SBIR Phase I: Innovative Artificial Life Lab for Life Science Instruction

*9661112卡特这个小型企业创新研究第一阶段项目将由ADA Technologies，Inc.进行，旨在解决对生命科学主题的创新方法的需求，这些主题涉及生物进化、生物的相互依赖和生物的行为。该研究计划的目标是开发一种创新的人工生命模拟，以便在个人电脑和互联网上实现。人工生命是一个致力于理解生命的研究领域，它试图抽象生物现象背后的基本动力学原理，并在其他物理介质--如计算机--中重新创造这些动力学，使它们能够用于新的实验操作和测试。该模拟具有创新性，因为它采用了合成生物学中相对较新的人工生命领域的概念，并将这些概念用作传统分析生物学的补充。第一阶段计划的目标是量化个人计算机和互联网的限制对模拟造成的技术限制，并使用符合国家科学教育内容和教学标准的教学支持材料对模拟进行初步的课堂测试。第一阶段吸取的经验教训将为该项目下一阶段软件的全面开发和第三阶段的商业化和传播奠定基础。为该项目组建的团队由在创新技术和健全的教育原则方面拥有技能和经验的人组成。人工生命模拟的结果将有助于满足对创新教学资源的巨大需求。人工生命实验室的商业应用包括课堂教学、家庭教育、互联网实施、科技中心和作为一般娱乐产品销售。***

*** 9661112 Carter This Small Business Innovation Research Phase I project to be carried out by ADA Technologies, Inc. addresses the need for innovative methods for instruction of life science topics on biological evolution, interdependence of organisms, and behavior of organisms. The objective of the research program is to develop an innovative artificial life simulation for implementation on personal computers and the Internet. Artificial life is a field of study devoted to understanding life by attempting to abstract the fundamental dynamic principles underlying biological phenomena and recreating these dynamics in other physical media--such as computers--making them accessible to new kinds of experimental manipulation and testing. The simulation is innovative since it employs concepts from the relatively new field of artificial life as used for synthetic biology, and uses the concepts as a complement to traditional analytic biology. The objective of the Phase I program is to quantify technological limits for the simulation imposed by the limits of personal computers and the Internet and to perform preliminary classroom testing of the simulation using instructional support materials conforming to national science education standards for content and teaching. Lessons learned in Phase I will provide the foundation for full-scale development of the software in the next phase of the project and commercialization and dissemination in the third phase. The team assembled for the program consists of persons with skills and experience in innovative technology and sound education principles. The outcome of an artificial life simulation will contribute to fulfilling the great need for innovative instructional resources. The commercial applications of the artificial life lab include classroom instruction, home-schooling, Internet implementation, science and technology centers and sale as a general entertainment product. ***