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

EAGER：停电：一项博弈电网的教育实验

• 批准号: 1242851
• 负责人: Cedric Langbort
• 金额: $ 10万
• 依托单位: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2012
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2012-08-15 至 2014-07-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1242851&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: EAGER; Blackout; educational; experiment; gaming

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.

电源网格越来越复杂，因为它们围绕市场机制进行了重组，并越来越多地与环境相结合。这种不断上升的复杂程度对工程教育社区构成了挑战，该社区目前没有适当的工具来教授如何处理大型基础设施的设计和调节。研究人员在游戏提供的可靠的教育利益的基础上，提议通过开发BlackOut来满足新工具的需求，这是一款基于网络浏览器的持久性，基于Web浏览器的多人在线游戏，介绍了电动功率动态市场的动态市场。IntlectualTherthiS Preecitthis Procortthis Project of Therthis Project of BlackOut，与经验丰富的游戏设计专业人员合作，涉及BlackOut的概念开发。这个设计过程强调了规则和娱乐经验，而不是其他游戏开发的更为昂贵的方面，例如艺术，编程，营销，文档等。研究人员和研究生将积极参与此迭代设计过程的各个阶段，并利用他们在分布式控制系统和定价以及电力系统动态和控制方面的各自专业知识，以指定目标并确保简化的游戏规则，同时简化，在实际电力系统中保留主要的基本功能和挑战。在概念开发的结论中，研究人员预计可以从远程Web浏览器播放的工作多人游戏原型创建。更广泛的影响力成功，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意义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线提供给公众和研究社区。该项目将为本科生和研究生的参与提供机会，并将导致教学工具可能有助于吸引非传统工程专业的学生。