alice grossman, atiyya shaw, prabha (popa) pratyaksa, aaron greenwood, randall guensler, yanzhi...
TRANSCRIPT
Alice Grossman, Atiyya Shaw, Prabha (Popa) Pratyaksa, Aaron Greenwood, Randall Guensler, Yanzhi (Ann) Xu
Use of Mobile Technologies in Attracting K-12 to Transportation
TRB Education and Training Committee Webinar, July 1, 2015
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Objectives for use of Technology in K-12 outreach
Identify and explain topics in transportation using familiar and new technologies
Collect data:– Traditional manual methods– New digital technologies
Analyze data:– Generate of analytical graphs, charts, and maps– Basic descriptive statistics (standard software)
Design and give a presentation that effectively communicates each step of the research process
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Centennial Place Academy Partners
86% African American, 5% Caucasian, 2% Asian, 3% Hispanic, 4% Multi-racial
Title 1 School (71% free/reduced lunch programs) Draws student population from the Centennial Place
neighborhood and surrounding communities, including two shelters
1st Atlanta Public Schoolsystem charter school conversion
Emphasis onproject-based learning
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Women and Minorities in Engineering
Encourage young women and minorities to consider engineering from a young age
Charts from nsf.gov NOTE: Data not available for 1999 SOURCE: Women, Minorities, and Persons with Disabilities in Science in Engineering
Science and Engineering Degrees Earned by Underrepresented Minorities
Low Participation Fields for Women
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Technologies Employed
Projects include the use of new Georgia Tech smart phones and tablet applications for data collection
Students analyze data using standard software to familiarizes students with computational methods
Researchers analyze the same data, developing more complex models software, and share outputs with students to enhance their understand of benefits of using advanced computational methods
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Tablet Software
Traffic counting app screen shot
Sidewalk Sentry app records sidewalk video, GPS, and
vibration data
Sidewalk Sentry Android App (Akanser et al., 2015)- records video, accelerometer readings, gyroscope data, and GPS position
Vehicle Counting Android App- point and touch system to count vehicles on video
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Commute Warrior Software
The Commute Warrior Android app collects second-by-second position and speed data and the electronic travel diary allows users to input trip purpose and other data through the app interface or web page (Akanser et al., 2015)
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Accessibility of Research Technology to Future Work Force
Research topics encompass aspects of everyday life Students experience field data collection
– Familiar tools (smartphones, tablets, computers) Data visualization (creating and interpreting charts) Develop engineering skill sets:
– Research design– Organization and planning– Field data collection and teamwork– Critical thinking and mathematics– Oral and written communication
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Outreach Program Framework
One two-hour long session in May, 2014 with the entire 5th grade class (82 students)– Overview presentation– Spilt into three groups for module activities
Mode choice – computer modelingTravel diaries – smart phone appsAccessibility – tablet app and smart levels
– Full group summary and discussion session Two full-day sessions in October 2014 with 19
returning students (now in 6th grade)
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Short Module:Paper vs. Electronic Travel Diaries
Students completed paper diaries from memory
Compared paper diary with Smartphone automatic GPS data collection survey features
Discussions revealed students’ interest in use of technology, ease, and higher resolution of data in Commute Warrior
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Full Day Module: Pedestrian Accessibility
This module brought students to three different locations in their school environment to measure aspects of pedestrian accessibility
Module objectives:– Experience how people with
limited mobility use pedestrian facilities
– Learn how to use tape measuressmart levels, and tablet appsto collect data
– Analyze and present data
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Full Day Module: Traffic Engineering
Objectives: Introduce field of traffic
engineering and its significance in daily life
First-hand experience in performing traffic counts
Introduce common vehicle count data collection techniques
Direct comparison of manual vs. digital methods
Engage with hands-on activities using tablets and computer-based traffic simulation
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Traffic Engineering Presentations
Each small group created and executed a PowerPoint presentation with the participation of every student
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Conclusions
Exposure– Engaged women and minorities in STEM– Multiple aspects of the transportation discipline – Research uses with familiar technology
Application of mobile technologies– Developed in on-going Georgia Tech research– Used in all stages of research process (data
collection, analysis, communicating results) Materials are transferable
– http://transportation.ce.gatech.edu
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Thank You
We would like to acknowledge the research team members working on Vehicle counting, Sidewalk Sentry, Sidewalk Scout, and Commute Warrior
Our gratitude also goes to the GT student chapters of ITE and WTS and to our generous project funders at the Southeastern Transportation Research, Innovation, Development, and Education Center (STRIDE) and Georgia Department of Transportation (GDOT)
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Questions?
transportation.ce.gatech.edu/education
“Wheelchairs and Supershoes”
The Commute Warrior travel diary smart phone application for Androids is available on the Google Play Store.
A supplementary sidewalk data collection application, Sidewalk Scout is available for both Android and iPhone smartphones in the Google Play Store and Apple Store
Alice Grossman