John Baird, Member of Parliament for Ottawa West-Nepean and Foreign Affairs Minister, announced Friday that the Government of Canada is investing in flight simulation technologies to support the effective training and preparation of Canadian Forces personnel. Much of the work is taking place at Carleton University.
The Government has awarded a contract for simulation technical investigation and engineering services (SIM TIES) to CAE Inc.’s Professional Services division in Ottawa. The contract covers support for experiments, mission rehearsals, demonstrations, exercises, as well as operational and maintenance training. This contract supports up to 25 skilled jobs in Ottawa.
Carleton’s cutting-edge facilities are home to much of the research and development that the federal government contract supports.
“Carleton is fortunate to bring together our government and industry partners to share in developing expertise in this virtual simulation technology,” said Dr. Chris Herdman, director of Carleton’s Visualization and Simulation Centre.
“It is a priceless opportunity for our students because they are involved in the next generation of training technologies and they’re well-prepared to go on to brilliant careers in the field of virtual simulation.”
The technology has applications for teaching and research in various fields, including psychology, cognitive sciences and engineering.
“This is about savings lives. This is about saving money,” said Carleton President Roseann O’Reilly Runte. “It makes sense to locate such programs at universities, because that is where interdisciplinary training occurs. It is where we have incredible engineers and where we have students that understand psychology, the environment, chemistry, biology, that are required to create really great models.”
This is the third such contract to be awarded for SIM TIES. The initial three-year contract carries a value of $22.6 million, and includes two one-year extension options worth $8.47 million each. Exercising both extension options would result in the ultimate ceiling value of $39.55 million over five years.
In addition to mission training, SIM TIES may support existing simulation infrastructure, the generation of learning content, and assessment of simulation practices’ effectiveness.
The Canadian Forces’ Canadian Advanced Synthetic Environment (CASE) project, a key part of the Canadian Forces’ efforts to modernize its training methods, will be a majority user of the contracted services, as it develops a nationwide network of simulation-based synthetic environments for mission rehearsal, tactics training, and force development.
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For more information:
Christopher Cline
Media Relations Co-ordinator
Carleton University
613-520-2600, ext. 1391
christopher_cline@carleton.ca