Conference Program

SimTecT 2008 was held from Monday 12 – Thursday 15 May, 2008, at the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre.

Detailed Program

Download the Conference Program V2.5 as of 10 May 2008.

Program at a Glance

Special Presentations

Government Secondments to Industry - Removing the Fog of "War" - Tuesday 1430-1530

Dr. Simon M. Harwood, UK MoD
Director Studies & Analysis
Analysis, Modelling, Simulation & Experimentation, The Boeing Company

Under the Professional Skills for Government initiative the Permanent Under Secretary of State for the UK Ministry of Defence has identified secondments as one of his highest priorities in terms of staff developing broader experience. The Interchange programme is the exchange of staff, their ideas and skills, between the Civil Service and other sectors of the economy. It aims to provide staff with the opportunity to experience, first hand, a different working environment with a different culture and to learn how challenges are met in a non-government organisation.

For some time successive UK Governments have recognised the importance of Interchange, which includes secondment as one type of interchange, as a means for staff to develop and acquire the skills and knowledge that will best equip them for appointments in the Senior Civil Service. Increasingly, interchange, is an important plank in the Civil Service Reform agenda and is reflected in the MOD's civilian personnel strategy action plan. The MOD is committed to developing staff at all levels to achieve their full potential.

For both the individual, parent and outside organisations interchange is a cost-effective way to gain experience and information. It has developed flexibility as staff are more outward looking and gain a broader base of skills and can acquire new competence's, it helps spread best practice and different and valuable perspectives can be learnt and used to address issues and problems faced by both organisations. It enables Civil Servants to observe and learn how their policy making impacts on other organisations. People in outside organisations learn more about how to manage relations with the Department and identify contacts that could be useful sources of advice in the future.

Dr Simon Harwood was posted in late 2006 to the Boeing companies Analysis, Modelling, Simulation and Experimentation wing under the UK MoD secondment scheme. Boeing is a large multinational company (the world's largest aerospace company and second largest defence contractor) embedded as one of the MoD and DoD's prime contractors. Dr Harwood has for the past ten years worked in the area of Command and Control and has been fundamental in the development of the UK MoD's Network Enabled Capability. The secondment, under the terms of the negotiated International Trade and Arms Regulations, has allowed the secondee to feed information acquired back to the MoD, to the benefit of MoD, in derisking and furthering MoD programmes.

This presentation will aim to pass the experiences of Dr Harwood, the benefits of secondment and areas of opportunity [related to Analysis, modelling, simulation and experimentation] for Industry and governments to work closer together.

NATO Virtual Ships Standards - Tuesday 1630-1700

Dr John Duncan
DE&S, UK MOD, Sea Systems Directorate

The ship acquisition communities of NATO and partner nations require a standard agreement 'STANAG' to facilitate wider and more cost effective use of simulation technology. The main aim of the STANAG is to promote the development and use of modular simulation functions and to employ standardised interfaces. It is envisaged that such standardisation will facilitate the widest possible reuse, enhancement and interoperability of those functions. A companion document will be the 'STANAG User Guide' which is to be published as a NATO Allied Naval Engineering Publication (ANEP).

The task to produce this STANAG has been given to the NATO committee for 'Virtual Ships' called Sub-group 61. The STANAG is based upon the High Level Architecture (HLA) standard and a standardised data exchange format known as the Virtual Ship Federation Object Model (FOM). Specific extensions to the FOM for ships are being included and will define constructs for highly coupled systems such as hydrodynamic forces, aerodynamic forces, and propulsion. Module information will be maintained in a central NATO repository and made available to NATO and partner acquisition communities.

Unlike much previous work using HLA, the Virtual Ships STANAG is oriented toward federations being developed for engineering applications in support of ship acquisition and maintenance. Consequently, fidelity is generally of higher priority and computational speed is generally of lower priority than for many other applications, such as those in the areas of training and operations research. Modelling of interaction forces between objects is of significant interest.

Member nations' experiences with development of HLA federations are providing valuable input to the Virtual Ships STANAG. Example federations which have been developed include landing of aircraft on ships moving in waves, replenishment at sea, and launch and recovery of smaller ocean vessels from a mother ship.

It is envisaged that the STANAG and associated FOM and repository will need to evolve over several years. Technology insertion and a high degree of confidence in the whole process will have to be demonstrated before participating nations could formally agree that the STANAG shall be used to govern the investment in and development of the majority of their simulations for the ship acquisition community.

This presentation provides a progress report on the work of Sub-group 61, highlights some of the key issues being addressed and the plans for the future.

The Aviation Combined Arms Training System - Wednesday 0930-1000

Major Terry Martin

Multi National Naval Synthetic Training - a Team Approach - Wednesday 1130-1200

CMDR Ralph Macdonald, RAN MWTSO, HMAS WATSON
Frank McCulloch, USN

To date there have been eight successful Joint National Training Capability sponsored Fleet Synthetic Training events conducted between the RAN/Australian Army and US forces. The most recent event involved nine separate nations' Maritime forces. Discussion will include the costs of training and the return on investment.

