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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 1 st CAVE
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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 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
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.
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 carolina@louisiana.edu University of Louisiana at Lafayette