(427d) Building Digitally Coupled Learning and Innovation Processes

Companies struggle to find people with the necessary skills for today’s economy, from truck driving to data mining. Apart from the talent crisis, companies must reduce new product cycle times and then deliver improved innovations to market, faster. Workers in every industry, meanwhile, find it more and more difficult to climb a career ladder, or even to get onto the bottom rung. For learners of all ages, the rapid evolution in technology and business practices accelerates and intensifies the need for new approaches to career awareness, preparation, and retraining. To help address both human capital development and the need for new knowledge universities and businesses must innovate and think "outside the box" to create new engagement models that improve quality, create customer value, provide a hands-on educational experience and build a foundation for continuous learning. The AIChE has an opportunity to build on existing practices to design and implement new learning and innovation practices. This presentation will cover background and energy application examples under development.