Music Therapy (MT) has shown many benefits in helping autistic children, but some challenges remain due to children’s social anxiety and sensory issues. Yet, very few studies have investigated how Virtual Reality (VR) could help to increase the accessibility of MT approaches. This paper presents an exploratory study investigating the use of VR to perform MT sessions for autistic children with severe learning disabilities and complex needs. The study is performed in terms of acceptability, usability, and social communication. A collaborative MT approach was designed in close collaboration with music therapists from Denmark and psychologists from France, using head-mounted display-based VR. Testing were conducted with thirteen children with various neurodevelopmental conditions and intellectual disabilities at a children’s day hospital in Paris. The results indicate positive acceptability and usability for these children, and suggest a positive effect of MT in VR regarding communication.

The increasing use of renewable energy sources, together with an ever-increasing energy demand, puts the electrical grid under heavy pressure. Grid extensions mitigate these factors, but are very costly. Other methods enabling an economically viable energy transition towards more renewable energy sources should be explored. We present a preliminary assessment of the impact of different mixes of prosumers on the energy balance and self-consumption of a rural community. We quantify unused potential regarding demand-side management, the extension of photovoltaic peak power, as well as battery storage. We implement models for electric production and consumption profiles and simulate scenarios with varied prosumer compositions. The results show that demand-side management does not change the self-consumption of photovoltaic energy significantly, whereas installation of more battery storage together with increased photovoltaic production promises better results for the rural community studied.