Project Grant 2613427

The National Science Foundation Division of Undergraduate Education awarded Rochester Institute of Technology $175,871 on October 15, 2026, under the STEM Education program (CFDA 47.076) to develop course materials for an innovative undergraduate computer science course titled Continuous Structures.

The project creates instructional materials in calculus, probability, and statistics designed to prepare U.S. computer science majors for advanced coursework in artificial intelligence, data science, machine learning, simulation, and robotics. The course deliberately mirrors Discrete Structures, the long-established math-preparation course in CS curricula, to emphasize the equal importance of continuous mathematics foundations to discrete mathematics for undergraduate computer scientists competing in an AI-based computing environment. The project investigates whether students' existing programming experience and interest, when applied to real-world application domains, can improve learning outcomes and student perception of relevance in continuous structures coursework. Development is structured in three phases, with coursework advancing students' understanding of symbolic mathematical representations by building on their programming backgrounds.

This is a collaborative research project involving George Washington University, Regis University, and Rochester Institute of Technology. Because the three institutions offer computer science programs with different emphases, the resulting educational materials are likely to be usable across a wide range of U.S. colleges and universities.

Performance occurs at Rochester, NY 14623. The award period runs through September 30, 2029.