Objective
There is an increasing push in Europe towards regulating safety procedures for the installation of domestic utilities. For instance, the European Committee for Electrotechnical Standardisation (CENELEC) issued a decree for the standardisation of all electrical installation work. All European countries have to conform to this standard since the end of 1996. This requires all practising electricians, technicians and inspectors to refresh and to bring up-to-date their background knowledge of inspecting existing installations and to adopt new procedures complying with the European standards. Training organisations are required to prepare new training programmes and to issue a diploma that will be a requisite for all registered electricians before they can undertake installation works, and the professional technical schools are asked to prepare the students to work as the new standardisation requires. This is a massive training initiative and one that requires a technological solution, to have any chance of being efficient and effective.
The TEST project will develop and evaluate pilot applications of a Multimedia Intelligent Training System (MITS) for the training of domestic electrical installation procedures. The training application will be focused on a number of practical exercises that will assess the basic concepts and the level of expertise of the trainee. It will be a computer-based laboratory where the trainee will be asked to design schemes for solving a number of exercises following an increasing level of complexity. The system will include a graphical facility that allows the trainee to design the circuits according to data and constraints imposed by the exercise, and an on-line simulator to compute variable values and detect violations. The pilot application will be subject to an extensive evaluation by the end-users to determine the effectiveness of the system in improving the skills of the trainees. In particular the use of the World Wide Web to provide a single validated source for certifying the competency will be investigated.
The project involves developers, suppliers and end-users of training systems in a combined effort of 15.7 man-years over 27 months. The consortium consists of a unique combination of the relevant skills. CISE and Heriot-Watt University have extensive expertise in the development of ITSs, whereas Giunti and Skillchange are market leaders in the supply of multimedia training systems, and AEM and Eastern Electric are large scale employers of electrical technicians and users of CBTs. The consortium also has extensive experience of European collaboration and of effective management of such projects.
The work will be divided into three different phases:
- The first phase will be devoted to establish the user requirements and to define the content of the pilot application both for the industrial and educational markets. This two activities will be carried out taking into consideration differences in the Italian and British cultural backgrounds and languages. This phase includes also a thorough marketing analysis in order to evaluate the supportable costs and a technology survey finalised to the selection of the hw/sw target platforms.
- The second phase consists in the specification, design and implementation of the pilot applications, and the localisation of the application for one/two additional European countries.
- In last phase an extensive evaluation of the target software products will be undertaken by the end-users and commercial opportunities consolidated. Also the potential for extending the scope to other domestic utility will be determined.
The TEST project is expected to have a major impact on the quality of training and education, will significantly reduce the time off the job and the cost of training delivery (i.e. instructors, training facilities and laboratory equipment, travel and subsistence).
The Consortium plans to introduce the TEST products in the market place soon after project completion. The target market is twofold: professional operators and technical schools. In the first sector, the product will be of interest to utilities, professional associations, and individuals. Two of the partners, AEM and Eastern Electric, supply installation and refurbishment services to their customers. To this aim they rely on professional subcontractors who have to be qualified by the Company. This is significant of an increasing trend for utilities to provide services to their customers. Skill Change and CISE will capitalise the project experience to introduce TEST products in their respective market segments. In the education sector, exploitation will be pioneered by Giunti, an outstanding Italian school books publisher, which is represented in the Consortium through its affiliated company Giunti Multimedia. The TEST product will be customised for scholar education in the UK market by Heriot-Watt, which will rely on their links to Scottish technical schools. Giunti will take profit of this development to introduce a similar product in the Italian market first, and to produce customised versions for other national markets soon after.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
- natural sciences computer and information sciences software
- engineering and technology electrical engineering, electronic engineering, information engineering electrical engineering
- natural sciences computer and information sciences internet world wide web
You need to log in or register to use this function
Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Topic(s)
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Call for proposal
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
Data not available
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
Funding Scheme
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Coordinator
50139 FIRENZE
Italy
The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.