SBIR Phase I:VIBES: An Intelligent Application for Emotional Support During the COVID-19 Crisis

SBIR 第一阶段：VIBES：COVID-19 危机期间情感支持的智能应用程序

• 批准号: 2034057
• 负责人: Sandra Roach
• 金额: $ 25.59万
• 依托单位: DIVERSE EMERGENT ENGINEERING PROSPECTIVE -DEEP- DESIGNS LLC
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2021
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2021-02-01 至 2023-03-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2034057&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: SBIR; Phase; VIBES; Intelligent; Application

The broader impact of this Small Business Innovation Research Phase I project includes the need for 1) student engagement in social-emotional learning, 2) coordinated and consistent ways for counselors, teachers, and students to support the mental health of students, and 3) student connection during times of isolation. The transition from elementary to middle school demands new social skills in a larger and more intricate environment with an increased probability of peer conflicts. Paradoxically, this point also marks a need for more stable and intimate relationships with peers. In other words, the point of highest need with respect to relationships coincides with opportunities for the most turmoil. All of these challenges now exist in parallel with COVID-19, which has caused school closings, food scarcity, parental unemployment, social isolation, and destabilized support systems. The project will develop a scalable tool for supporting teachers, counselors and after school/out of school facilitators engaging students in social-emotional learning. Within the web-based system, students will be able to actively and consistently track and reflect upon their thoughts, feelings, and emotions; teachers/counselors will have a dashboard with a view of students’ challenges and customized suggestions for students to engage with social-emotional learning activities. The proposed project will develop an intelligent online self-tracking system to support social-emotional growth for middle school students. The key technical challenges we must resolve include: defining and refining a user experience that teachers/counselors will find educationally compelling and with which learners will engage; designing a curating process for remote learning content that will ensure safety and security of all users; designing algorithms to support tracking of student social-emotional well-being; and creating a recommendation system that determines the best interventions to suggest to students based on previous interactions.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

这个小型企业创新研究第一阶段项目的更广泛影响包括：1)学生参与社交-情感学习；2)辅导员、教师和学生协调一致的方式支持学生的心理健康；以及3)孤立时期的学生联系。从小学到中学的过渡需要新的社交技能，在一个更大、更复杂的环境中，同伴冲突的可能性增加。矛盾的是，这一点也标志着需要与同龄人建立更稳定和亲密的关系。换句话说，在人际关系方面，最需要的时刻恰好与最动荡的机会重合。所有这些挑战现在都与新冠肺炎并存，后者已导致学校关闭、食物短缺、父母失业、社会孤立和支持系统不稳定。该项目将开发一种可扩展的工具，用于支持教师、辅导员和课外/校外辅导员让学生参与社交情感学习。在基于网络的系统中，学生将能够积极和一致地跟踪和反思他们的想法、感受和情绪；教师/辅导员将拥有一个仪表板，以查看学生的挑战和为学生提供定制的建议，以参与社交情感学习活动。该项目将开发一个智能在线自我跟踪系统，以支持中学生的社交情绪成长。我们必须解决的关键技术挑战包括：定义和提炼教师/辅导员将发现在教育上令人信服的、学习者将参与的用户体验；设计远程学习内容的策划过程，以确保所有用户的安全；设计算法以支持跟踪学生的社交和情绪健康；以及创建一个推荐系统，该推荐系统根据先前的互动确定向学生建议的最佳干预措施。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。