{"424671":{"#nid":"424671","#data":{"type":"news","title":"Rimoli\u0027s \u0022Truss Me\u0022 app attracting attention","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cem\u003ETruss Me!\u003C\/em\u003E, an educational app developed by Aerospace Engineering faculty Julian Rimoli, is attracting a growing number of fans \u2013 from teenagers curious about what science can teach them to college educators curious about how to better teach science.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ESince its November debut in the iTunes store,\u003Cem\u003ETruss Me!\u003C\/em\u003E\u0026nbsp;has been picked up by more than 1,500 individuals in more than 40 countries.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ESome players are undoubtedly Rimoli\u2019s own students, who are using the game in their statics class this spring. But the vast majority stumbled across it on one of several educational websites -- like\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/ukedchat.com\/2013\/12\/16\/education-app-truss-me-for-ipad\/\u0022\u003EUK EdChat\u003C\/a\u003E,\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/imechanica.org\/node\/15895\u0022\u003EiMechanica\u003C\/a\u003E\u0026nbsp;and\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/sourceable.net\/ipad-app-shapes-the-next-gen-of-structural-engineers\/\u0022\u003Esourcable.net\u003C\/a\u003E\u0026nbsp;\u2013 where it is creating quite a buzz.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cI got an email from a civil engineering professor at Purdue, saying his daughter in middle school started playing\u0026nbsp;\u003Cem\u003ETruss Me!\u003C\/em\u003E\u0026nbsp;and loves it. She was actually explaining how she was selecting the length and cross section of the bars to avoid buckling in the moon lander challenge,\u201d Rimoli said.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u0022And I got an email from John Laughter, a senior vice president at Delta, telling me he and his wife Angela wished they had this app when they were students at Georgia Tech.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EA recent piece of fan mail came from Chiara Daraio, a professor who wants to use\u0026nbsp;\u003Cem\u003ETruss Me!\u003C\/em\u003E\u0026nbsp;to develop new curricular activities for mechanics of materials classes at\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.ethz.ch\/en.html\u0022\u003EETH Zurich\u003C\/a\u003E. Rimoli began consulting with Daraio in January, but it does not stop there.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201c\u003Cem\u003ETruss Me!\u003C\/em\u003E\u0026nbsp;is a great way to introduce foundational concepts to students at almost any age \u2013 high school, middle school, college,\u201d he said. \u201cThey don\u2019t have to waste time with a dumbed down version that looks pretty. The science in\u0026nbsp;\u003Cem\u003ETruss Me!\u003C\/em\u003E\u0026nbsp;is the real deal.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ESo is the fun.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cem\u003ETruss Me!\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/em\u003Echallenges players to draw on their imagination and skills to build the lightest possible \u201cmoon lander vehicle.\u201d In the \u201cfreestyle\u201d mode, players explore different concepts and tinker with different designs, always trying to beat the computer\u2019s weight. A ticker at the top right-hand side of the screen records the weight of each design.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EIn the \u201cchallenge\u201d mode, players must overcome a series of 15 different challenges, each representing a real-world structural variance. Each level that the player \u201cwins\u201d gets him closer to attaining a \u201cgolden nut,\u0022 the ultimate prize.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe soundness of the player\u2019s design is tested with a simulated lunar touchdown. This is where\u003Cem\u003ETruss Me!\u003C\/em\u003E\u2019s adherence to scientific principles makes it stand out in the crowded field of educational apps. The cartoon image that players see on the\u0026nbsp;\u003Cem\u003ETruss Me!\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/em\u003Escreen represents the actual behavior of a structure in real-time.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EFor instance, if the bars supporting key components are not substantial enough, the moon lander will succumb to compressive instability or buckling. Players watch their vehicle crumble.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EIn the game - as in the real world - this failure can be addressed by either shortening the length of the bars or increasing their thickness. Players can choose either or both of these options. But when they do, they must also anticipate any newly created points of stress in their vehicle. And if any of those changes add weight, the extra pounds will count against the final score. (But if the vehicle is not sturdy enough it could be damaged when it lands. That\u2019s an automatic failure.)\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cThese are the same fundamental numeric and mechanic principles - geometric and material nonlinearities, plasticity, buckling - that we are teaching in class, but I learned a lot from designing the challenges and testing them,\u201d Rimoli said. \u201cWhat I want students to do is to gain a more intuitive grasp of the material by simulating the truss behavior in different scenarios.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ERimoli\u2019s approach merits serious attention, says College of Engineering\u2019s Director of Educational Research and Innovation Wendy Newstetter.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201c\u003Cem\u003ET\u003C\/em\u003E\u003Cem\u003Eruss Me!\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/em\u003Eis a lot like\u0026nbsp;\u003Cem\u003EAngry Birds\u003C\/em\u003E, another popular mobile app, in that both games base their action on actual physics principles. The consequences are not randomly assigned,\u201d she said.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cWhat brings\u0026nbsp;\u003Cem\u003ETruss Me!\u003C\/em\u003E\u0026nbsp;closer to being an educational tool is that the players experience failure and get a chance to keep playing, to make changes to their structures. Without failure, they are just witnessing those principles. This challenges them to go a little further.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ENewstetter said the addition of a new \u201cquestioning\u201d section would put\u0026nbsp;\u003Cem\u003ETruss Me!\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/em\u003Emore squarely in the realm of mainstream educational apps.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u0022A section that would encourage players to reflect on the possible reasons for each failure, to identify specific causes,\u201d she explained. \u201cBut even without that component, this is a very exciting development \u2013 something that very hard-line traditional engineering faculty are paying attention to.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EFor his part, Rimoli, who recently received the\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/www.ae.gatech.edu\/node\/1307\u0022\u003ELockheed Dean\u2019s Award for Excellence in Teaching\u003C\/a\u003E, says he is open to tinkering with the app to improve its value.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cI developed this app as a hobby, in my free time, over the course of about four months, and I wanted to use it to supplement lectures in my statics classes. But I have come to see that it can also help students to absorb concepts, intuitively, as they observe simulations on their own, while they are playing it. I like that I could use my research skills to build an app that simulates real-time truss behavior on a tablet, but more than that, I like that this enables students to have fun while learning.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cem\u003EFind out more about\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/rimoli.gatech.edu\/\u0022\u003EDr. Julian Rimoli\u003C\/a\u003E\u0026nbsp;or about\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/scientificmonkey.com\/software.html\u0022\u003ETruss Me!\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/em\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp class=\u0022rtecenter\u0022\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E","summary":null,"format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":"","field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"Truss Me!, an educational app developed by Aerospace Engineering faculty Julian Rimoli, is attracting a growing number of fans \u2013 from teenagers curious about what science can teach them to college educators curious about how to better teach science."}],"uid":"27456","created_gmt":"2015-07-14 15:22:09","changed_gmt":"2016-10-08 03:19:04","author":"Britanny Grace","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","dateline":{"date":"2014-02-25T00:00:00-05:00","iso_date":"2014-02-25T00:00:00-05:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"groups":[{"id":"1239","name":"School of Aerospace Engineering"}],"categories":[{"id":"136","name":"Aerospace"},{"id":"134","name":"Student and Faculty"},{"id":"135","name":"Research"}],"keywords":[{"id":"2082","name":"aerospace engineering"},{"id":"130061","name":"Julian Rimoli"}],"core_research_areas":[],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[],"email":["communications@ae.gatech.edu"],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}