The UCF Applied Research Institute will help the university coordinate multidisciplinary responses to major projects and strengthen research across campus.

By doing so, university leaders say the new institute will help bridge the technology 鈥渧alley of death鈥� 鈥� the chasm that often occurs between basic research and innovation. For example, large government projects are fundamentally complex and require multiple types of technology from multiple disciplines.

鈥淎s UCF鈥檚 research program matures and we identify areas of distinctive impact and unique strengths, this new applied research institute will play a critical role in helping our faculty pursue interdisciplinary projects focused on tackling today鈥檚 biggest scientific and societal challenges,鈥� said UCF Provost and Executive Vice President Dale Whittaker.

The institute will create a centralized location where faculty members can team together to apply for grants, and where students can find resources, training and research opportunities in areas where funding is available.

Randall Shumaker, director of UCF鈥檚 Institute for Simulation and Training, has been appointed interim director for the new Applied Research Institute.

鈥淎s a former senior civilian leader for the U.S. Navy, I see the immense value of providing a university-applied research organization to support industry and national security needs,鈥� Shumaker said. 鈥淲e are already in discussions with partners that we will work with to transition UCF鈥檚 basic research into new concepts and applications.鈥�

Many other large universities have developed applied research institutes to pursue government contracts and large research efforts, such as the 海角直播 of Illinois, Johns Hopkins 海角直播 and Georgia Institute of Technology. These institutes are largely federally funded, employ primarily 12-month research faculty and pursue contracts versus grants.

UCF鈥檚 institute will initially focus on areas that align with Florida鈥檚 economic development needs, such as photonics, modeling and simulation, engineering and biomedicine.聽

Shumaker said he is looking for a permanent location for the institute, which will operate out of his office at IST for the interim period. The institute will support itself with revenue from new projects.

UCF President John C. Hitt and Capt. Wes Naylor, commanding officer of the Naval Air Warfare Center, signed the agreement during the Interservice/Industry Training, Simulation and Education Conference 鈥� the largest modeling and simulation for training event in the world. The conference takes place each year at the Orange County Convention Center drawing 14,000 to 15,000 attendees.

鈥淲e are proud to be long-time partners with the U.S. Department of Defense,鈥� Hitt said. 鈥淲e know this industry is essential to our nation鈥檚 defense and the growing innovation economy of Central Florida and our Sunshine State. This agreement we formalize with the Naval Air Warfare Center Training Systems Division in Orlando opens broad new frontiers for research and innovations that stand to bolster the missions of the Center and of UCF.鈥�

Among the benefits of the agreement: Employees from both institutions will be able to share laboratories and other facilities, scientists at both institutions should be able to expand their collaborative work, and the agreement opens the potential for more joint projects and other long-term benefits to both parties, said Randall Shumaker, director of . IST has worked with the armed forces for years to help develop training programs that train military personnel and also help keep them safe in conflict zones.

The benefits for the Navy include the ability to help prepare future scientists and engineers, get a non-military perspective on projects, and collaborate with other scientists specializing in simulation and training.

UCF students will also benefit from internships and the community will benefit as the two institutions explore ways to enhance research by jointly pursuing funding for projects of significance and impact. Other new initiatives are likely to follow as the partnership grows and matures over three years.

鈥淭he Naval Air Warfare Center has been in the Central Florida Research Park for over 25 years and our next-door neighbor, the 海角直播, has been a fantastic informal partner up to this point of time,鈥� Naylor said. 鈥淭oday we formalized an over-25-year collaboration between the Navy and the 海角直播 to help develop technologies that will train our聽sailors, Marines, soldiers and airmen in better ways so that they can go out and do the business of the nation, so that they can return safely home to their families.”

UCF has a similar partnership with the U.S. Army. Central Florida is unique because it is home to the procurement commands for the U.S. Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines and Coast Guard, commonly referred to as Team Orlando. More than $4 billion worth of contracts go through the commands here each year, according to the Orlando Economic Development Commission.

Team Orlando works together with the goal of improving human performance through simulation.

According to the group鈥檚 website 鈥淭eam Orlando is a unique collaborative alliance formed by U.S. leading military simulation commands, and supplemented, supported and augmented by academic and industry leaders in the modeling and simulation, human performance and training domains.鈥�

One simulator at UCF’s Institute for Simulation & Training can give off smells such as burning flesh or vomit. “We want to extinguish the disgust before they have to do it for real,” says Randall Shumaker, director of operations.

Hundreds of miles away, a teacher-in-training sits before another computer screen. From her end, she sees not the puppeteer, but rather only the misbehaving students. Her job: Keep them on task, as a professor at the prospective teacher’s school monitors the training.

This new virtual approach to preparing teachers for real-life classroom challenges 鈥� now being used at 10 teaching colleges 鈥� is just one experiment under way at the UCF institute.

The three-building complex located in UCF’s innovation/research park conducts experiments including military simulations, a visually accurate virtual walk-through of the 1964 World’s Fair, and a driver training simulator for long-haul truckers. One exercise tests how much distraction the driver of an 18-wheeler can handle 鈥� construction on the road, a ringing cell phone, music blaring through an iPod.

