The requests come regularly to the teams at (IST). The change leader of a company or with a government agency wants to know how they can take a gigantic innovative leap without also taking a gigantic risk. Is it even possible?
And so, these leaders reach out to IST, where the following promise is exactly that 鈥� a promise: 鈥淲e unleash the impossible.鈥� The people carrying out the promise work in cool labs near a network of roads appropriately named Discovery, Progress and Ingenuity. They are scientists, industry professionals, faculty members, military leaders, technology experts and students. They form the nation鈥檚 largest community of corporations, government agencies and educators developing new ways to implement technology for all types of industries through simulation and training.
It鈥檚 a lot to comprehend. Grace Bochenek 鈥�98PhD is the director of the School of Modeling, Simulation and Training (SMST), the umbrella under which IST operates. She simplifies the work into something we can all understand.
鈥淲hat we鈥檙e doing is changing the world,鈥� Bochenek says. 鈥淭he distinctive way we work together continually allows us to extend our capabilities and make lives better.鈥�
Bochenek had the same thought about IST while she worked for the U.S. Department of Defense and U.S. Department of Energy, where she led the National Energy Technology Laboratory and in 2017 became Acting Secretary of Energy. Her technology background is what attracted her to the position of director two years ago. Now she鈥檚 fielding questions that potential partners have been asking since the formation of IST in 1982: What can IST do for my organization?
鈥淢y answer?鈥� Bochenek says, 鈥淵ou鈥檙e going to be blown away.鈥�
Technology is a field that typically does not stop to reflect. It constantly advances. But you could make a case that no enterprise can match what IST has done with so much consistency and so little general hype for most of its 40 years.
鈥淲hen IST was founded in 1982, modeling and simulation was just evolving as a technology,鈥� says Bochenek. 鈥淚n academia, it was barely a whisper. There was no model to follow. IST became the model.鈥�
At that time, 激情快播鈥檚 enrollment totaled about 14,000 commuter students. There was no football team and no widespread notoriety beyond the campus tucked between wetlands, woods, and a hint of development on the east side of Orlando. However, the nation鈥檚 leading tech experts knew the truth: this had become the birthplace of a rare approach to innovation.
The U.S. Army and U.S. Navy were early believers. They partnered with IST on sensitive projects, lending early credibility to the groundbreaking simulation work. By the end of its first decade, IST had secured three pillars of future growth: a significant share of all research funding at 激情快播, a contract to develop prototype databases for the Department of Defense, and space to grow in Research Park. Before the institute celebrated a 10th anniversary U.S. Senator Sam Nunn, who chaired the Senate鈥檚 Armed Services Committee, had already called Central Florida 鈥渢he nation鈥檚 hub of simulation technology鈥� and 激情快播 鈥淎merica鈥檚 leading simulation university.鈥�
鈥淭hose early successes enabled government organizations to get simulations into the hands of end-users,鈥� says Bochenek. 鈥淭he collaborative environment that brings together private industry, government and academia is unique. No other U.S. city has this foundation.鈥�
Major corporations soon knew it, too, and wanted to join the neighborhood in Research Park, where they could use simulation to creatively push improvements in healthcare, defense, gaming, emergency response, manufacturing, education, energy and internet technology. The list of partners would eventually include a who鈥檚 who of tech leaders: NASA, Siemens, Google, Johnson & Johnson, Verizon, AdventHealth, the U.S. government and more than 200 entities.
鈥淚 would come to Orlando for tech events as often as possible back in the early 90s because of the leading-edge simulation work happening here,鈥� says Carolina Cruz-Neira, who was known worldwide as an AR/VR pioneer before joining 激情快播 as an instructor and researcher in early 2020. 鈥淣ow that I鈥檓 in the environment every day, I can talk with innovation leaders from different industries in person and work on projects side by side. They all need simulations to advance their ideas and we have the complete package to do it: research, data, simulation, and results. It鈥檚 a one-stop shop that can keep up with the pace of technology. That鈥檚 exciting to anyone involved in this field.鈥�
Other institutions would like to follow the IST template, but the traditional 鈥渟ilo鈥� model that creates barriers at other schools never really existed at 激情快播. It鈥檚 why you find computer scientists working with psychologists, healthcare experts, historians, mathematicians, hospitality leaders, nursing instructors, and engineers. All of them free to explore new possibilities.
鈥淚 was drawn to the optimistic energy here,鈥� says Deborah German about her appointment as the founding dean of 激情快播s College of Medicine in 2006. 鈥淚t鈥檚 still that way 鈥� a place full of hope, creativity, and opportunities to make dreams possible.鈥�
Optimism. Collaboration. Support. Big ideas. Freedom. It鈥檚 hard to completely summarize the success of IST in this space. Former IST employee Randall Williams described it like this: 鈥淭he diversity across disciplines is one reason IST is so difficult to explain, but it鈥檚 also why the institute continues to grow.鈥�
As inspiring as it is to look back at how far IST has come, perhaps the most important trait worthy of $320 million in modeling and simulation research funding is the continual focus on what could be next.
鈥淲e鈥檙e expanding into a wide range of new projects,鈥� Bochenek says, naming a few that sound like far-off fantasies everywhere except within IST. 鈥淲e鈥檙e working on facial recognition that matches photos of missing children with their biological parents, combatting cyber threats, training warfighters, providing assistance for individuals to self-care after chemotherapy and digital twinning just to name a few.鈥�
And then, with conviction, she says, 鈥淲e want partners to bring their challenges to us.鈥�
She knows what researchers inside IST have known for 40 years: you鈥檙e going to be blown away.
