Australia celebrated as world technology leaders

A world leader in the field of simulation technology, Australia celebrated the innovators at the cutting edge of this industry at the Simulation Australia Awards June 2012.

Held at the SimTecT Asia Pacific conference in Adelaide, the awards recognise the outstanding individuals in three categories:

The Simulation Achievement Award recognises the outstanding contribution to simulation science and technology and simulation policy and standards.

The Ray Page Lifetime Simulation Achievement Award recognises an exceptional individual's contribution to this industry over time.

Finally, the Simulation Australia Project Innovation Award is the culmination of a prestigious national competition to find the most exceptional Australian simulation projects across a range of categories.

Amongst those nominated for this year's honours were:

Thales, for their innovative simulation solution for ASLAV (Australian Light Armoured Vehicle) crews, allowing the concurrent training of multiple troops in a networked environment.

This was the result of a rapid and collaborative development process and has improved the mission readiness of ASLAV troops at reduced training cost.

Australian Maritime College, who used simulation to test design options for new berths, channel extensions and navigation marks at the Port of Newcastle.

As a result of many hours of simulation, the new channel with associated navigational marks and new terminal berths have all been successfully designed in the prescribed time and within budget.

One of those nominated for a lifetime achievement award is Prof. John R. Sturgul, whose ground breaking work began in the 1980s with mine simulation models, long before anyone else had considered this type of simulation in Australia.

Other finalists include University of Canberra and Virtual Reality Technologies in the Project Innovation category, Tony Jakeman for the Ray Page Lifetime Simulation Achievement Award, and in the Simulation Achievement Award category, Dr. Peter Gibbens, Professor Saeid Nahavandi and Shawn Parr.