The National Center for Simulation (NCS) brought together leaders from cybersecurity, space exploration, entertainment and government on Aug. 19 at Full Sail University for its annual MS&T Connect networking event, formerly known as the Business-2-Business (B2B) event. The event explored how simulation technology is being used across industries.
The panel titled “From Combat to Cosmos to Epic Entertainment,” explored how simulation can help organizations identify problems, test solutions and improve outcomes before committing resources to real-world implementation.
“What I want to stress to you is that what you’ll hear tonight is more than just each of these sectors where MS&T is making such a huge impact, but the cross-pollination that has allowed defense to borrow from entertainment, and likewise to really accelerate,” said Janet Spruill, NCS board chair and executive vice president of Aptima, Inc.
George Cheros, NCS president and chief executive officer, said technology transfer and supporting its members are parts of the organization’s mission, which MS&T Connect was designed to support.
“We only do five major events a year at NCS,” Cheros said. “There are so many events that go on in our industry so we made the decision a few years ago to focus on five events and make them all good and support our mission.”
Moderated by Robert Epstein, NCS board director and chief strategy and mission architect of Sabel Systems, the panel featured Jack Norman, course director of Full Sail University; Anna Metke, founder and chief executive officer of Space Resource Technologies; Justin Schwartz, senior director of engineering and safety at Universal Creative; and Kyle Binni, chief technology officer at Transform XD.
Epstein said the common principle connecting their work is the use of simulated environments to test and validate systems before the consequences become real.
“Whether you’re training operators for space missions, defending critical infrastructure, testing entertainment attractions or optimizing defense, the principle is the same,” Epstein said. “You build digital environments that let you test, validate and iterate before real-world stakes come into play.”
That principle takes different forms depending on the problem being solved. At Full Sail University, simulation is being used to prepare students for the pressures of cybersecurity work. Norman discussed the university’s recently opened cyber defense range, which gives students an environment where they can respond to simulated cyberattacks without putting real networks at risk.
He said one goal is not only to teach students how to use cybersecurity tools but also to recreate the stress cybersecurity professionals experience when they must process large amounts of information at once and make decisions quickly.
For space exploration, simulation helps engineers prepare for conditions that are difficult or impossible to reproduce in the field. Metke said one challenge is preparing people and technology for an environment where real-world training opportunities are scarce.
Metke’s company produces high-fidelity regolith simulants that allow engineers to test equipment against conditions it could encounter on the Moon. She said lunar dust can penetrate astronaut suits and damage robotics, while the regolith itself contains resources that could eventually be used for fuel and infrastructure.
But recreating lunar conditions on Earth has limitations. Temperature, vacuum, lighting and lunar soil can each be recreated individually on Earth but not together as they exist on the Moon. Metke illustrated the importance of realistic training by using students participating in Lunabotics competitions as an example.
“A lot of these kids who are putting these rovers together, they don’t have lunar regolith test beds at their universities,” Metke said. “What they do is they test their rovers in the volleyball beach sand courts, but when they get into the regular test bed their wheels just shear right off within five seconds.”
She said those experiences can better prepare students to work for companies developing lunar hardware.
The same principle applies to the design of entertainment attractions, although the challenges are different. Binni cautioned that creating an immersive simulation does not automatically make it an effective one.
“Simulations can train bad behavior,” Binni said. “The real question is whether the cues, constraints and consequences in the real environment are represented accurately in the simulation.”
Binni said an effective simulation must accurately represent the factors that influence how people and systems behave in the real world. Otherwise, organizations risk using a realistic-looking environment to reinforce the wrong decisions.
He also emphasized the financial value of discovering problems virtually before they emerge in the real world. Binni said the return on investment comes from moving discovery earlier in the development process, before companies fabricate equipment, deploy products or shut down operations to correct problems.
Schwartz added that the issue is particularly important for Universal because problems become more complicated and expensive to correct once equipment reaches the field.
He explained that Universal initially used simulation largely to create experiences for guests, but the company has increasingly incorporated it into the engineering and design of its attractions. Engineers can virtually test attractions and connect simulations to equipment that will eventually operate the real-world systems.
Simulation has also allowed Universal to perform portions of its testing earlier instead of waiting for physical equipment to be built.
“For us, simulation is really crucial to the work we do,” Schwartz said. “It’s kind of embedded into everything we do today, and it’s part of our business process going forward.”
But even highly detailed simulations must account for one unpredictable variable: people. Schwartz said human behavior is one of the biggest variables simulations must account for. Because guests can behave unpredictably, Universal must account for human behavior when training ride operators, maintenance technicians and other employees.
The company’s use of modeling extends beyond permanent attractions into events like Halloween Horror Nights. Schwartz said Universal uses business analytics and industrial engineering teams to model attendance, crowd movement and the placement of food, beverage and merchandise locations during seasonal events.
“In our early years when we first started these things, it was probably a little bit more seat of the pants, kind of figuring it out as we were going along,” Schwartz said. “Now it is a very scientific, tested solution.”
Schwartz said looking beyond the entertainment industry has also been central to Universal’s approach. Technologies and standards developed for military, aerospace and other industries have provided ideas that can be adapted for theme parks.
“Our view is always to be a little bit parasitic to that and find out what the innovations are that come out of that space and how do we leverage that,” Schwartz said.
The exchange reflected the theme of this year’s MS&T Connect event. Cybersecurity professionals, lunar engineers and theme park designers may face very different challenges, but simulation gives each of them a way to test ideas, uncover problems and improve systems before challenges become real.
Watch the full MS&T Connect event here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eNcjQm7faG0
Article by Mason Gray, Staff Writer