Multimedia Technology for Mathematics and Computer Science
Education
A project within the DAAD-Sonderprogramm “Akademischer
Neuaufbau Südosteuropa” in the framework of the Stability
Pact for South Eastern Europe
Overview and Aims
The
project aims at a long-term impact on the improvement of
education and research in mathematics and computer science at the participating Universities in south east
Europe.
The project is a university cooperation in
mathematics and computer science of the Freie Universität Berlin with
the University of Belgrade, the Serbian Academy of Sciences (SANU)
in Belgrade, the University of Niš, the University of Sofia and the University of Technology and Economics in Budapest,
Ss. Cyril and Methodius University of Skopje, the University of Zagreb, and Fachinformationszentrum Karlsruhe.
The project continues a previous DAAD project with the University of Belgrade and the
Mathematical Institute of SANU.
Aims of the Cooperation:
-
Knowledge transfer in the field of multimedia technology
in education and research in the fields of mathematics and
computer science
-
Establishing of local competence centers in multimedia
technology and their cross linking in a network
-
Development and use of new multimedia content and
software for mathematics and computer science education
The cooperation includes the use of 3D visualization tools
in mathematics and computer science education, the development
of interactive course material and electronic books, as well
as the continued upgrading of the local infrastructure to host
scientific web services and publications at the participating
institution.
Scientific Aspects
The scientific activities of the project are related to the following three
areas:
-
Visualization applied to research activities such as
differential geometry, non-linear dynamics, special
functions, and computer science
-
Multimedia courseware for mathematics and
computer
science
-
Electronic publications and databases for communicating
mathematics.
1. Visualization in Research Activities
All participating groups are experts in differential
geometry and many of them are developing and using interactive
software. Therefore geometry is a good starting field to bring
new technology into the classrooms of south east Europe. Each
participating group in south east Europe has proposed a set of
topic to be investigated and visualized for university courses.
Additionally each group will apply the developed multimedia
tools to their own field of expertise.
-
Visualization in differential geometry
-
Algorithm visualization in computer graphics
-
Discrete geometry of polyhedral surfaces
-
Classic and basic q-hypergeometric functions
-
Modelling chaotic dynamics using neural networks
-
Geometry of skew-symmetric curvature operators
-
Crystallographic groups in Euclidean and non-Euclidean
spaces
-
Geometric problems in mechanical engineering
2. Multimedia Courseware for Mathematics and Computer
Science
Multimedia courseware is the heart of modern teaching
material and distant learning projects. Early visualization
tools required specialized hardware while modern web-based
tools will be usable by all students from any place of the
world including from home. In this project we will base the
development on established software components and adjust the
modules to the specific needs of the scientific topics.
-
Extension and translation to English of the electronic book
“Analytic Geometry” developed within the previous
project
-
Development of electronic course material for teaching
special functions
-
Writing an e-book on modelling of chaotic dynamics using
neural networks
-
Interactive programs for visualization of geometric
transformations and projections for teaching CAD and
descriptive geometry
-
Crystallographic groups in 2D and 3D, visualization of
their orbifolds and fundamental domains
-
Courseware in elementary and differential geometry
The developed courseware will simultaneously be used within
regular university courses.
3. Electronic Publications and Databases for Communicating
Mathematics
The developed courseware and electronic modules such as
Java applets must be viewed within the scope of mathematical
publishing. Here our activities will ensure that the developed
material is consistent with long-term archiving and searching
database. In cooperation with Zentralblatt für Mathematik we
will develop meta-tags for mathematical applets in the same
way as it was done for electronic geometry models.
