University of Utah Researcher Leads $749,845 NSF Project on Digital Twins and Engineering Education
University of Utah College of Education Assistant Professor Chenglu Li is leading
a $749,845 National Science Foundation project examining how digital twins and reasoning can inform engineering education.
The project, BRIDGE: Bifocal Reasoning Integrating Digital Twins to Guide Engineering Education, is funded through NSF's Improving Undergraduate STEM Education program. Li is the
lead principal investigator, working with Sandip Ray of the University of Florida
as principal investigator, and Swarup Bhunia as co-principal investigator.
Digital twins are digital representations of physical systems that can be used to
model and study those systems. BRIDGE brings that technology together with research
on reasoning to address questions in engineering education.
The $749,845 award is one of three new NSF projects led by Li, representing a combined
$3,149,830 in federal funding. Together, the projects span research on embodied AI, digital twins, mathematics
education and learning sciences.
Li's research focuses on learning analytics, artificial intelligence in education
and educational data mining. He directs the TRAIL Lab at the University of Utah, where
researchers use AI and learning sciences to develop and evaluate educational technologies
and computational models for STEM learning.
BRIDGE also connects researchers across education and engineering, bringing together
expertise from the University of Utah and University of Florida around emerging technologies
and STEM learning.
The award builds on Li’s growing body of federally funded research on AI and education.
About the University of Utah College of Education
The University of Utah’s College of Education advances teaching, learning, and leadership
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and leaders who make meaningful contributions locally and globally.
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