September 4, 2009 - Dr. Shengru Tu has been awarded a three year, $300,000 NSF CPATH (CISE Pathways to Revitalized Undergraduate Computing Education) project entitled "Collaborate Research: A Verification-Driven Learning Model that Enriches CS and Related Undergraduate Programs". A UNO team led by Dr.Shengru Tu will collaborate with researchers from two partner universities, Southeastern Louisiana University and Xavier University, to implement this project.

This project investigates the verification-driven learning model that facilitates students’ involvement in real-world computing tasks starting from their early computing courses and continuing throughout their entire computing studies. This model can reduce the "prerequisites" for students to study real-world problems in their early years. The students are tasked to validate the functionality of the software, test parts of the system, and locate the possible errors. Such seemingly complex high-level tasks are possible for novice students to do because software verification does not require design and implementation, and can be turned into a learn-by-example process with adequate preparation. This kind of preparation is wrapped in the verification-driven learning case. The foundation of the verification-driven learning model lies in software testing theories and techniques. The learning cases will be produced based on faculty research including computer security, bioinformatics, geographic information systems, database and data mining techniques, remote sensing, and fuzzy set techniques. The learning cases will expose the students to working software systems that serve a real-world purpose in scientific research, engineering development, or social networks.

This project will particularly advocate CS learning in under-represented minority and woman students. The final goal of this project is to revitalize the CS programs and produce more competent graduates capable of computational thinking.