that range from generating a single tone to a p,roven, interactive, performance-ready musical composition, or a research project that leverages audio generation, processing or anal,ysis. Pd-L2Ork features a graphical programming interface that has been tested and successfully implemented in dozens of K-12 worksh,ops, higher education curriculum, and a number of industry-level production scenarios. Ultimately, the richness of instruments and t,he acoustics of the environment are discovered along with the concepts of spectrum, bandwidth, scattering and diffraction along with, a peek into critical Navy applications (e.g. sonar, radar, communications). This program creates a path to motive students and prov,ides concrete applications and a foundation for students to pursue an education that supports vital national security roles.
Document Details
- Document Type
- DoD Grant Award
- Publication Date
- Feb 08, 2022
- Source ID
- N000142212164
Entities
People
- Bradley Davis
Organizations
- Office of Naval Research
- United States Navy
- Virginia Tech