Game tech could lead to local jobs for students

They collaborated with professional scientists and engineers to take commercial, off-the-shelf products and re-imagine their potential in the fields of science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

Using Xbox Kinect sensors, for example, students did rapid 3D prototyping of their own image; in other words, they created scale models of themselves for use in simulated scenarios.

“It would take us 2-3 years to explore all the things (the students) are able to explore in one summer,” said Dr. Winston “Wink” Bennett Jr., technical advisor for the Warfighter Readiness Research Division.

These summer projects are not only time-savers, they have a real community impact, program organizers said. Using programs such as Google SketchUp, the students modeled interactive race tracks for Full Throttle Karting in Cincinnati, a high-speed go-cart facility that believes overall customer satisfaction will be improved if go-carters can use simulation exercises to increase their track times.

At the request of the U.S. Air Force School of Aerospace Medicine, students also created a simulator for the IVAC medical infusion device used by the Critical Care Air Transport Team. Bennett said 50 percent of the medicine school students who are tested on the IVAC fail. The simulation device, which will be handed over to the school by the end of the summer, will provide those students with more hands-on practice and, hopefully, change those numbers.

Emma Hoying, a senior at Centerville High School, who coded the IVAC simulation device along with Tippecanoe senior Matthew Wyant, says she had never programmed before her summer at GRILL. Now, both of the students plan to pursue careers in computer science.

Kim Puckett, a Tri-Village educator, said GRILL supports a larger Dayton-area initiative to implement STEM education in the “21st century classroom” — a statement with which Bennett agrees.

“Our primary focus is to extend game technology for Air Force readiness needs and, as a side benefit, that work motivates STEM community-based projects. It really is a win-win,” he said.