Ian Egan 
The new consortium formed by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers is an open forum and community-driven platform for defining and supporting the profession of Learning Engineering.
December 15, 2017
EUGENE, OR―Concentric Sky, developers of Badgr, has joined the new Industry Connections Industry Consortium for Learning Engineering (ICICLE), established by The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), as a foundational member. ICICLE is an open forum and community-driven platform for defining and supporting the profession of Learning Engineering. Along with Concentric Sky, the charter members include some of the world’s largest companies, such as Google, IBM, and Boeing, as well as academic institutions, technology startups, and standards development organizations.
“We’re honored to have been invited to become founding members of IEEE’s new IC Industry Consortium for Learning Engineering,” said Wayne Skipper, Founder and CEO of Concentric Sky. “The mission of IEEE closely aligns with the values of our company, and we’re excited to offer our expertise in standards development to such an august body.”
IEEE, the world’s largest technical professional organization dedicated to advancing technology for the benefit of humanity, has created ICICLE as part of the IEEE Standards Association’s Industry Connections program. The program facilitates collaboration between innovative organizations and individuals with the goal of developing new standards and related products and services as collaborators refine their thinking on rapidly changing technologies.
“As innovative teachers, schools, and training departments deploy an ever-expanding array of new products and explore new ways of teaching and learning, the body of knowledge about how to use these technologies and how to design the increasingly complex information systems that result is the basis for a new engineering discipline,” Avron Barr, Chair of the IEEE Learning Technology Standards Committee.
Concentric Sky’s Badgr platform is a prime example of the types of new technologies that are advancing the ways people learn in school, in their profession, and in a wide array of other contexts. Badgr is a world leading open-source achievement recognition and tracking system for issuing, organizing, and sharing Open Badges. Open Badges allow learners to accumulate verifiable digital credentials to demonstrate their skill development and discover new learning pathways. Badgr was originally created to serve as the official reference implementation for Open Badges during Concentric Sky’s stewardship of the Badge Alliance in 2015 and has now grown into a key part of the technology infrastructure for thousands of the world’s leading academic institutions.
Learn more about IEEE ICICLE and see the full list of charter members at www.ieeeicicle.org. To learn much more about Badgr and the future of stackable credentials, Open Pathways, you can watch this webinar presented by Concentric Sky’s Wayne Skipper.
Concentric Sky is an award-winning software development firm founded in 2005. Their partners include a number of prominent organizations such as The World Bank, The United Nations, NASA, NSF and NIH, as well as major publishers like Encyclopedia Britannica, National Geographic and Cengage Learning. Badgr is a registered trademark of Concentric Sky.
Further Reading
- edCircuit – Concentric Sky and Portfolium Announce Partnership
- Economic Times – Bennett University, IEEE hold global meet on machine learning and data science
- Business Wire – IEEE Standards Association Propels Global Technology Innovation Into 2018
