Shameless plug for my game SimAirport: https://store.steampowered.com/app/598330/SimAirport/

I've actually received emails from two academic professors/teachers (collegiate level) who used the game in some form/fashion, as a tool within their courses.

If anyone has an educational use-case for SimAirport, I'd love to hear about it. I'd also be willing to consider providing "site" licenses, or figuring out a license that would work for you, for any solid educational use-cases -- feel free to contact me directly, email is on profile. :)

New airport designers are badly needed, seems to me 12-year olds may be better suited to the task than the construction companies contracted currently!

https://www.seattletimes.com/business/boeing-aerospace/sea-t...

This is an amazing educational experience for students but it is also such a great way to crowd source hyper realistic 3D world replicas - it reminds me of the Minecraft replica of MIT that cropped up at the start of COVID. I really hope they open source and preserve all the work of these students on a combined server anyone can browse.

It would be even more amazing if we ended up in a world where we basically open source public infrastructure projects so that anyone could contribute ideas and/or solicit public comment on new concepts before we invest billions of dollars of public money.

It also immediately comes to mind that Microsoft develops MS flight simulator - could proposed airport innovations be paired with it to test how pilots feel about changes to layouts or e.g. how new runways may affect air traffic and other patterns?

Very cool.

A question for the crowd!

What’s a good age to show a kid Minecraft? My son is five and loves LEGO and broadly anything construction, I’d be curious to know at what age it might be fun to show him Minecraft.

He’s not bad at playing some simple platformers et al on the PlayStation but for some reason Minecraft feels maybe a year or two off. Curious what folks here think.

That’s brilliant! Very cool way to inspire.

Next they can move on to TERPS procedure design! haha

This is awesome, reminds me of First Robotics Lego League. Kids are smart, and meeting them halfway using a UX they already understand is a great way to get them involved!

Well, basically I just copied the airport we have now. Then, I added some fins to lower wind resistance. And this racing stripe here I feel is pretty sharp.

https://comb.io/2ViK7Z

This is really awesome, and I think such a great way to engage kds! Epic work, and kudos to the FAA for having the vision to engage in this way. Government is not renowned for it’s creativity.

Children yearn for the mines.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_VppcLH0Mhs

The kids presenting IAD do a pretty good job breaking down the airport for their age! I'm impressed.

My cousin is going into civil engineering because of Minecraft and Sim City

I enjoy video games just fine as an adult, but I have an instinctive resistance to the idea of introducing them to my son (<5-years-old).

At what age did you allow your kid to start playing? When they start school and learn about them from others?

This is so fun! I'd have loved this as a kid. Brilliant idea.

I don't really have much to say other than this is very awesome. A fun, playful but serious and engaging project and competition.

I for one look forward to a red stone powered ATC

flashbacks to the time I wrote up a speculative proposal to win a NASA/FAA SBIR phase 1 grant. related to airport sims (one we hoped was relatively novel, compared to prior efforts.)

my partner and I at the time ultimately decided not to submit. but we (well, mostly me) put a lot of R&D time into it

This is a creative idea and a great medium to explore concepts in. Kudos!

Is it open to kids outside the US?

This is refreshing!