Med students train using patient simulations

An army professional sits in a small room at a desk in front of a computer, operating an unmanned vehicle and performing a task: locate a group of people and then find a mosque. As he drives down the unpaved road of a Middle Eastern town, he passes outdoor markets, palm trees and several burnt-out buildings.

It has the look and feel of a real town, but nothing about it is actually real. The car he's operating is the size of a toy car. The town he's driving through is a miniature replica of one that might be found in Iraq. Both the toy car and miniature town are sitting in a small room across the hallway from him.

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It takes minutes, if not seconds, to step from one interactive world into the next at the Institute for Simulation and Training, without ever having to leave Research Parkway.

"We want to make people feel like they're immersed," Randall Shumaker, IST director, said.

In order to collaborate the details that go into creating the most realistic simulation, IST has become affiliated with 14 different units on campus, making it the largest and most diverse in the country.

IST has also offered internship and career opportunities to a long list of UCF students and alumni.

Joshua Selzer, a UCF senior digital media major, is one of 50 undergraduates currently employed at IST. His internship includes a current project centered on flash development.

"It's an internship right now, but it'll turn into a career once I graduate," Selzer said.

A career or internship with IST will typically involve conducting research by working with a variety of UCF students who test their simulations, and then evaluating these results.

"We rely on this human interaction with our products for the most accurate results," Shumaker said.

In the past, IST has distributed fliers at the Student Union, looking for students who are tired, frustrated and wanting to shoot a gun — a simulation gun, of course.

If interested, students are then invited to participate for a few hours of playing video games or operating unmanned vehicles. Afterward, there may be a follow-up quiz to test what they've learned and students will then be compensated for their time with either a gift card or cash.

"I think people can have a lot of fun with this," Shumaker said. "They might discover they can do things they never thought was possible."

One project that students may have the opportunity to test at IST is a simulation that time-lines the transformation of the Florida Everglades, titled Water's Journey Through the Everglades. Once the project is finished, it will be showcased at the Museum of Discovery and Science in Ft. Lauderdale in the fall.

With the use of an interactive touch screen, museum guests will be able to explore the creation, destruction and restoration of the Florida Everglades over a span of millions of years.

"We're hoping teachers will be able to use this as an educational tool and utilize this into their school curriculum," Eileen Smith, IST research associate and director of E21 Creative Studio, said.

Another current project of IST involves a collection of prototype body parts. In the Interactive Realities Lab, these arms and legs are commonly being used in training to efficiently respond on the battlefield. These severed arms and legs have a velvety smooth touch resembling skin, a beating pulse, and can even emit burning-flesh smells.

"These are the same kinds of things you'll see in car accidents, explosions, or fires," Shumaker said. "The idea is to help medics become desensitized to this."

The College of Medicine also uses IST to train its students. Its current project involves virtual patients and the use of 34 unique health cases. Students have the ability to diagnose their patient by asking standard questions and gathering medical history.

Shumaker says it's very similar to what they can expect in their future careers. The virtual characters even age during the duration of a students 4-year training.

"It's a different perspective when you see the patient's progression over time," Mike Eakins, an IST 3D animation associate, said.

IST's work as a whole offers an entirely different perspective. Simulation may not necessarily be real, but it is changing the way people learn in a very real way.