The presentation will include:

1. How our Navies are successfully using M&S to enhance training, decrease costs and further the vision of future training using networked simulation.
2. How the JNTC/JCTC vision is being leveraged by Navy to increase Joint and Coalition training to include an overview of events conducted to date.
3. Technical solutions that are being employed today and in the future.

This presentation highlights the Defence focus on areas of simulation to support Force employment, C2, Network-Centric Warfare, and simulation to support acquisition.

Outline:

• The Naval imperative to move to distributed synthetic training.
• The evolution of US/Australian synthetic training.
• Current technical solutions.
• The future of simulation based training.

Mining: Peabody's Use of Simulation in Australia and the US - Thursday 0830-0900

Mr Ian Craig
Chairman, Mining Industry Skill Centre
Former Managing Director Australian Operations of Peabody Energy Australia Coal

Ian Craig has recently retired from the position of Group Vice President and Managing Director Australian Operations of Peabody Energy Australia Coal. In that position he has since 2004 been responsible for management and operations at Peabody Group’s coal mines in the Bowen Basin and Surat Basin in Queensland and Hunter Valley, Western Coalfields and Illawarra in New South Wales, including the former Excel Coal mine portfolio, which was acquired by the Peabody Group in October, 2006. Ian was deeply involved in that acquisition and subsequently responsible for integrating the Excel operations into the Peabody Group, building the management team and implementing new capital works at the Excel mines.

Peabody Energy Corp is the world's largest private sector coal company. With products that fuel more than 10 per cent of America's electricity supply and three per cent of global demand, the company is well positioned to meet growth from electricity generators and steelmakers worldwide. In 2006, Peabody Energy sold a record 225 million tonnes (248 million tons) of coal, generating revenues totalling US$5.3 billion. Peabody offers a broad portfolio of coal supplies. It manages or holds majority interests in more than 30 mines in the U.S., Australia and Venezuela, and has access to brokered coal secured by Peabody COALTRADE.

Wargame Cafe

Drop into a special part of the Exhibition area where PC "Games" are used for serious purposes.

It is hosted by the Army, and organised by Robert Carpenter.

Site Visits

This year the SimTecT 2008 Organising Committee has arranged a number of interesting site visits:

• QANTAS Training Facility
• Deakin Motion.Lab / Transmission Games

Delegates will be transported from the Convention Centre to and from each venue, and then to the airport. For site visits near the airport (QANTAS), the buses will go to the airport first, before returning to the Convention Centre.

All site visits are subject to a minimum number of ten (10) persons.

1. QANTAS Training Facility - FULL

Maximum Numbers: twenty (20) persons

[Closing Date for Registration: 25th April 2008]*

Observation of Full Flight Simulators — B737-300, B737-400, B737-800. Access to some or all simulators during the tour subject to training usage and security arrangements. Observation of Emergency Procedures Training Equipment (B737-800 Cabin Evacuation Trainer), various Aircraft Door Trainers, Pool, Rafts and Slides.

A small scenario may be able to be run in the Cabin Evacuation Trainer, subject to training usage and security arrangements.

Proposed Visit Schedule

*Delegates’ details will be passed onto QANTAS for a security check.

No delegate who has not been through the QANTAS for a security check can be allowed on-site.

2. Deakin Motion.Lab / Transmission Games

The Deakin Motion.Lab is the largest and most sophisticated motion capture studio in Australia. Established in 2006 at Deakin University, in partnership with Multimedia Victoria and Melbourne animation company Act3animation, the Deakin Motion.Lab undertakes teaching and research in motion capture as well as commercial animation for the computer game and video industries.

The studio is fitted with a 24 camera Motion Analysis optical motion capture system, the same technology used by Weta Digital for feature films Lord of the Rings and King Kong. The system provides precise tracking of 40+ markers on an actor's body. The data can be used to measure movement quality and coordination in ergonomic and biomechanics research, to create realistic visualizations for the study of task-oriented movement in a variety of industrial contexts, or to create highly realistic animated characters.

The Deakin Motion.Lab provides training in motion capture, research in motion capture related areas, and commercial animation services.

Transmission Games

At Transmission Games, Production Managers will describe the issues involved with developing and marketing games such as: “Heroes of the Pacific” and “Ricky Ponting: Pressure Play”.

Social Functions

Included in your SimTecT conference full registration fee is the Welcome Reception and the Conference Dinner.

Golf Challenge

This year's Golf Challenge will be held at the Eastern Golf Club, on Monday.

Welcome Reception

Social Evening

Conference Dinner

Pre-dinner drinks will commence at 7.00pm and dinner from 7.30pm

©2008 Simulation Industry Association of Australia
Updated: 10 June 2008