Virtual Ideation Platform (VIP)

Central Maine Community College (CMCC), in collaboration with partners across New England and the United States, is developing a virtual ideation platform (VIP). The virtual ideation platform enables faculty and students to share product concepts, resources, and expertise across the internet to resolve complex design and manufacturing problems. CMCC has formed partnerships with regional community colleges, universities, industries, government agencies, and other ATE centers to create a synergistic group of experts to participate in the creation of the VIP. CMCC is engaging faculty members around New England and across the country who have expertise in key areas such as design, finite element analysis, process modeling and optimization, rapid prototyping, and machine tooling. The CMCC VIP model views tension between design and manufacturing as a socio-technical problem and fosters an environment to address both aspects of product development. VIP functions as a user-friendly virtual infrastructure where faculty and students undertake increasingly complex product concepts within a virtual product design and manufacturing framework. The ultimate goal is empowerment of students with skill sets to effectively compete in the global marketplace.