Montana-based Informatics signs deal with Air Force
A state-of-the-art computer simulation center in Butte is one step closer to fruition after a local business signed a contract with the Air Force.
Earlier this month, the Butte-based National Center for Health Care Informatics signed the agreement to produce the advanced computer-simulated training environments for Air Force combat rescue specialists. Informatics would design virtual worlds made to resemble real-world environments, run on the new Butte supercomputer, which could serve as simulated training scenarios for the pararescuemen. Retired Air Force Pararescue Sgt. Rod Alne is the operations superintendent with The Peak Inc., a local company that focuses on training for the military’s Special Forces. His company will work in conjunction with Informatics as the “subject-matter experts,” he said.
“We’re there to make sure everything they design is real world stuff.” Alne said the simulations are important to good training and make good economic sense for the military. “It’s a huge thing right now, especially in personnel recovery,” he said. “It’s a huge undertaking to design these training exercises.”
He said the virtual worlds could be as varied as rescuing a man out of a confined space –such as a blown-up building –to a jump at 10,000 feet.
“This thing will be able to change from a jungle to a desert in no time flat,” he said.
The actual training would be done in a large room where the 3-D world conjured up by the designers will appear.
“It’s basically virtual reality,” Alne said. “You walk into this big room and you are totally immersed into this environment.”
The initial efforts will focus on developing simulation training environments for the pararescuemen. But the simulation center will eventually expand to incorporate training scenarios for a variety of emergency and trauma care providers throughout the United States, with a special emphasis on rural health care.
Informatics is a certified “center of excellence” of Rocky Mountain Supercomputing Centers, which runs Big Sky, the Butte supercomputer. Alex Philp, chief operative officer for RMSC said, “having IBM Deep Computing as one of its technology partners enhances the capabilities” of the company, and makes highly technical projects such as this possible.
Reporter Tim Trainor
