The US Army awarded Charles River Analytics a $1.7M Phase II Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) contract to create an intelligent system for training Signal Soldiers on communications and information systems. Following a successful Phase I feasibility study, the Charles River team is now developing a system to help enhance the Army’s training content for the Radio Signaleer Course with interactive experiences and real-time feedback.
The Radio Signaleer Course teaches Signal Corps Soldiers skills such as how to design and encrypt communications networks and configure radios, which are vital to the Army’s ability to provide Soldiers and Commanders with secure communication options. For Soldiers to fully grasp the course material, the Army needs a solution to observe trainees’ progress and provide immediate feedback that addresses skill gaps and keeps trainees engaged with the material.
Together with partners CAE USA and PatchPlus Consulting, Charles River is building Simulated ISR Gaming in a Motivational Adaptive Training Environment (SIGMATE), a KWYN™ product. KWYN SIGMATE operates on the Army’s existing training software, so instead of modifying the product’s code, it uses artifacts that the software already produces to track what the user is doing. Then a training overlay pops up and guides trainees as they complete the exercises and learn the material.
“By adding automatic scoring to the course, we can significantly reduce the time it takes to run a class through these exercises, and we make it possible to do it remotely,” says Leonard Eusebi, Senior Interactive Experience Designer and Principal Investigator on the KWYN SIGMATE effort.
KWYN SIGMATE expands the possibilities for how and where to train, which saves time and helps with force readiness by ensuring that Signal Soldiers can stay current on any updates as technology and threats evolve.
The Charles River team, led by the Adaptive Behavior and Cyber Simulation Group, is building the following key components into KWYN SIGMATE to engage Signal Soldiers more fully with hands-on exercises and real-time feedback to assist in classroom management for instructors:
- A communications element
- Training overlay
- Intelligent tutoring system
- Data harness
- Classroom management tool
- Tutor authoring suite
While this effort is focused on the Radio Signaleer Course, many of the components are reusable and can be repurposed for training content for a host of different existing tools with similar needs. As part of the KWYN platform, these components can also integrate with other software to make additional training systems more intelligent and interactive, all while reducing the development time of future training across a variety of modalities, including virtual and augmented reality (VR and AR, respectively).
Contact us to learn more about KWYN SIGMATE and our other adaptive intelligent training capabilities.
This material is based upon work under contract W51701-23-C-0046 with ASA(ALT). Any opinions, findings and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the ASA(ALT).
