POTSDAM – Dana Barry, a Research Professor in Clarkson University’s Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering, was recently a guest speaker at the 27th International Conference on Knowledge-Based and Intelligent Information & Engineering Systems (KES International) conference in Athens, Greece.

Barry’s presentation, which took place on Sept. 6, was called Creative Teaching Using Hybrid E-learning and Virtual Reality. She described three creative teaching activities that motivate and engage students into active learning.

The teaching methods used include hybrid e-learning and virtual reality. The hybrid e-learning style is a combination of e-learning and hands-on activity in a laboratory setting. For one hybrid e-learning project, students are asked to design, build, and test seawalls to help protect Japan from future tsunamis.

For another hybrid e-learning project, students are challenged to invent the best tasting nutritious fruit juice. The e-learning component provided time efficiency to the project and allowed the class to quickly access a variety of resources in addition to those provided by the instructor’s lecture.

For the third project, participants used virtual reality (VR) headsets to learn about roller coasters and to experience the thrill of riding on one. This method of learning makes use of special software that allows individuals to interact with real or imaginary computer simulated environments.

In addition, during the month of August, Barry was a presenter with her collaborator, Hideyuki Kanematsu, a Professor at the National Institute of Technology, Suzuka College in Japan, for a talk at the American Chemical Society’s Fall 2023 Meeting. Their presentation was titled “COLL 3926897: Temporal Changes in Biofilm Growth by Staphylococcus epidermidis on some Polymeric Materials and Quantitative Evaluation Methods.”

In addition to her work at Clarkson, Barry is also an Instructional Support Assistant at SUNY Canton. She is a member and a Chemistry Ambassador for the American Chemical Society and a member of the Planetary Society. She has more than 400 academic publications, five graduate degrees, and numerous honors.