NSF awarded WOLF-Warrior Outdoor Leadership for the Future (also known as SOFWOLF) and its partners a SBIR Phase I grant today to develop an on-line gaming and simulation platform prototype to teach underserved youth to operate, augment and test drones for mission critical use case scenarios.
SAINT PETERSBURG, Fla., July 28, 2023 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ — NSF awarded WOLF-Warrior Outdoor Leadership for the Future (also known as SOFWOLF) and its partners a SBIR Phase I grant today to develop an on-line gaming and simulation platform prototype to teach underserved youth to operate, augment and test drones for mission critical use case scenarios.
Since 2012, WOLF has been providing research and educational programs in outdoor leadership and career-building skills to Gold Star and underserved youth. In 2020, WOLF revamped its curriculum for youth career development in the ‘metaverse economy’, the economic concept that virtual, 3D environments that are accessible and interactive in real time will become the transformative medium for social and business engagement. WOLF students work with emergency responders to customize drones to serve a specific mission (ex. students designs ‘claw’ for a drone to carry and drop a life jacket to capsized boat victims in Tampa Bay). Students are split into teams that consist of engineers, educators and first responders to compete and deliver the ‘best design’. The team who delivers the best solution in the best time, wins. In 2021, WOLF introduced this mission driven approach to teaching drone design and operations based upon past careers in supporting mission driven military exercises for the US Special Operations Forces (SOF). 2022 WOLF students applied newly gained robotics, sensor and data processing skills in: a US. Coast Guard Search and Rescue Exercise; a more efficient early red-tide detection process for Florida Fish and Wildlife Scientists. 2023 WOLF students worked with Tampa Police in multiple training and exercise challenges.
“We teach students through high-intensity real world situations’, explains Sara Moola, WOLF Executive Director, ‘this provides the youth an adrenaline rush, while challenging them to utilize newly developed skills to communicate, automate and execute successful drone missions to solve real-word problems.”
“The NSF award provides WOLF and its partners, the ability to create the first virtual, physics-based platform that applies emergency, high-intensity, mission-driven methodology to educate students in robotics operations, data science and design. explains Mike Vaughn, WOLF Co-founder.
Pull Quote
“The NSF award provides WOLF and its partners, the ability to create the first virtual, physics-based platform that applies emergency, high-intensity, mission-driven methodology to educate students in robotics operations, data science and design. explains Mike Vaughn, WOLF Co-founder.
Media Contact
Sara E Moola, SOFWOLF: SOF Warrior Outdoor Leadership for the Future, 1 2022563726, smoola@sofwolf.org, www.sofwolf.org
SOURCE SOFWOLF: SOF Warrior Outdoor Leadership for the Future
