CONFERENCE REPORT
First ViSTech
a Success
ViSTech participants are marking their calendars for next year’s
conference. Chuck Weirauch reports on this “thumbs up” event.
T
he first-ever Visuals & Simulation
Technology (ViSTech) Conference
and Exhibition, held June 20-21 in
Orlando at the Rosen Center, aimed to provide a
venue to bring experts in the visual technologies
field closer together with those professionals in
the simulation and training arena. By most
accounts provided by the 150 attendees at the
event, it proved to have been enough of a success for attendees to mark their calendars for
next year’s show.
The event was developed and managed by
Halldale Media Group and sponsored by
Quantum3D, SEOS, Christie Digital, the
Government, Academic, Military, Entertainment
and Simulation (G.A.M.E.S.) Synergy Summit, the
National Center for Simulation (NCS) and the
Metro Orlando Economic Development
Commission (EDC). Participants featured military
training leaders and pioneers in visual technologies, top company executives, and developers
and managers of some of the newest training
technology programs.
Image credit: J. Browne/Halldale Media
Military presentations
Major military training programs were well represented. Military presenters spoke from both
the procurer and developer perspective and
included representatives of the US Army, Navy,
Air Force and Marine Corps, as well as the UK
Ministry of Defence.
Captain Larry McCracken, commander of
the NAVAIR Orlando Training Systems Division,
gave the opening keynote address. He told the
audience that there is an increasing demand for
new training solutions in the Navy. He also said
that there is a potential for unlimited opportuni-
ties, not only for government, but industry as
well, in the complete revolution in the way the
military conducts its training.
Colonel David Votipka, commander of the
Air Force Agency for Modeling and Simulation
(AFAMS) delivered the second day’s keynote
address. He provided an overview of how modeling and simulation is playing an essential role
in the development of network-centric operations. He also pointed out the need for advanced
visual displays for such operations and called for
an improvement in visual displays for pilot information to improve situational awareness.
Captain Martin Bushika, Science &
Technology Manager for the Marine Corps
Program Manager for Training Systems
(PMTRASYS) described his agency’s work to
develop rapid and automated 3D scene generation for training environments. He also pointed
out the need for cognitive skills trainers and
automated team performance evaluators.
Michael Woodman, PMTRASYS Project Manager
for Tactical Decision-making Simulations (TDS),
discussed how PC gaming technology-based TDS
is being used to provide realistic training for
Marine Corps individual and units.
Several other ViSTech presenters discussed
the latest developments in PC-based military programs. They included the US Army’s Major Bret
Wilson and Jerry Heneghan of that service’s
America’s Army Game Project. They gave an
overview of this widely distributed and highly
successful application of gaming technology to
provide inexpensive and cost-effective virtual
training environments for soldiers. Heneghan also
described the project’s After Action Review system and how it is geared to learning objectives.
Major George Kohler, Director of Analysis
Experimentation & Simulation for the UK’s
Ministry of Defence, told how COTS games are
being studied and modified by his organization
and other NATO countries to meet their training
38 MS&T MAGAZINE ı ISSUE 5/2005
