Center researchers Dr. Martin Storksdieck, Dr. Heather Fischer, and Kimberley Preston are collaborating with a team of researchers from Northeastern University awarded a $2 million grant by the National Science Foundation to design, develop, and deploy sustainable online courses and curricula that bridge the data science skills gap of the current production engineering workforce. The project is developing a modular curriculum with seven courses, credentials including certificates and a minor in data science for production engineering, and a course/module recommendation system to help students determine which course or module will best meet their needs.  These resources will help people working in manufacturing to retool their skill-set to keep up with the modern world. In addition to the development of useful tools, IMPEL will study the effectiveness of online courses using theories and tools of learning science and rigorously evaluate program objectives and outcomes with the expertise of an external evaluator. The outputs from this project will not only contribute to the national need for well-educated engineers and technicians in production engineering, but also may eventually benefit other fields, such as healthcare, through the use of similar algorithms.