Special Events

2025 Special Events

Accelerate & Innovate: Transforming Defense Partnerships

Join an invited panel of leaders from NSWCDD, ONR, and top industry innovators as they explore transformative approaches to driving innovation in DoD acquisition. This panel will highlight strategies for integrating cutting-edge ideas, forging agile partnerships with start-ups and research institutions, and accelerating mission success in today’s rapidly evolving defense landscape. Attendees will gain actionable insights and collaborative methods for pushing innovation beyond traditional contracting models.

Moderator: VADM Sean Buck, USN (Ret.), President, NTSA

Panelists:

  • Edwin Ahn, Ph.D., Research Engineer - Lead M&S Subject Matter Expert, NSWCDD
  • Jay Pitman, Vice President and General Manager; Training, Logistics and Simulation, Lockheed Martin Rotary and Mission Systems

Wargaming at the Crossroads: Balancing Traditional Methods and M&S Innovation in DoD

This panel examines the evolving tension within Department of Defense wargaming, where time-honored tabletop approaches clash with emerging modeling and simulation (M&S) technologies. Traditional wargaming—rooted in human decision-making, abstraction, and experiential learning—faces pressure to integrate computational tools promising scalability, multi-domain fidelity, and data-driven insights. Yet this fusion risks diluting the strategic intuition and adaptability that define manual methods. Experts representing both paradigms will debate critical questions:

  • Can M&S enhance traditional wargaming’s pedagogical value without undermining its “design for effect” philosophy?
  • How can hybrid approaches overcome limitations in representing multi-scale operations (e.g., cross-domain, cognitive warfare)?
  • What safeguards ensure technology complements—rather than replaces—human ingenuity in scenario design and analysis?

Moderator: Luke DeVore, Managing Partner, Voltron Group

Panelists:

  • Sebastian Bae, Senior Game Designer, Center for Naval Analyses (CNA)
  • Chad Bates, Ph.D., Wargaming Solution Architect, BAE Systems, Inc.
  • Stephen Nelson, U.S. Army Futures and Concepts Center
  • Capt Nathan Tidwell, USMC, Wargaming Operations Officer, Brute Krulak Center of Innovation & Future Warfare, Marine Corps University (MCU)

Teaching A New Dog Old Tricks – Partnering with AI for Creating Training

This roundtable explores how GenAI and LLMs can be a partner in elevating how we in the training simulation community provide tools that ensure operational readiness. The Roundtable will include experts speaking distinctive approaches to leveraging AI for readiness, covering topics like:

  • GenAI as Your Co-Creator — How GenAI can collaborate with training developers to design simulations faster and smarter
  • Simulation: Impossible — Using GenAI to generate synthetic data for rare or high-risk training scenarios
  • Getting Ready for Readiness — Leveraging predictive analytics to anticipate training needs, forecast learner performance, and proactively address skill gaps

Moderator: Benjamin Bell, Ph.D., VP Advanced Capabilities, Potawatomi Business Development Corporation, Federal Group

Panelists:

  • Jamieson Gump, Ph.D., Senior Technical Advisor for Modeling, Simulation and Analysis (EPA), Department of the Air Force (CMSO, AFRL & PEO C3BM)
  • James Pharmer, Ph.D., Chief Scientist, Naval Air Warfare Center Training Systems Division

One-Minute Spotlight

In this dynamic session, presenters distill their professional essence into a single slide and 60 seconds. Presenters will introduce themselves, outline their services or capabilities, and share their conference goals. Whether you’re a researcher, entrepreneur, or industry professional, this rapid-fire spotlight ensures maximum impact in minimal time.

Host: Luke DeVore, Managing Partner, Voltron Group

The Simulation Century – The Intelligence Community in the Simulation Century

This is our fourteenth annual session to address the growing issue of managing the human/ machine interface as we hurtle towards the Singularity and the Metaverse. We will continue our discussion of how to achieve fluency with smarter balance between humans and machines to optimize outcomes. The Simulation Century Panel presentations this year will focus on the challenges and opportunities of implementing AI and simulation in the intelligence community.

Moderator: Richard Boyd, CEO, Ultisim, Inc., Slouching Towards AGI

Panelists:

  • Robin Lobb, Vice President, Membership, International Association for Intelligence Education (IAFIE), International Intelligence Cooperation, Recruiting and Training
  • Adam Leslie, Executive Director, ASPI USA; President, Real Spy Comics, Real Spy Stories in Simulations

Future Visions in Medical Simulation

As healthcare and military medicine evolve, so must the training tools for future medical professionals. This session convenes a panel of experts from research, technology, military operations, and government to discuss the transformation of medical simulation, from traditional mannequins to immersive, AI-enhanced environments. Topics include the integration of virtual, augmented, and mixed reality in training, the use of haptics for procedural accuracy, and the role of human factors in system design. The panel will also explore challenges in scaling simulation across diverse settings, share insights from real-world deployments, and highlight the importance of interdisciplinary collaboration. Attendees will gain a strategic outlook on how emerging technologies, policy changes, and evolving threats are shaping the future of medical readiness and education.

Moderator: Frank Karluk, Account Executive, DLH Corporation

Panelists:

  • JoAnn Archer, Deputy Director, Design Interactive, Inc.
  • Cheryl Lockhart, Senior Military Advisor, SimX VR
  • Madison Quinn, Research Lead, Engineering & Computer Solutions
  • CMSgt Adam Reading, USAF (Ret.), Director of Simulation Sales, North American Rescue

Peering Over The Horizon – How Immersive, Spatial and AI Technologies Are on the Brink of Reshaping Industrial Production

From drug development through agriculture and ship building, immersive, spatial and AI technologies are helping accelerate new discoveries and fundamentally changing the way companies are building, deploying, and marketing their products. This panel will explore how these technologies are used today, and the strategies teams are using to overcome the technological and institutional challenges that threaten adoption. The impact of technologies such as the next generation of wearable AR glasses, neurosymbolic AI and the use of digital twins will be discussed. Attendees will leave with a clear understanding of how these technologies are changing development at Fortune 50 companies and how these lessons can be leveraged at their own organizations.

Moderator: Claire Hughes, Portfolio Manager, Design Interactive, LLC

Panelists:

  • Chris Binion, Director of Digital Innovation, Thermo Fisher Scientific
  • Sean Danowski, CEO, MergePlot
  • Joseph Marr, Ph.D., Lead Data Scientist, Newport News Shipbuilding
  • Chris Mulberry, Senior Solutions Architect, Industry Solutions, Unity Technologies

STEM Event

The MODSIM STEM event provides a unique opportunity to contribute directly to the school experience of youth who are beginning to formulate their dreams for the future. During the MODSIM STEM event, local high school students will get the opportunity to see firsthand the world of M&S. Students will rotate through hands-on M&S demonstrations provided in the exhibit hall to see STEM in action.

 

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