Initial development of the engineering genome project-An engineering ontology with multimedia resources for teaching and learning engineering mechanics

Abstract

This paper reports on the development of an engineering mechanics ontology in support of the Engineering Genome Project (EGP). Ontologies contain both hierarchical (i.e., taxonomic) and relationship information, and they organize knowledge into highly-structured and expertly-constructed schemas. Ontologies can help facilitate the novice-to-expert transition for learners by making the implicit connections and relationships among complicated and cross-linked pieces of information (that experts know but novices do not) explicit. Our goal with the EGP is to empower learners to explore these detailed relationships among complicated concepts and topics in order to mediate the transition from novice to expert. This paper covers the initial development of the Engineering Genome itself - specifically, the development of the: (i) knowledge architecture and the classes in the ontology; (ii) the coarse-scale and fine-scale attributes used to describe the rich characteristics of the knowledge; and (iii) the relationship information describing the invisible-to-novices connections among disparate pieces of knowledge. We discuss key decisions we have made about the architecture of the knowledge, as well as the computer implementation of the ontology using the Web Ontology Language (OWL). The paper will follow this structure. First we introduce the notion of controlled vocabularies and the overall conceptualization of the knowledge domain. Next, we illustrate the development of specific relationships and attributes, and highlight the challenges of establishing a knowledge architecture for seemingly straight-forward concepts (such as coordinate systems and units). Next we show how the ontology can also be linked to specific curricula and in particular learning outcomes associated with courses (as well as ABET) in which specific concepts are introduced. Finally, we explain and demonstrate the query procedures through which the ontology is mined for relationship information that-despite their expertise-experts may not fully be aware of. Our results so far indicate that an ontology can indeed be developed for engineering mechanics, and that the potential pedagogical uses for a carefully-constructed knowledge architecture are promising. © American Society for Engineering Education, 2013.