SBIR Phase I: Interactive, Combined Circuit & 2D Field Simulator for Educational Mobile Game

这个项目需要构建一个基于触摸的移动游戏的模拟引擎，旨在直观地向5岁以上的儿童传授电和磁的基础知识。这款手机游戏向玩家展示了一幅什么画面？S在一个电路中发生了什么，允许他们玩电荷、电磁、电压、电容器、晶体管等。国家科学基金会SBIR补助金的使用将包括研发所需的研发，并将这个模拟器安装到游戏中。这个模拟器很新颖，是为教育目的定制的，必须非常快，并且基于麦克斯韦？S方程，这四个方程支配着所有的电和磁。该项目的成功完成将为孩子们创造一种新的电学和磁学教学方式，让他们对概念有一个直观的理解。其目标是使科学和工程学科在高等教育中更容易获得。这将导致美国理工科毕业生数量的增加，并有助于缩小国际教育成就差距，专家们一致认为，这意味着总机会损失超过1万亿美元。除了对美国经济产生深远影响外，这也有利于个人。2014年，美国能源部报告称，STEM(工程)毕业生的起薪中位数为7.4万美元，比非STEM毕业生高出近2.5万美元。拟议中的实时、交互、基于多点触摸的模拟器将是此类模拟器中的第一个；目前还没有组合的二维场和电路模拟器，特别是用于教育游戏。这种组合模拟器只有16毫秒来更新其结果，而典型的二维场解算器可能需要几分钟到几个小时才能求解。通过使用新颖的模拟器架构，并以必要的精度专注于速度和概念理解，游戏模拟器将能够实现所需的100倍以上的加速。该模拟器需要求解麦克斯韦-S方程，从而以每秒60帧的速度计算和显示电磁物理行为，这是互动游戏所需的速率。有几种方法可以实现这一点。该仿真器是从头开始构建的，具有独特的变量选择，将定性理解置于工业仿真器的电路大小和精度要求之上。该模拟器侧重于教学中常用的元器件和电路。该模拟器还利用现代移动设备中可用的组合中央/图形处理硬件。以这个模拟器为核心游戏引擎，该公司正在开发一款游戏，让年仅5岁的儿童可以实验并直观地理解电、磁和电路的基础知识。

This project entails the build out of the simulation engine for a touch-based, mobile game designed to intuitively teach the basics of electricity and magnetism to children aged 5+. The mobile game gives users a picture of what?s happening inside a circuit, and allows them to play with the charges, electric and magnetic forces, voltage, capacitors, transistors, etc. The use of funds from this NSF SBIR Grant would include the research and development required to build and incorporate this simulator into the game. This simulator is novel, is customized for educational use, must be extraordinarily fast, and is based on Maxwell?s Equations, the four equations that govern all of electricity and magnetism. The successful completion of this project will create a new way of teaching electricity and magnetism to children, giving them a visual understanding of the concepts. The goal is to make science and engineering more attainable subjects to pursue in higher education. This will lead to an increase in the number of science and engineering graduates in the US, and help to close the international educational achievement gap, which experts agree represents over a $1T overall opportunity loss. Besides having a profound effect on the US economy, this also benefits the individual. In 2014, the DOE reported that the median starting income of a STEM (engineering) graduate was $74,000, almost $25,000 more than a non-STEM graduate.The proposed real-time, interactive, multi-touch-based simulator would be the first of its kind; no combined two-dimensional field and circuit simulator exists today, particularly for use in an educational game. This combined simulator only has 16 milliseconds to update its results, whereas a typical two-dimensional field solver could take minutes to hours to solve. By using a novel simulator architecture and by focusing on speed and conceptual understanding at the necessary precision, the game simulator will be able to achieve the over 100x speed-up required. The simulator needs to solve Maxwell?s equations and thus calculate and display the electromagnetic physics behavior at 60 frames per second, the rate required for interactive gaming. Several approaches are used to accomplish this. This simulator is built from the ground up, with a unique choice of variables that prioritizes qualitative understanding over the circuit size and accuracy requirements of an industrial simulator. The simulator focuses on components and circuits commonly used in teaching. The simulator also utilizes the combined central/graphics processing hardware available in modern mobile devices. With this simulator as the core gaming engine, the company is building a game where children as young as five can experiment with and intuitively understand the basics of electricity, magnetism, and circuits.