NSF RET Teacher Receives 2024 President’s Award for Excellence in Instruction
Congratulations to NSF RET teacher Rami Salahieh on receiving the 2024 President’s Award for Excellence in Instruction for the Valparaiso-Michigan City campus, Ivy Tech Community College. The award was presented by the President of Ivy Tech Dr. Sue Ellspermann, Ivy Tech Valparaiso Chancellor Aco Sikoski, and Vice Chancellor Lori Plank on Tuesday, May 11’s Ivy Tech Graduation ceremony at Valparaiso University. The President’s Awards for Excellence in Instruction honors Ivy Tech Community College’s most prestigious faculty and adjunct faculty for their accomplishments both in and out of the classroom. This annual tradition, which began in 1983, recognizes faculty and adjunct faculty members from Ivy Tech locations throughout the state.
Rami was selected to participate in the NSF RET program at CIVS in the summers of 2023 and 2024. Rami described how the RET experiences enhanced his teaching:
I am very happy and grateful for the opportunity that I attended the NSF Research Experience for Teachers (RET) Program at the Center for Innovation through Visualization and Simulation (CIVS) at Purdue University Northwest that helped advance my research and provide me with simulation and visualization tools that I used to developed my ICS/SCADA course at Ivy Tech. Thank you to all, the RET Team, Dr. Zhou, and to your help and assistance during my research at CIVS.
PNW CIVS is a site for the RET program entitled “Simulation and Visualization Technologies for Innovative Industrial Solutions”, funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF). The goal of the RET program is to enhance STEM education and stimulate high school and community college students’ STEM interest through a partnership with participant teachers, university mentors, and industry engineers using simulation and visualization technologies for innovative industrial solutions. The RET program consists of a six-week summer research program and full-academic year activities focused on using simulation and visualization technologies in smart manufacturing to increase energy efficiency, optimize production, predict mechanical failures, and improve safety and product quality. During the summer, the RET teachers conduct research experience in their selected topics and then develop teaching materials based on their research experience, which are implemented in their classes during the academic year.
The RET research that I did during Summer 2023, where I also published a poster during the NSF Conference, helped me as faculty to use simulation, visualization, and virtualization tools in my CSIA282 ICS/SCADA course. I was able to make the learning experience for my Ivy Tech students informative, interactive, and exciting. Students really enjoyed the fact I was able to utilize a TinkerCard, Virtual Machine, and I was able to show them how a Cyber Actor can hack into the ICS/SCADA System using my game design that I created with RET research at PNW.
