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模拟引擎，旨在直观地向5岁以上的儿童教授电和磁的基础知识。这款手机游戏向用户呈现了什么画面？S发生在电路中，并允许他们玩电荷，电力和磁力，电压，电容器，晶体管等。这笔NSF SBIR拨款的使用将包括建立和将该模拟器纳入游戏所需的研究和开发。这个模拟器是新颖的，是为教育用途定制的，必须非常快，并且是基于麦克斯韦？s方程，控制所有电和磁的四个方程。这个项目的成功完成将为孩子们提供一种新的电磁学教学方式，让他们对这些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，专家们认为，这意味着超过1万亿美元的总体机会损失。除了对美国经济产生深远影响外，这也使个人受益。2014年，美国能源部报告称，STEM（工程）毕业生的起薪中位数为74,000美元，比非STEM毕业生高出近25,000美元。所提出的实时、交互式、多点触控模拟器将是同类产品中的第一个；目前还没有结合二维场和电路的模拟器，特别是用于教育游戏。这个组合模拟器只有16毫秒的时间来更新结果，而一个典型的二维字段求解器可能需要几分钟到几小时的时间来求解。通过使用新颖的模拟器架构，并在必要的精度上关注速度和概念理解，游戏模拟器将能够实现所需的100倍以上的加速。模拟器需要解Maxwell？S方程，从而以每秒60帧的速率计算和显示电磁物理行为，这是交互式游戏所需的速率。有几种方法可用于完成此任务。该模拟器从头开始构建，具有独特的变量选择，优先考虑对工业模拟器的电路尺寸和精度要求的定性理解。该模拟器主要研究教学中常用的元器件和电路。模拟器还利用了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，让五岁的孩子都能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.