EAGER: Blackout: An educational experiment in gaming the power grid

随着电网围绕市场机制进行重组，并与环境日益密切相关，电网变得更加复杂。这种复杂程度的上升对工程教育界提出了挑战，目前还没有合适的工具来教授如何处理大型基础设施的设计和监管。建立在游戏提供的教育效益，研究人员提出，以解决需要一个新的工具，通过开发停电，一个持久的，基于网络浏览器的，多人在线游戏动态市场的电力。智力MeritThis项目的重点是概念开发停电，与经验丰富的游戏设计专业人士合作，具有良好的业绩记录。这个设计过程强调规则和游戏体验，而不是游戏开发的其他通常更昂贵的方面，如艺术，编程，营销，文档等。研究人员和研究生将积极参与这个迭代设计过程的各个阶段，并利用他们各自在分布式控制系统和定价，电力系统动力学和控制，明确目标，确保游戏规则和环境在简化的同时保留真实的动力系统的主要基本特征和挑战。在概念开发结束时，研究人员预计将创建一个可从远程Web浏览器播放的多人游戏原型。更广泛的影响如果成功，像停电这样的游戏将在提高公众对基础设施设计和监管的挑战和重要性的认识以及培训下一代工程师和科学家方面发挥重要作用。最终的原型游戏将在网上提供给公众和研究界。该项目将为本科生和研究生的参与提供一个机会，并将产生一个教学工具，可能有助于吸引非传统的工程专业学生。

Power grids are getting dramatically more complex, as they reorganize around market mechanisms and become increasingly coupled with the environment. This rising level of complexity poses a challenge to the engineering education community, which currently does not have an appropriate vehicle to teach how to approach the design and regulation of large-scale infrastructures. Building on the proven educational benefits provided by games, the researchers propose to address the need for a new instrument by developing Blackout, a persistent, web browser-based, multiplayer online game about dynamic markets for electric power.Intellectual MeritThis project focuses on concept development for Blackout, in collaboration with an experienced game design professional with a proven track record. This design process emphasizes rules and play experience instead of other, often more costly aspects of game development, such as art, programming, marketing, documentation, and so on. The researchers and graduate students will be actively involved at various stages of this iterative design process, and draw on their respective expertise in distributed control systems and pricing, and power system dynamics and control, to specify the objectives and ensure that the rules of play and environment, while simplified, retain the main essential features and challenges as real power systems. At the conclusion of concept development, the researchers anticipate the creation of a working multiplayer prototype, playable from a remote Web browser. Broader ImpactsIf successful, games like Blackout will play a significant role in raising the public awareness about the challenges and significance of infrastructure design and regulation, and in training the next generation of engineers and scientists. The final prototype game will be made available online to the general public and the research community. The project will provide an opportunity for the involvement of undergraduate and graduate students and will result in a teaching vehicle that is likely to help engage nontraditional engineering students.