May 17, 2011 - The Texas Center for Applied Technology (TCAT), a center in the Texas Engineering Experiment Station, was recognized by the U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command (TRADOC) deputy chief of staff for intelligence (G-2) for its role as the system integrator for a federated training system designed to counter improvised explosive device (IED) networks.
Ben Jordan, director of the TRADOC G-2 Operational Environment Laboratory, presented the award April 19 to Joe R. Gonzalez, who led the system integration effort with Blake Stoker and Christopher Kocmoud.
The Hybrid Irregular Warfare (IW) Improvised Explosive Device (IED) Network-defeat Toolkit, known as HI2NT, federation is in the completion stages of Spiral 2 development and is on track to begin its next development spiral later this year.
The HI2NT is designed to train army service members to develop specific counter IED network tactics, techniques, and procedures at the tactical level; to interact in diverse cultural settings, including Afghanistan and Iraq; to understand the consequences of various force activities upon the population; and to hone negotiating skills required to earn the trust of the local population.
TCAT as the system integrator led the development this past year and achieved federation level interactions last October which enabled the use of the system as a hybrid federation of models. This version of HI2NT was demonstrated at the December 2010 Interservice/Industry Training, Simulation and Education Conference (I/ITSEC) held in Orlando, Fla., and has been subsequently demonstrated to government and military decision makers as a first of its kind training system.
The HI2NT federation is composed of four key models that are linked together into a hybrid model framework:
- The One Semi-Automated Force (OneSAF) simulation developed by the U.S. Army provides a constructive entity-based kinetic ground model enabling unit movements, activities, and kinetic events.
- The First Person Cultural Trainer (FPCT) developed by the University of Texas at Dallas provides a first person virtual environment in which culture specific interactions can take place.
- The Joint Non-kinetic Effects Model (JNEM) developed by the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) monitors and adjudicates all activities and the resulting changes to civilian group satisfaction, mood, and cooperation and can initiate situational, environmental, and other actions that affect the mood of the population.
- The Process-Oriented Data Visualization (ProDV) visual analytics toolkit developed by TCAT monitors and visualizes JNEM calculated satisfaction, mood and cooperation effects.