SBIR Phase I: The Resilience Gym

这个小型企业创新研究(SBIR)第一阶段项目的更广泛的商业影响是创建了一个“弹性健身房”，在那里，职业生涯中期、受过大学教育的员工可以像在常规健身房锻炼身体健康一样，主动发展他们的情绪健康。当前的流行病和心理健康危机对社会产生了深刻的影响。在2021年的一项调查中，麦肯锡发现85%的一线员工和经理在工作中找不到意义。美国劳工统计局报告称，2021年8月有430万人辞职，占劳动力总数的2.9%。这些统计数据表明，迫切需要解决工作场所不满的问题，并支持个人找到生活的意义和目标。自2017年以来，该团队已经成功地教授了150多名成人学生通过学习行为科学研究并将其应用于生活来实现他们的潜力。这些学生中，超过50%的人，尽管已经完成了职业生涯，但对自己的生活不满意，寻求更多的意义。该团队发现，采取赋权的心态是让这些学生取得更多成就并找到生活更深层次意义的最有效的弹性行动。Resilience健身房使用技术提供可扩展的解决方案，以改善在职成年人的情绪健康和繁荣。该团队的创新是移动和网络应用程序订阅服务，提供循序渐进的Resilience健身房流程，并引导用户采用新的、赋能的心态。该产品基于数十年的行为科学研究，使用虚拟现实、人工智能和移动轻推来提供个性化的可扩展解决方案。基于实时进度，用户可能会采用新的思维方式。该团队还将纳入神经科学研究，以丰富解决方案。为了开发设计，团队使用了斯坦福d.School的五步设计思维方法(移情、定义、构思、原型和测试)，团队对此拥有深厚的专业知识。这种方法与敏捷方法相辅相成，具有较短的里程碑、Scrum会议和积压跟踪，以确保新的学习可以根据用户进行调整，并在计划的预算内按计划交付。该团队结合科技初创公司和大学研究人员的专业知识，开发出既能产生重大影响又能取得商业成功的科学驱动产品。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The broader/commercial impact of this Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project is the creation of a "Resilience Gym", where mid-career, college-educated employees can proactively develop their emotional health in the same way they do their physical health at a regular gym. The current pandemic and mental health crisis have affected society deeply. In a 2021 survey, McKinsey found that 85% of frontline employees and managers do not find meaning at work. The US Bureau of Labor Statistics reported 4.3 million people, or 2.9% of the entire workforce, quit their jobs in August 2021. These statistics demonstrate the urgent need to address the issue of workplace dissatisfaction and support individuals in finding meaning and purpose in their lives. Since 2017, the team has successfully taught over 150 adult students to achieve their potential by studying behavioral science research and applying it to their lives. Over 50% of these students, despite having accomplished careers, are dissatisfied with their lives and seek more meaning. The team has found that adopting an empowering mindset is the most effective resilient action for these students to achieve more and find deeper meaning in life. The Resilience Gym uses technology to provide a scalable solution to improve the emotional health and prosperity of working adults.The team's innovation is a mobile and web app subscription service that delivers a step-by-step Resilience Gym process and guides users to adopt new, empowering mindsets. The product is based on decades of behavioral science research and uses virtual reality, artificial intelligence and mobile nudges to provide a scalable solution that is personalized the individual user. Based on real-time progress, users may adopt new mindsets. The team will also incorporate neuroscience research to enrich the solution. To develop the design, the team uses the 5-step Stanford d.school design thinking approach (empathize, define, ideate, prototype, and test) for which the team has deep expertise. The approach is complimented with the agile methodology to have short milestones, scrum meetings, and backlog tracking to ensure new learnings can be adapted from users and delivered on schedule and within the planned budget. Combining the expertise of technology startups and university researchers, the team develops scientifically driven products that achieve both significant impact and commercial success.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.