SBIR Phase I: Mission Planning Methods and Simulated Crisis Management Framework to teach STEM to Underserved Youth

这个小企业创新研究（SBIR）第一阶段项目的更广泛/商业影响是通过提供在线协作游戏环境来教育，培训和提供科学，技术，工程和数学（STEM）为基础的职业机会，解决青年失业问题，主要是在服务不足的社区。据估计，美国16至24岁的青年中有550多万人失学和失业。这个年龄段的失业率接近20%。该项目旨在提高年轻人的技能和整体知识，并帮助他们获得与行业和第一响应者社区相关的无人机设计，功能和操作方面的认证。核心学习中隐含的知识包括批判性思维和规划，快速原型设计，使命规划，数据后处理和分析，以及有效机器人设计的共同创作，以协助行业和第一响应者的操作领域。该项目使学生能够发展强大的STEM技能，目标是先进制造业的职业机会，激励初露头角的企业家，并直接受益于行业和第一反应社区的相关培训劳动力。这个小企业创新研究第一阶段项目将开发一个可扩展的现实环境模板，用于多人游戏的教育和培训青年，整合自主机器人使用由行业和第一响应者驱动的场景。这项技术将通过协作使命准备工作流程应用程序来实现，该应用程序具有多玩家游戏引擎、计算机辅助设计（CAD）生成的原型无人机以及用于现实和相关环境的地理精确地形区域。随着机器学习（ML）和人工智能（AI）算法被添加到工作流应用程序和游戏环境中，系统的智能改进将得到加速，这些数据是从训练、练习和从实时响应事件中吸取的经验教训中收集和分析的。最大的技术障碍是以保持完整性的方式对数据进行建模，并且可以为机器学习进行调整和“训练”。在这个电子竞技游戏联盟中，年轻人，第一反应者和工程师团队将争夺最佳时间，程序和系统，以赢得每个使命。无人机设计、物理现实和机器学习算法将成为无人机蓝图的输出，这些蓝图将通过3D打印实现。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。

The broader/ commercial impact of this Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project is in addressing the unemployment of youth, primarily in underserved communities, across the United States by providing an online, collaborative gaming environment to educate, train, and provide Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM)-based career opportunities. It is estimated that more than 5.5 million youth in the U.S. ages 16 to 24 years, are out-of-school and out-of- work. The unemployment rate in this age group is close to 20 percent. This project aims to improve young people’s skills and overall knowledge, and help them secure certifications in drone design, function, and operations related to industry and first responder communities. Implicit to the core learning are knowledge in areas such as critical thinking and planning, rapid prototyping, mission planning, data post-processing and analytics, and co-authoring of effective robotics designs to assist in industry and first responder areas of operation. The project empowers students to develop strong STEM skills that target career opportunities in advanced manufacturing, inspire budding entrepreneurs, and directly benefit industry and first responder communities with a relevantly trained workforce.This Small Business Innovation Research Phase I project will develop a scalable template of a realistic environment for a multi-player game for education and training of youth, integrating autonomous robots using scenarios driven by industry and first responders. This technology will be accomplished through a collaborative mission readiness workflow application with a multi-player gaming engine, Computer Aided Design (CAD)-generated prototype drones, and geo-accurate areas of terrain for realistic and relevant environments. Intelligent improvements of the system will be accelerated as Machine Learning (ML) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) algorithms are added to the workflow application and gaming environment from data that is collected and analyzed from training, exercise, and lessons learned from live response events. The greatest technical obstacle is modeling the data in a way that preserves integrity and that can be adapted and “trained” for machine learning. Teams of youth, first responders, and engineers in this e-sports gaming league will compete for the best time, procedures, and systems to win each mission. Drone design, physics reality, and machine learning algorithms for each vehicle will be outputs for the drone blueprints that will be actualized via 3D printing.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.