Project Updates:

Sept 2007: NSF Phase II grant received for continued development of Shortfall Online over the next three years. Award # 0717750. Abstract for this grant:

This project is creating an innovative learning model to educate future engineering leaders by developing their understanding of complex tradeoffs among environmental, economic, and technological issues. The heart of the project is a cooperative cross-disciplinary computer game, Shortfall Online, developed by faculty and staff from three departments: the Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering provides the technical background; the Department of Visual Arts and Multimedia Studies provides the interactive design expertise; and the Department of Education provides the critical learning assessment skills. The development and assessment of the networked game is helping to define a new pedagogical model for educating future engineers who are mindful of the environmental global impact of their work and who possess interdisciplinary knowledge of environmentally benign systems engineering.

The intellectual merit of this project lies in the design and assessment of the game so as to promote student learning and confidence along multiple dimensions, including: the history of environmentally benign technologies within the past decades; environmental policies and legislation that influence manufacturing in the global economy; current business strategies and technologies used in industry to address environmental burdens; tradeoffs among economic and environmental policies that influence technology; effects of current global events on a sophisticated supply chain and complex engineering system; and team-based decision-making in the management of a complex set of variables for expected outcomes.

The broader impacts of this work are felt through the promotion of a pedagogical model that enhances economic and environmental literacy among engineering students and provides real-life ethical dilemmas for debate. Furthermore, students gain learning strategies and habits that are applicable throughout their careers, cultivating informed participation in complex business and engineering decision-making. The project is also serving as a model for other engineering programs seeking to imbue their curricula with attention to understanding the tradeoffs among economic, environmental, and technological issues in system design.

May 2007: A limited prototype version of Shortfall Digital is now available from Northeastern University. This reflects the work of a pair of student game designers who took on the task of adapting the revised board game to a single-computer, multi-player game.

January, 2006: We have just begun prototyping the networked computer version of the game, which will rely in part on our SimAnything™ technology. The image directly below is a reproduction of one of the three game boards. The remaining images on this page are screens from the forthcoming networked computer game. The following is a description of the board game as it was developed for testing the computer game's viability.

Produced for the Northeastern University Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, with funding from the National Science Foundation, Shortfall was originally developed as a board game as part of an M.S. thesis in 2001. In 2005, Metaversal Studios was hired to develop enhancements to the board game in order to study its educational value. Working with a team that included faculty and students from the Department of Visual Arts and the Center for Effective University Teaching, we assisted in every phase, from developing the NSF grant proposal through analysis of the results from the student playtesting.

The game simulates the supply chain for an automobile manufacturing operation. The goal of the game is to minimize environmental impact while maximizing profit, and further, to foster better understanding and dialogue about these issues for our future industry leaders.

By creating a revised board game prototype, Shortfall was more extensively developed with increased attention to game play logistics, more fully developed scenarios and graphic organization. Shortfall was enhanced to help students meet learning objectives in the following areas:

• History of environmentally benign technologies within the past decades
• Environmental policies and legislation that influence manufacturing in the global economy
• Tradeoffs among economical and environmental policies that influence technology
• Current strategies used in industry to address environmental issues
• New technologies that address reductions in environmental burdens
• Economic and business issues associated with decision making
• Effects of current global events on a sophisticated and complex supply chain

The game promotes cooperation, strategy building for the greater good and increased knowledge of duties beyond traditional roles. In the board game, players each take on one of four roles in a company: the CEO, the Environmental Manager, theResearch & Development Manager, or the Production Manager. Each four-player company assumes a position in an automobile manufacturing supply chain: the OEM who produces the cars, the first-tier supplier who produces parts, and the second-tier supplier who produces the useable materials from raw materials that create parts.

The game is played in a series of rounds, each of which represents a fiscal quarter. Aft the beginning of the game, each CEO in each company in the supply chain must allocate funds within the company to three managers. After allocation of funds, all managers must decide how money will be spent in their primary areas.

The challenge for Production Managers is that companies may only sell product that is ready to ship. Therefore, teams must plan production at least one Quarter in advance, hoping that their predictions about the other teams’ needs (and random market fluctuations) will be correct. The production of new product is limited by: each company’s production budget, the number of parts/materials that each company currently has available, and the amount of product and waste storage that the company currently has available.

After sales and production, the Environmental Managers must handle waste disposal, recovery, and recycling. The company is assessed a fee for disposal, but may be recompensed for responsible disposal or recycling. Finally, the R&D Managers spend any part of their budgets on factory improvements, which may reduce waste, lower direct costs, or take steps towards future innovations through the use of “Innovation Cards”. At the end of the Quarter, any unsold supplies, product or waste are assessed a storage fee, and a “Current Event” card is drawn. These cards describe real-world situations ranging from air pollution regulations to landfill seepage. Sometimes there is an immediate penalty or reward to one or all teams; sometimes the card affects the play of the entire next Quarter by imposing a fine for some action that could have a negative impact on the environment or some other issue related to waste disposal.

In the final quarter of the game, players do not produce further products, but instead sell off remaining product and overstock supplies, and dispose of remaining waste. After all product is sold and waste disposed, the team who has made the most profit is declared winner of the game.