The home page for this project is: http://vip.cs.utsa.edu/NASACurriculum/

In order to produce computer scientists who are prepared to innovate in a rapidly changing technological environment, universities must revamp their programs to increase content relevance and the experience of their graduates while maintaining high academic standards. This project, which is funded by NASA as part of the Partnership Awards for Innovative and Unique Education and Research Projects provides seed money to enable the computer science program at the University of Texas at San Antonio to make such a transformation from its current traditional mode of instruction.

In addition to increasing the pool of quality technical graduates, the project provides a model for how a minority institution with limited resources can leverage these resources to provide an excellent instructional program. Documentation of project development, deployment and management as well as the instructional materials developed for the program are being made available through this web site.

Specific strategies include introduction of object-oriented programming and web-based computing in the first courses supported by a teaching style involving a small collaborative design projects, model designs and template projects. In conjunction with the development and integration of hands-on laboratories using the latest technology, we have initiated tutoring program and other support measures to help retain computer science majors through the difficult initial years in the program.