Successes and Challenges in Applying M&S beyond the research lab

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


Background

• Early 90’s (Illinois)– Developer of 1st CAVE– Worked with NCSA and Argonne National Lab to introduce CAVE in scientific

research– Worked with GM to introduce CAVE in industry

• 1995-2006 (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


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


Example 2: P&G

• Phased development– Phase 1 (2000-2002): Academic investigation– Phase 2 (2002/03): First Immersive VR System– Phase 3 (2005): Global Deployment


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: 2002-2006 – 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


Example 3-II


Example 4: Higher Education/Cultural Understanding


Example 5: Safety Training in Rigs


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


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: 10-16 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


Example 7: Welder Training


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


Other efforts

• Lafayette hosting IEEE VR 2009:– http://conferences.computer.org

• 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.

http://conferences.computer.org/


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


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


Successes and Challenges in Applying M&S beyond the research lab

Dr. Carolina Cruz-Neira

[email protected]

University of Louisiana at Lafayette

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Successes and Challenges in Applying M&S beyond the research lab