Summary of the project
The project focused on the development of a serious game to facilitate systemic learning in the context of energy and mobility transition. The proposer, Prof. Dr. Floor Alkemade, Programme Chair of Sustainable Innovation and Master of Innovation Sciences, has emphasised the importance of integrating technological and social innovation in a systemic context for sustainable development. Recognising the need for fundamental changes in energy generation, storage, management and mobility, this project aims to address the interconnectedness of these innovations and their dependence on new regulations, institutions and consumer behaviour. Leveraging Zenmo Simulations' expertise and previous experience with serious games such as Solar Tycoon, the game aims to simulate the Brabant energy system and provide a platform for students to explore different scenarios and stakeholder roles. Initially, the game will be developed and tested for the Integration Project course, and later expanded to include input from other departments, eventually becoming part of the Pre-Master programme.
Aim of the project
The main objective of the project is to develop a serious game that allows students to explore scenarios and different stakeholder roles in the energy and mobility transition. The game will be designed to provide a systemic overview while allowing students to delve into specific details, overcoming the challenges of experimenting with real infrastructure-dependent systems within a limited course duration. By simulating different scenarios, the game will help students to understand the role of innovative energy and mobility technologies, the socio-economic and technological constraints for a sustainable energy system, and potential pathways to achieve it. In addition, the project is in line with TU/e's goals for blended and collaborative learning, and the results will be disseminated through educational innovation initiatives.
Results and learnings
The project “A serious game for a systemic approach the energy transition” explored the use of serious gaming in education. The game was developed in the Sustainable Innovation Integration Project project course. In the first year, students experimented with building their own simulation models as a basis for serious gaming. In the following years, several PhD students further developed the idea into physical games that could be played with stakeholders, for example at the Ecomobiel fair. Lead researcher Swapnil Shekhar has written a paper about his experiences with the game for the specific application of the transition to electric trucking, co-developed by a student group in the Integration Project course. Serious gaming turned out to be a fun way for students to understand the dynamics (and bottlenecks) of the systems under study. The models will be further developed in the context of the NEON research project and will be used in the Energy Transition MOOC we are currently developing.
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