2009 M&S LEADERSHIP SUMMIT Successes and Challenges in Applying M&S beyond the research lab Dr. Carolina Cruz-Neira LITE Chief Scientist W. Hansen Hall and Mary Officer Hall/BORSF Endowed Super Chair in Telecommunications University of Louisiana at Lafayette

2009 M&S LEADERSHIP SUMMIT Background Early 90’s (Illinois) –Developer of 1 st CAVE –Worked with NCSA and Argonne National Lab to introduce CAVE in scientific research –Worked with GM to introduce CAVE in industry (Iowa) –Academic: Many projects with industry on the use of M&S (VR) for training applications Research on educational applications –Entrepreneur: Launched several companies/spin-offs focused on deploying M&S in industry (manufacturing) Consulted for major Fortune 500 companies on good practices for M&S 2006-Present (Louisiana) –Using M&S for economic development through research –Several M&S projects for training/ understanding effects on training

2009 M&S LEADERSHIP SUMMIT Example 1: Deere & Company Develop and deploy virtual prototyping and immersive collaboration tools used in designing, analyzing, and evaluating John Deere products, manufacturing processes, and facilities completely within virtual environments.” 1996 No M&S(VR) in company. Today over 30 installations world-wide across most activities in company Standardized with VRJuggler enterprise-wide, as well as underlying hardware

2009 M&S LEADERSHIP SUMMIT Example 2: P&G Phased development –Phase 1 ( ): Academic investigation –Phase 2 (2002/03): First Immersive VR System –Phase 3 (2005): Global Deployment

2009 M&S LEADERSHIP SUMMIT Example 3: Higher Education Training For Field Experiences: –Use M&S (VR) to place students in the field –Perform activities to understand real phenomena as if they were in the middle of it –Phase 1: – Meteorology: Followed a class for 3 years evaluating learning outcomes Groups using M&S showed significant learning improvements, as well as retention –Phase 2: 2007-present – Volcano education –Phase 3: 2008-present – Field experiences for Civil Engineering students

2009 M&S LEADERSHIP SUMMIT Example 3-II

2009 M&S LEADERSHIP SUMMIT Example 4: Higher Education/Cultural Understanding

2009 M&S LEADERSHIP SUMMIT Example 5: Safety Training in Rigs

2009 M&S LEADERSHIP SUMMIT Example 6: Fire Safety Certification Combine M&S with Supercomputing to create a design and evaluation environment for building design and fire codes Long-term goal: use these environments for fire safety certification

2009 M&S LEADERSHIP SUMMIT Example 7: Welder training After Katrina: Louisiana has still today over 14,000 welding jobs open. Community colleges can graduate approximately 800 welders/year Physical equipment needed: welding stations per school. Each station costs $100K to acquire plus $10K/year in operations plus specialized space in building M&S utilized in early training: $3K to $5K per station. Minimal operation costs. Can be set in classrooms.  Reduce training timeline, increase number of students

2009 M&S LEADERSHIP SUMMIT Example 7: Welder Training

2009 M&S LEADERSHIP SUMMIT State of Louisiana Support for Tech-Transfer Workforce Development Department: –Specialized grants towards improvement on workers training and advanced certifications Louisiana Board of Regents: –Seed funding towards research projects that can lead to economic development Louisiana Information Technologies Initiative: –Seed funding to incentivize faculty to collaborate with industry partner in Information technology. Majority of grants at the University of Louisiana are for M&S

2009 M&S LEADERSHIP SUMMIT Other efforts Lafayette hosting IEEE VR 2009: – Lafayette Digital Entertainment Day –More geared towards games, but also focused on education and training opportunities. Louisiana Digital Entertainment Initiative Digital Technologies & Creative Processes Initiative: State-funded review of current Gaming curricula in State and make recommendations on improvements based on industry needs.

2009 M&S LEADERSHIP SUMMIT Challenges in Advancement of M&S There is a lot of work to be done to deploy and make efficient use of M&S. Most of it is applied research Who does this applied research? –R&D in industry is being reduced –Academics  challenge to get funding from traditional sources for applied work Not much efforts happening on developing some guidelines or standards to unify work and leverage a wide range of technologies What do I buy?? Narrow solutions, targeting one problem, hard to expand to other problems Finding talent for M&S

2009 M&S LEADERSHIP SUMMIT Areas for Potential Congressional Help Develop incentives that support medium- and large-scale collaboration between academics and industry Incentivize academic programs to incorporate skills needed for M&S, in particular STEM areas: –Universities need to understand that computer science is much more than enterprise computing Incentivize development of domestic talent Keep in mind small companies and entrepreneurial initiatives

2009 M&S LEADERSHIP SUMMIT Successes and Challenges in Applying M&S beyond the research lab Dr. Carolina Cruz-Neira University of Louisiana at Lafayette