About

The SISO SmackDown event is collaborative learning: “distributed,” multi-team simultaneous work across multiple time-zones. Participating teams design, model, program, test, and operate a simulated spacecraft (or other mission device such as a rover or satellite) on a simulated mission from the Earth to a virtual moon base. Teams consider the laws of physics, gravity, trajectory data, fuel, payload size, and landing site characteristics. NASA provides technical support as do industry members. Faculty can use the experience for theoretical input. The NASA technical team provides the lunar environment, performs the celestial mechanics but the activity is close to the work professionals do. Students not only become aware of M&S standards but learn to use the, and ready to work with other standards necessary in their wok. The simulation is complex and requires a number of components, diverse systems, and organizations (distributed across the globe) to work collaboratively. Each team access to a common and seamless platform from which to work regardless of location, as well as NASA simulation Federates, the HLA (High Level Architecture) toolbox for Matlab, SISO (Simulation Interoperability Standards Organization) provided standards, and industry supplied software. Teams work on line testing the simulation and participate in the SISO SmackDown event either remotely or in person. SISO registers teams for the workshop at no cost.

SISO SmackDown anticipates participants who know JAVA or C+. Because students may not have access or be sufficiently skilled in these programs, the SISO SmackDown experiences explore other routes to job readiness in M&S. Working with the American Indian Higher Education Consortium, this includes a class in M&S at a tribal college, assessment of free online courses, independent study and special projects all designed to break –down barriers to employability. Current efforts explore game technology platforms for SISO SmackDown with potential for demonstration in booth 3070 SISO SmackDown @ I/ITSEC, at the I/ITSEC Interservice Industry Training and Simulation Education Conference 2012.

Both event and experiences offer support to faculty and students for doing real work in this fast-growing and recession-proof segment of the economy. In the process, students become “job-ready” and more employable than the average college graduate. SISO SmackDown forges a much-needed relationship between stakeholders in academia, the marketplace, and government.

SISO SmackDown seeks to strengthen the M&S community across industry, government, and academia. M&S is an increasingly valuable tool in science and engineering, with applications that span virtually all industries and services. It gives us the ability to imitate and explore the facets of complex real-world experiences without incurring the risk, expense, and time associated with building, testing, and training in the real world. To date, educational programs that provide a strong background in M&S are rare—especially ones designed to help students be more employable. As more of us realize the benefits of M&S, the need to educate, train, and certify M&S practitioners, researchers, and teachers will become apparent.

Efforts to meet this challenge can take a number of forms such as academic degree programs, non-degree professional education, professional certifications, and educational outreach. However, these programs are mostly in the engineering, computer science, and medical degree tracks.

Numerous stakeholders have identified the need for competent and seasoned M&S professionals. We are aware of the persistent gap in workforce development. SISO Smackdown as event and experiences aim to remove these obstacles and facilitate the creation of a robust culture of M&S professionals.

SISO SmackDown’s potential as a satisfying, scalable, and ambitious yet “doable” undertaking sparked enthusiastic support from the M&S community. From the first event, academics, industry and government professionals saw its potential. During the first year, it sparked a reprise in Rome following the initial event in Boston, an invited panel at WinterSim and a demonstration at I/ITSEC. Teams participated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, University of Alabama at Huntsville, Pennsylvania and North Carolina State Colleges ( the latter two representatives were interns at JSC) joined by students from the University of Bordeaux (France) and Genoa University (Italy). Keio University in Tokyo participated in planning but had to withdraw after the disasters in Japan. Teams from Pisa University and La Sapinza in Rome joined, MIT, UAH, and Pennsylvania State in 2012 in Orlando. Participating in other SISO SmackDown experiences in 2012 were Technion Institute for Technology in Israel and IAIA in Santa Fe, as well as other tribal colleges in Washington State, Montana and New Mexico. Rising interest in M&S for cyber security and SISO SmackDown brought additional mentoring and advice from the Global Institute for Cyber Security Research (GICSR) as well as government cyber security professionals.

These university teams were supported by a wide range of organizations, including: NASA, SISO, AEgis Technologies, ForwardSim, MÄK, MBDA, and Pitch Technologies. These groups have formed the backbone of SISO SmackDown and continue their vital support today. Additional support was provided by university faculty advisors and other members of the international M&S community.

SISO SmackDown participants—faculty and students—consult with technical and program teams at SISO, NASA’s Kennedy Space Center (KSC), Johnson Space Center (JSC), a Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) and also with AEgis Technologies Group in Huntsville Alabama as well as advisors from Pitch, MÄK and ForwardSim. They, in turn, worked with the SISO SmackDown Executive, Outreach and Operations, Planning, and Technical Committees, who provided organizational and technical guidance, recruited participants, gained valuable publicity, and handled issues as they arose. Once a team is formed, it has access to the SISO SmackDown WIKI maintained at MIT and the SharePoint repository through Aegis Technologies Group. In 2012, the SISO SmackDown initiated a social media community, SISO SmackDown FaceBook to encourage interactivity among the teams.

For the 2013 SISO SmackDown, faculty and students have access to SISO’s standards for High Level Architecture Evolved (HLA-evolved). NASA provides the “federates” or virtual components of the simulation, including the orbit shuttle and transport rover, as well as technical and mentoring support. MÄK and Pitch Technologies provide the HLA software, while ForwardSIM supplies the Matlab programming tools and training, 3D viewer, and Simulink platform, which reduced the programming learning curve and created a more engaging and memorable experience. Other industry and government mentors advise students on technical issues, enabling them to build and populate the 3D simulated environment with greater ease. In 2013, we anticipate both a successful annual event in San Diego but an increasing number of experiences that break-down barriers to employment and bring success to a new generation of M&S professionals—gainfully and happily employed.

For SISO SmackDown 2013, event organizers welcome interest from universities in the US, Europe, Near East, South America, New Zealand, and Japan. Additional support comes from the NASA KSC Center for Life Cycle Design’s (CfLCD) summer intern team, Creative Humanics Laboratory (CHL). CHL, comprised of students from the Institute of American Indian Arts (IAIA) and other tribal colleges who created and updated this website as a “SISO SmackDown Starter Kit” to enable each team to participate more efficiently and with a higher level of collaboration. Other CHL members, including from Southwestern Polytechnic Institute, Northwest Indian College support investigation of game engine technology and technical infrastructure.

This team augments SISO SmackDown’s planning with strengths in graphic design, film, web design, creative direction, 3D modeling, user interface design, storyboarding, animation, sound design, script writing, and print media as well as engineering, network, information technology systems analysis, and troubleshooting skills.

The combination of these many groups and skill-sets demonstrates the feasibility and effectiveness of a trans-disciplinary approach to problem-solving.