IIC Journal of Innovation 12th Edition | Page 128

What’s New at the IIC 1. 2. 3. 4. Accelerator Program Toolbox Foundations Community The Accelerator Program The Accelerator Program provides multiple entry points for each vertical industry, or technologists within vertical industries, to apply industrial internet technology. Here are the elements of the program, starting with those more driven by technology users.  IoT Challenges: An industrial IoT challenge is a competition initiated by a technology user or a group of technology users. They are aimed at solving high-profile, real-world problems and advancing the validation of industrial internet applications and solutions. Each challenge is conducted over several months, culminating in the announcement of winners selected by a jury. They are open to vendors, organizations, teams and individuals worldwide.  Test Drives: Test drives are short-term (3 to 6 months), rapid-engagement pilots for technology users to adopt IIoT technologies, based on technology users' real problems. They stimulate IIoT adoption across industry through accelerated implementation. The IIC’s neutral innovation platform fosters partnering to address leading-edge IIoT use cases. To consider a test drive pilot deployment, a technology user may begin by selecting a test drive proposal from our growing test drive repository. They may review the choices to find a test drive that applies to their needs. An alternative approach begins with a problem statement to determine and better understand the problem of an industry end user.  Testbeds: Testbeds have been a focus of Industrial Internet Consortium members since the IIC’s inception. Our testbeds are where the innovation and opportunities of the industrial internet—new technologies, new applications, new products, new services, new processes—can be initiated, thought through and rigorously tested to ascertain their usefulness and viability before going to market. The Negotiation Automation Platform Testbed was approved on 2019-08-05, bringing our current total to 27 approved testbeds. The Toolbox IIC’s toolbox includes the Resource Hub which delivers essential industry resources developed collaboratively by the IIC via an easy to use, searchable interface. The resources reflect the knowledge and expertise represented in our documents, testbed insights, toolkits, demos and liaison relationships with standards and industry groups around the world.  Project Explorer: The Project Explorer guides you through a set of questions to help you analyze your own IIoT project. The results will help you better understand the complexity and risks of your project. It will also provide you with actionable guidance by IIC Journal of Innovation - 123 -