SBIR Phase II: Interactive, Combined Circuit & 2D Field Simulator for Educational Mobile Game

小型企业创新研究SBIR第二阶段项目的更广泛影响将通过创造一种新的方式来实现，即教授抽象的科学概念，如电和磁学，并以可接近的、可视化的方式呈现它们。该项目涉及对第一阶段建造的交互式、组合电路和场模拟器的扩展。第二阶段的研究将包括对现有模拟器进行改造，以涵盖初中和高中物理中涵盖的其他主题，例如：半导体、太阳能电池板、LED、晶体管、逻辑电路、存储器、计算机等。这一创新是一种复杂的模拟器，允许用户“玩”电荷、导体、磁铁、发电机、电机和粒子加速器。这让用户在深入研究科学背后的复杂数学公式之前，对这些概念感到自信，这往往会吓倒学生。其目标是使这一极具挑战性的材料更容易被年轻人理解，最终激励更多的学生在高等教育中攻读工程和物理学位。这个SBIR二期项目的智力优势在于开发了一种新的模拟器，它将被并行化。实时(每秒60帧)模拟半导体需要同时处理数百到数千个电荷的电场/磁场和扩散行为，但从未实现过。为扩散建模并将粒子数增加到数千个粒子将需要基于GPU的并行模拟引擎来处理所需的大量粒子的物理特性。这相当于将菲克扩散定律和半导体电流连续性方程纳入公司现有的电力和磁性发动机。使用这个更新的引擎，学生可以直观地了解他们周围的技术(计算机、太阳能、LED等)。此外，基于GPU的引擎将本质上是跨平台的，因此它可以在任何设备上使用(苹果、Chromebook、PC等)。这种互动式磁场和电路模拟器是此类模拟器中的第一个，非常适合让学生可视化、实验和直观地理解复杂的电学和磁学主题。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 impact of this Small Business Innovation Research SBIR Phase II project will be achieved through creation of a new way of teaching abstract scientific concepts, like electricity and magnetism, and presenting them in an approachable, visual way. The project involves the expansion of the interactive, combined circuit and field simulator built in Phase I. The phase II research will include adapting the existing simulator to cover additional topics covered in middle school and high school physics, for example: semiconductors, solar panels, LEDs, transistors, logic circuits, memory, computers, etc. This innovation is a complex simulator that allows users to "play" with charges, conductors, magnets, generators, motors, and particle accelerators. This allows the user to feel confident with the concepts before they dive into the complex mathematical equations behind the science, which often intimidate students. The goal is to make this very challenging material easier for young people to understand, ultimately inspiring more students to pursue engineering and physics degrees in higher education. The intellectual merit of this SBIR Phase II project lies in developing a new simulator that will be parallelized. Simulating a semiconductor in real-time (60 frames per second) would require handling the electric/magnetic field and diffusion behavior of hundreds to thousands of charges simultaneously and has never been accomplished. Modeling diffusion and increasing the particle count to thousands will require a parallelized, GPU-based simulation engine to handle the physics of the large number of particles required. This is equivalent to incorporating Fick's Law for diffusion and the continuity equations for semiconductor current into the company's existing electricity and magnetism engine. Using this updated engine, students can intuitively learn about the technologies surrounding them (computers, solar power, LEDs, etc.). Additionally, the GPU-based engine will be inherently cross-platform so that it can be used on any device (Apple, Chromebook, PC, etc.). This interactive field and circuit simulator is the first of its kind, and is ideal for allowing students to visualize, experiment with, and intuitively understand complex electricity and magnetism topics.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.