The Virtual Storm: an exploratory virtual environment of a supercell tornadic thunderstorm for meteorological education
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The Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECpE) contains two focuses. The focus on Electrical Engineering teaches students in the fields of control systems, electromagnetics and non-destructive evaluation, microelectronics, electric power & energy systems, and the like. The Computer Engineering focus teaches in the fields of software systems, embedded systems, networking, information security, computer architecture, etc.
History
The Department of Electrical Engineering was formed in 1909 from the division of the Department of Physics and Electrical Engineering. In 1985 its name changed to Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Engineering. In 1995 it became the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering.
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1909-present
Historical Names
- Department of Electrical Engineering (1909-1985)
- Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Engineering (1985-1995)
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- College of Engineering (parent college)
- Department of Physics and Electrical Engineering (predecessor)
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The driving motivation behind the Virtual Storm is to provide students with a hands-on means to learning about severe weather. Hands-on experiences are considered an important teaching method. The Virtual Storm addresses the lack of hands-on experience in severe weather education through the use of computer graphics and virtual reality technology.;Formal user studies were used to determine the effectiveness of the Virtual Storm as a teaching tool. The study results did not show a measurable benefit of using the Virtual Storm. However, the user tests may not have captured the true value of the Virtual Storm since they focused on short-term retention, and the strengths of hands-on experience are generally thought to improve long-term retention rather than short-term recall. The level of engagement demonstrated by the participants suggests that the tool is still a useful compliment to the lecture.