Stevens Institute of Technology and the School of Systems and Enterprises launched the inaugural Experience Accelerator Design Competition (EADC) with a Kickoff Webinar featuring Dean Dinesh Verma, and EADC 2010 Coordinator Eirik Hole on January 29, 2010 (archived recording below). This competition features prizes up to $10,000 and challenges currently enrolled students from across the world to build an innovative serious game or simulation that enables future technical leaders to gain key experiences that prepare them for the demands of developing and deploying complex systems.

Up to nine finalists will be selected to participate in the final Play-Offs on Stevens campus. Submissions will be judged by a panel of SSE faculty and prize-winners will be announced during the awards banquet on the evening of July 4th, 2010. 

To succeed in this event, students are encouraged to form interdisciplinary teams that efficiently use cross platform skills such as engineering, science and business, systems engineering, systems thinking and game design. The overall objective is to build insights and wisdom, and hone decision-making skills by:

·         Creating a "safe" but realistic environment for system level decision-making where the participants have to make the trade-offs between the need for more analysis and information and the need to "get done" with the limited time and resources available

·         Providing rapid feedback by accelerating time and letting the participants experience the downstream impact and consequences of their actions and decisions

The Experience Accelerator Design Competition will not only serve as an exciting venue for student competition, but also as an important teaching tool which helps gain deeper insights into key principles of systems engineering and provides a controlled environment for testing and experimentation.

Click here to watch Dr. Dinesh Verma’s presentation on the motivation behind the contest.

Click here to watch EADC 2010 Coordinator Eirik Hole’s presentation on objectives, logistics, and responding to questions.

For more information, registration, and specific contest rules and dates, please visit www.experience-accelerator.org.