The projects are commissioned by universities, private companies, government departments and the military.

Using sophisticated software and real- life controls, humans are placed, virtually, into scenarios meant to gauge reactions, teach teamwork or train for specific results.

“Some of the simulation has multiple applications,” says Randall Shumaker, the institute’s director. Emergency personnel, for example, use driving simulators designed to train truckers.

Initially, the institute conducted most of its simulation for various branches of the U.S. Department of Defense 鈥� the Marines, Army and Coast Guard, which also have a presence in the research park and in the institute’s buildings. But in recent years, other uses for modeling and simulation have increased. Shumaker believes healthcare, education and medical simulation represent the most promising areas.

One carpeted room houses a tiny model city that resembles a town in Iraq, complete with mosques and a street bazaar. In a simulation where virtual or computer-generated elements are combined with real surroundings that are scaled down, truck drivers using remote control can collaborate with other vehicle operators and get the feel of navigating in an environment 鈥� with far fewer consequences.

Simulation experiments include a range of professionals, from psychologists to engineers, digital historians and anthropologists. Lori Walters, a historian, pulls out a blueprint mapping out what is becoming a precise, virtual re-creation of the 1964 New York World’s Fair. She describes how with a $1.4-million grant from the National Science Foundation, the institute is developing 3-D pavilions that resemble those at the real fair. The project is geared to 9 to 13 year olds who will be able to navigate the fair’s 648 acres and 140 pavilions with the click of a mouse. “We want them to take what they learn at one pavilion and apply it somewhere else at the fair,” Walters says. The project is scheduled to be finished next year.

“Even during the recession, the Department of Defense’s buying power has not wavered,” says retired Air Force Lt. Gen. Thomas L. Baptiste, president of the National Center for Simulation at the UCF institute.

Meanwhile, a few dozen feet away, a computer screen displays a virtual hospital room where nurses are able to interact with a computerized patient and get trained in pain management.

Programs developed in partnership with the U.S. Army are helping to train crisis managers, emergency medical technicians, fire rescue personnel and hospital medical staff. Trainees play a video game that simulates a combat area or trauma scene. Accompanying the game are life-like models of body parts that simulate a pulse, blood and underlying anatomy. An additional simulator can give off smells such as burning flesh or vomit. An obvious advantage of modeling is that the medical team can review what it did wrong and try again.

The National Center for Simulation 鈥� which shares space with the institute 鈥� helps to bridge the research between the public and private sectors. The trade group provides opportunities for about 162 member companies to network and tap into the $5 billion that the Department of Defense has budgeted for modeling and simulation products and services.

Retired Air Force Lt. Gen. Thomas L. Baptiste, the center’s president and executive director, calls simulation an important part of Florida’s economy. “Even during the recession, the Department of Defense’s buying power has not wavered,” he says.

Source: Florida Trend, , by Cindy Krischer Goodman – 6/1/2011

General Dynamics Robotic Systems will lead the eight-partner consortium鈥擴CF, Boston Dynamics, Carnegie-Mellon 海角直播, California Institute of Technology Jet Propulsion Lab, Florida A&M 海角直播, QinetiQ North America, and the 海角直播 of Pennsylvania are the other members.

The Army expects the Robotics Collaborative Technology Alliance (RCTA) to pursue foundational robotics technologies that will enable future human-robot teams to accomplish a wide range of missions, according to Dr. Jon Bornstein, chief of the Army Research Laboratory鈥檚 robotics autonomous systems division.

The goal is to relieve soldiers of some of the burdens of the battlefield. A robotic system that can adapt to and learn from a changing battlefield environment would do that, according to Bornstein.

Bornstein compared robotic systems to the way soldiers now work with K-9 units.

鈥淭hey鈥檙e part of the team, and we want these unmanned systems to be part of a team,鈥� he said. 鈥淭here must be an intuitive bond between the soldier and robot鈥攁 trust.鈥�

Dr. Florian Jentsch, head of the Team Performance Lab and joint-appointed in the Department of Psychology and at UCF鈥檚 Institute for Simulation & Training (IST), said “Participation in the Robotics CTA is a wonderful opportunity for the Team Performance Laboratory, for IST, UCF, and ultimately for the Central Florida region, to be involved in the robotics advanced research and development program for the U.S. armed forces.”

The Team Performance Laboratory under a previous multi-year alliance with the Army Research Lab studied command and control issues with human-robot teams. Explorations under this new alliance will include intelligence, learning and robot-human interaction. Some examples are how warfighters can form teams with robots that coordinate parts of the team鈥檚 tasks and how soldiers might interact with robotic partners that carry weapons and can identify potential targets.

At this stage of the research a significant hurdle to surmount, is the trust issue, according to IST director Dr. Randall Shumaker.

鈥淪cience fiction literature abounds with stories of human reliance on robot intelligence gone awry,鈥� said Shumaker. 鈥淎t the heart of this is a fear of betrayal 鈥� a lack of trust. Trust issues also exist between humans, but we have learned to minimize them. We are only just scratching the surface with artificial intelligence.鈥�

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