Lafayette Online » computer-based simulations

Game developed to help school counselors assess suicide risk

Carolyn Shelby — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 22:01:08 +0000

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — For school counselors, the first time helping a suicidal student can be an emotional trial by fire. To better prepare counselors for this type of charged situation, a Purdue University professor has developed a computer simulation for virtual training.

These screen captures show parts of the Suicide Risk-Assessment Game, which is designed to help train students who might one day work with young people in need of counseling. The virtual training tool was developed by Carrie Wachter Morris, a Purdue assistant professor of counseling and development. (Images provided by Carrie Wachter Morris)

Carrie Wachter Morris is an assistant professor of counseling and development in Purdue’s Department of Educational Studies and a former counselor at facilities throughout North Carolina. She developed the Suicide Risk-Assessment Game, or SRAG, with the aid of a digital-content development grant from Information Technology at Purdue (ITaP), Purdue’s central information technology organization.

Of 34 grant applications submitted in 2008, Wachter Morris’ was one of 10 accepted, earning $15,000 and the use of ITaP resources toward developing the training tool.

SRAG’s concept and content is hers, but a team of student developers led by Terry Patterson, an educational technologist with ITaP’s emerging technologies group, oversaw the graphic design and programming.

“It wasn’t only the social impact on a very serious issue that appealed to the grant committee about the idea,” Patterson said. “This was a great opportunity for students to create a framework for a serious game that could be reused for other experience simulations.”

Wachter Morris intends SRAG to be “an emotional equalizer” that benefits school-counseling students at Purdue and also addresses the gap between counselor training and professional expectations.

“The more we’re worried about ourselves, the more we focus on us and not the clients,” she said.

Statistics from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention showed that in 2007 14.5 percent of high school students seriously considered suicide in the previous 12 months, while 6.9 percent reported making at least one suicide attempt. A 2002 Brigham Young University survey of school counselors found 35 percent of respondents received no graduate-education training in crisis intervention, and 57 percent felt either “not at all” or “minimally” prepared for such intervention.

“As a field, we have to generate teaching tools that those without the background can effectively use,” Wachter Morris said. “Studies show that students we’re matriculating have spent more time during school playing video games than reading. Now that these students are entering graduate school, why not develop a tool from which they can learn in a medium with which they’re familiar?”

In gamer parlance, SRAG is a beat-the-clock title: A note has been found from a student planning to commit suicide Friday after school. Players have 40 in-game hours (30- 45 minutes in real time) to assess which one of five students is at imminent risk of suicide and which one is a false risk – meaning there might be danger signs to monitor in the future, but no worry of immediate harmful action.

SRAG’s scoring system requires players to forge a path to assessment rather than asking students outright if they’re suicidal. Their investigation is complicated by daily tasks generally required of school counselors in the real world, ranging from lunch duty to small-group counseling. Failing to address these tasks will result in a time-consuming penalty.

Should a player not correctly identify the imminently suicidal student before the clock runs out, SRAG offers a “deus ex machina” – or “out of the blue” – element to save the student.

Wachter Morris envisions SRAG one day helping to train resident advisers in college residence halls, other mental-health professionals and, perhaps, middle- and high-school students to recognize risk behaviors.

In December, Wachter Morris introduced SRAG to nine graduate students in her school-counseling seminar – most of whom have had counseling internships and practical experience. Although some suggested efforts to improve SRAG, the students generally appreciated its accuracy and the interface. She will soon run her training program through focus groups at Purdue and in the spring will send it to campuses around the country with school-counselor programs to receive feedback from instructors and students.

“SRAG is that half-step between in-class instruction and a student in front of you where it’s in the moment and you have to think on your feet,” Wachter Morris said.

Purdue highlights cloud computing tools at supercomputing conference

Carolyn Shelby — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 18:39:50 +0000

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — Facebook for scientists — but built to facilitate serious research rather than socializing — and an award-winning method for putting idle computers to work on scientific breakthroughs are Purdue-developed technologies in the spotlight at the SC09, the world’s largest high-performance computing conference.

Purdue's DiaGrid team includes, from left, Andy Howard, Phil Cheeseman, John Campbell, David Braun, Preston Smith and Carol Song. The team is posing with images from the scientific research enabled by DiaGrid, projected in a multiwalled virtual environment at ITaP's visualization facility. Campus Technology Magazine selected DiaGrid for a 2009 international Campus Technology Innovators Award. (Purdue University photo/Andrew Hancock)

Purdue is highlighting the HUBzero and DiaGrid technologies at the university’s booth at SC09, which opens today (Monday, Nov. 16) in Portland, Ore.

