A quarterly research and development magazine
Technical contact
Elaine Raybourn
(505) 844-7975
emraybo@sandia.gov
Media contact
Chris Burroughs
(505) 844-0948
coburro@sandia.gov
Some 20,000 soldiers a year may soon be trained in interpersonal skill building and cross-cultural awareness using a new video game created for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA).
Developed by researchers from Sandia and BBN Technologies, the adaptive-thinking game and training methodology prepares warfighters for difficult situations in places such as Afghanistan and Iraq.
“We are talking about interpersonal communication, negotiation skills, and interpersonal rapport,” says project lead Elaine Raybourn. “The goal is to make soldiers better thinkers and communicators under stress.”
The tool is conceptually similar to a multiplayer game Raybourn developed several years ago, now used at Ft. Bragg, N.C., to train members of the U.S. Army Special Forces.
The new game developed for DARPA will allow as many as 64 people to play on networked computers simultaneously. Instructors can create custom scenarios or jump in to change the game’s direction at any time.
When DARPA came to Sandia it already had a training game in the works designed by BBN Technologies. It focused on physical challenges, such as encounters with improvised explosive devices and convoy ambushes.
“DARPA also wanted a nonkinetic adaptive thinking piece for the soldiers, to learn how to negotiate with tribal leaders, for example,” Raybourn says. “When things go wrong, troops have to learn to shift how they think in environments that are potentially dangerous.”
The modules are comprised of a sociocultural overlay for a geographical area that is linked to key events and roles of host nation civilians.
Experts who helped design the game included an instructor from the Fort Lewis Battle Command Training Center (Fort Lewis, Wash.), as well as two former Sandia employees with military backgrounds.
DARPA plans to distribute the product to the Army and eventually the other armed forces. It also will be made available free to the U.S. military services and federal law enforcement agencies through DARPA’s website.