Ngo, M., & Welsh, E., & Comeau, B., & Fang, N., & Liu, J., & Studer, K. (2022, August), Opening Up the Black Box: an Augmented Reality Look into the Scanning Electron Microscope  Paper presented at 2022 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Minneapolis, MN. 10.18260/1-2--40779

\bibitem{asee_peer_40779}
  Ngo, M., \& Welsh, E., \& Comeau, B., \& Fang, N., \& Liu, J., \& Studer, K. (2022, August), \emph{Opening Up the Black Box: an Augmented Reality Look into the Scanning Electron Microscope}
  Paper presented at 2022 ASEE Annual Conference \& Exposition, Minneapolis, MN.
  10.18260/1-2--40779

Megan Ngo, Emily Welsh, Benita Comeau, Nicholas Fang, John Liu, and Kachina Studer.  "Opening Up the Black Box: an Augmented Reality Look into the Scanning Electron Microscope".  2022 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Minneapolis, MN, 2022, August.  ASEE Conferences, 2022.  https://peer.asee.org/40779 Internet.  25 Apr, 2024

\bibitem{asee_peer_40779}
  Megan Ngo, Emily Welsh, Benita Comeau, Nicholas Fang, John Liu, and Kachina Studer.
  "Opening Up the Black Box: an Augmented Reality Look into the Scanning Electron Microscope".
  \emph{2022 ASEE Annual Conference \& Exposition, Minneapolis, MN, 2022, August}.
  ASEE Conferences, 2022.
  https://peer.asee.org/40779 Internet.  25 Apr, 2024

@INPROCEEDINGS{asee_peer_40779
author = "Megan Ngo, Emily Welsh, Benita Comeau, Nicholas Fang, John Liu, and Kachina Studer"
title = "Opening Up the Black Box: an Augmented Reality Look into the Scanning Electron Microscope"
booktitle = "2022 ASEE Annual Conference \& Exposition"
year = "2022"
month = "August"
address = "Minneapolis, MN"
publisher = "ASEE Conferences"
note = {https://peer.asee.org/40779}
number = {10.18260/1-2--40779}
}

TY  - CPAPER
AB  - The scanning electron microscope (SEM) can serve as a gateway for introducing students to the nanoscale world. Traditional instruction for the SEM may be broken into two parts: concept-based instruction on how an electron interacts with various materials, and skills-based instruction on the operation of the SEM. A disconnect can arise between fundamental atomic-level concepts and hands-on lab skills as students may have a tendency to treat the SEM as a “black box”. This tendency comes from the enclosed nature of the SEM that renders its inner workings inaccessible to visual inspection and tactile exploration. By addressing these instructional gaps, we aim to promote mastery of SEM imaging techniques through a more complete understanding of SEM operation and electron beam theory. Augmented Reality (AR) is a promising medium to help students visualize these concepts because of its ability to display and manipulate virtual objects in a realistic context.

We present the pedagogy, design and development, and initial course implementation of a vision-based AR app to teach the architecture and working principles of the SEM. The app enables learners to “look into” the SEM and examine in 3D the different subassemblies of the SEM, visualize mechanical and electromagnetic phenomena within the SEM, and probe how these phenomena are affected by commonly-used imaging parameters such as working distance and magnification. This app has now been released into an undergraduate-level laboratory class (“Micro/Nano Engineering Laboratory”) at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Students were assessed before and after the learning activity to measure cognitive and affective outcomes (N=5). The development of the assessment and analysis are reported. Results suggest that this visually-rich approach is motivating for students and can promote proficiency in SEM imaging.
AU  - Megan Ngo
AU  - Emily Welsh
AU  - Benita Comeau
AU  - Nicholas Fang
AU  - John Liu
AU  - Kachina Studer
CY  - Minneapolis, MN
DA  - 2022/08/23
PB  - ASEE Conferences
TI  - Opening Up the Black Box: an Augmented Reality Look into the Scanning Electron Microscope
UR  - https://peer.asee.org/40779
DO  - 10.18260/1-2--40779
ER  -