HUBzero is a soon-to-be open source software platform developed by Purdue for deploying and applying computational research tools, visualizing and analyzing results interactively and publishing them, all through a familiar Web browser. Built-in social networking features akin to Facebook create communities of researchers and educators in science, engineering, medicine and almost any field or subject matter.

DiaGrid works by pooling computers over the Purdue campus network and off campus via the Internet and fast research networks. Whenever machines in the pool are idle, such as at night or when their owners are at lunch, the system sends work to them. Campus Technology Magazine selected DiaGrid for a 2009 international Campus Technology Innovators Award.

Purdue has created an automated system to link the computers of SC09 participants to the pool during the conference. The Purdue booth includes a scoreboard to keep track of whose machines are running the most jobs.

The booth is designed to promote Purdue; Information Technology at Purdue (ITaP), the university’s central information technology organization; and the Rosen Center for Advanced Computing, ITaP’s research and discovery arm. ITaP technologists developed HUBzero and DiaGrid.

“DiaGrid and HUBzero are model technologies for enabling research that Purdue is making available to the world,” says John Campbell, associate vice president in charge of research computing for ITaP, who heads the Rosen Center. “As the premier conference for research computing, SC09 is a prime place to showcase these technologies.”

Purdue’s booth also will provide academic information to potential Purdue students and information to job seekers about positions with Purdue, ITaP and the Rosen Center. Nearly 10,000 people attended the conference in 2008.

Purdue has become a recognized leader in cyberinfrastructure with the development of HUBzero, which powers nanoHUB.org and many other Web-based “hubs” for research collaboration, says Michael McLennan, senior research scientist and hub technology architect at Purdue. NanoHUB is an international resource for nanotechnology theory, simulation and education with tens of thousands of users.

“Like no other platform, HUBzero can host interactive simulation tools. So, users aren’t just reading about research, they can experience it,” McLennan says. “HUBzero allows users to work together as they interact with content.”

Other hubs link researchers transforming laboratory discoveries into new medical treatments, and Purdue is now working in a consortium with Indiana and Clemson universities and the University of Wisconsin to advance the technology even further.

A hub will be at the center of the Network for Earthquake Engineering Simulation (NEES), a $105 Million National Science Foundation program announced in September, which is led by Purdue. Purdue electrical and computer engineering Professor Rudolf Eigenmann, co-principal investigator of NEES, will give a workshop titled “Cyberinfrastructure for Earthquake Engineering” at the Purdue booth.

McLennan will host two workshops on HUBzero and one about nanoHUB during the conference. Purdue scientist Mathieu Luisier will offer a workshop on using massive supercomputers to simulate nanoscale electronic devices for the next generation of electronics, a central focus of nanoHUB.

DiaGrid includes computers in student computer labs, offices, server rooms and supercomputing clusters and is the first multi-campus collaboration of its kind. Purdue’s partners in DiaGrid are IU, Indiana State University, the universities of Notre Dame, Louisville and Wisconsin, Purdue’s Calumet and North Central campuses, and Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne.

Together, they now make nearly 30,000 processors available for research jobs ranging from understanding the Solar System’s formation to imaging the structure of viruses at near-atomic resolutions in an effort to develop new ways of battling viral illnesses, from swine flu and the common cold to West Nile virus and AIDS.

“The sheer size and ingenuity of the initiative, as well as the diversity of computing resources represented in the grid, really set the project apart,” Geoffrey Fletcher, editorial director of Campus Technology, said in announcing the Campus Technology Innovators Award for DiaGrid.

Middle and high school science teachers sought for research project

Carolyn Shelby — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 00:23:17 +0000

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — The College of Education is looking for middle and high school science teachers interested in utilizing computer-based simulations in the classroom.

The educational technology program in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction is looking for feedback on how the program can improve its understanding of technology integration, said Minchi Kim, assistant professor of Educational Technology.

Participating teachers will be asked to use online simulations prepared by the program for two or three class periods. The program will provide teaching materials, such as lesson plans, student activity guidelines and other necessary support from the Purdue Education Research in Scientific Inquiry and Technology research group, which is directed by Kim and Peg Ertmer, professor of educational technology. Teachers can earn up to $100 for participating.

“The focus of the research will be on the effectiveness of scaffolding that Web-based simulations provide in the science classroom,” Kim said. “Teachers can see if technology can really help students learn science.”

Teachers interested in participating should contact Kim at minchi@purdue.edu for more information.

Lafayette Online » computer-based simulations

Game developed to help school counselors assess suicide risk

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