16,000 Visitors Expected from 60 Countries
Over 380 exhibitors from industry, government and academia will gather in Orlando, FL, from 26-29 November for the Interservice/Industry Training, Simulation and Education Conference (I/ITSEC), hosted and presented by the National Training & Simulation Association (NTSA). This year, over 16,000 visitors are expected to attend, from over 60 nations, making this the world’s largest training and simulation conference and exhibition.
The digital nature of the continually evolving modelling and simulation community is highlighted by the theme under which the event will focus attention on military preparedness and national security readiness: “Launching Innovation in Learning – Ready, Set, Disrupt,” is a powerful evocation of what the community faces in terms of challenges for the immediate future. Visitors can expect to see a significant focus on the issues of artificial intelligence and machine learning, and a far greater emphasis on software-driven solutions than in previous years, perhaps.
Disruptive technologies and their efficient, cost-effective exploitation will certainly be one of the underlying themes fuelling discussion and debate at I/ITSEC 2018. Perhaps even more importantly, however, will be the continuance of what the conference has done for several years – to examine and analyse the way in which big data analytics can be properly exploited. In this respect it will be interesting to determine how many new innovations there may be in the gathering, analysis and distribution/exploitation of training systems data – an area in which the Mönch Training & Simulation Channel (MTSC) is taking particular note right now.
Dynamic and rapid development in robotics, the inexorable advance of nanotechnologies and neurosciences and the manner in which human feedback can be provided and incorporated into non-biological intelligence are all factors that will make I/TSEC 2018 even more fascinating and absorbing that usual. And MTSC will be there to report directly from the show floor, to gather data and a wide range of viewpoints for future publication and to continue to support the defence and security modelling, simulation and training community.
