IT Based Education

This activity dates back to the early days of project Athena. Initially the Physical Geology Tutor, an interactive learning tool for geology education was developed. This is, at present, being extended to include animation. The subsurface modelling tool mentioned above is also part of this work. More recently, all the IT based education work has been increased substantially through funding by iCampus supported by Microsoft and MIT, and a joint effort with South African technikons, funded by USAID. In this context, a number of structural simulation modules are being developed. They allow students through a combination of animations and simulations to understand the basics of structural behavior. Most importantly, by "playing around" with different assumptions and boundary conditions, students gain experience about structural behavior.