I-Corps: Digital and Scientific Literacy and Training Solutions for Green Energy and Environmental Engineering

这个创新队（I-Corps）项目将虚拟现实技术应用于绿色能源的培训和教育。为了减少对石油和煤炭的依赖，遏制温室气体排放，美国绿色能源部门在过去十年中投入了数十亿美元。因此，对合格劳动力的需求不断增加，以填补该行业的空缺职位。这个市场面临的挑战是，目前培训学生、技术人员和工程师的基础设施无法满足这一需求，因为传统的教授绿色能源技术的方法需要在硬件（太阳能电池板、风力涡轮机、水力发电装置）、实验室、合格的教师/培训师和实地考察方面投入巨额资金。提出的创新通过提供基于网络的软件系统来解决这一挑战，该系统结合了基于桌面的虚拟现实技术和低成本计算机硬件技术，用于绿色能源和环境工程素养和培训。一旦成功商业化，拟议中的创新预计将为中小学、大学、社区学院和培训公司的学习者提供清洁能源领域入门级工作岗位的数字和科学技能培训，成本仅为目前的一小部分。这最终将有助于满足美国快速发展的清洁能源部门对受过适当培训和合格劳动力的需求。从技术角度来看，该项目的主要目标是设计，开发，测试和商业化基于云的软件系统，该系统使用现代桌面虚拟现实（VR）技术和物联网（IoT）范式来教授太阳能，风能和水力发电的主题。这一目标是通过利用VR软件和低成本的开源硬件通过无线（Zigbee、低功耗蓝牙和Wi-Fi技术）和有线快速以太网技术进行连接来实现的。从这项工作中获得的结果将有助于跨越VR教育，物联网技术以及下一代互联网应用的网络需求和行为的持续挑战。有几个可能的客户群有共同的需求。一个是学术机构，如美国的研究型和教学型大学、社区学院，以及需要在绿色能源和环境工程领域对学生进行教育的高中和初中。另一部分人可能是8-14岁孩子的父母，他们希望自己的孩子在上述领域具有数字和科学素养。团队使用I-Corps的目标是在两个可能的客户细分中快速识别最有利可图的子细分市场，并为子细分市场设计进入市场的策略。因此，该团队希望通过考虑不同的收益模式（如软件即服务或一次性购买）来校准其定价模型。

This Innovation Corps (I-Corps) project incorporates virtual reality technology in training and education for green energy.The United States Green Energy sector has seen multi-billion dollar investments in the past decade with an intention to reduce dependency on oil and coal and curb greenhouse gas emissions. As such, there is a constant demand for a qualified workforce to fill the open job positions in this industry sector. The challenge in this market is that the current infrastructure for training students, technicians, and engineers falls short to meet this demand as traditional methods to teach green energy technologies requires huge dollar investments in hardware (solar panels, wind turbines, hydro-electric setups), labs, qualified teachers/trainers, and field trips. The proposed innovation addresses this challenge by providing a web-based software system that uses a combination of desktop based Virtual Reality technology and low-cost computer hardware technologies for green energy and environmental engineering literacy and training. Once commercialized successfully, the proposed innovation is expected to provide learners in schools, universities, community colleges, and training companies, with digital and scientific skills training for entry-level job positions in the clean energy sector at a fraction of current costs. This will ultimately help fulfill the demand for an appropriately trained and qualified workforce in the rapidly growing clean energy sector in United States.From a technical perspective, the main goal of this project is to design, develop, test, and commercialize a cloud-based software system that uses modern desktop virtual reality (VR) technology and the Internet-of-Things (IoT) paradigm to teach topics in solar, wind, and hydroelectric power. This goal is achieved by leveraging VR software and low-cost open-source hardware to connect via wirelesss (Zigbee, Bluetooth Low Energy, and Wi-Fi technologies) and wired fast-Ethernet technologies. The results obtained from this work will contribute to the ongoing challenges that span VR for education, IoT technologies, and network requirements and behavior for next generation Internet applications. There are several possible customer segments with common needs. One is academic institutions such as research and teaching universities, community colleges across the US, and high schools and middle schools that need to educate their students in the fields of green energy and environmental engineering. Another segment might be parents of 8-14 year old children who want their children to be digitally and scientifically literate in the aforementioned areas. The team's goal with the I-Corps is to quickly identify the most profitable sub-segment(s)in the two possible customer segments and design go-to-market strategies for the sub-segment(s). As such, the team would like to calibrate its pricing models by taking into account different revenue models such as Software-as-a-Service or one-time purchase.