Next-Generation of Maintenance Skills Training System Navy SBIR FY2014.2 Sol No.: Navy SBIR FY2014.2 Topic No.: N142-124 Topic Title: Next-Generation of Maintenance Skills Training System Proposal No.: N142-124-0134 Firm: Soar Technology, Inc. 3600 Green Court Suite 600 Ann Arbor, Michigan 48105-2588 Contact: Robert Wray Phone: (919) 967-5079 Web Site: www.soartech.com Abstract: Today's Navy electronics maintenance training largely focuses on proceduralization of diagnosis and repair, rather than deep systems knowledge. This training is effective at producing durable skills for common systems, but brittle, especially for dealing with unique characteristics and properties of actual shipboard systems. With continuing modernization of equipment and growing unavailability of skilled maintainers, the Navy's challenge is to both deepen the knowledge and skills of apprentice technicians and accelerate troubleshooting training. Soar Technology and its team proposes that key to meeting this challenge is to situate and tailor training. Embedding training in an engaging, interactive instructional environment and tailoring it to specific student competencies can reduce training time while enhancing motivation and improving transfer. The SoarTech team will address five objectives: (1) Define operational needs to ground the design and implementation on specific Navy maintenance systems training demands; (2) identify novel instructional strategies and leverage state-of-the-art game technology; (3) prioritize instruction and tailoring using generalized troubleshooting training with targeted assessment; (4) design an integrated software architecture that provides a realistic practice environment, targeted instruction and practice, fine-grained assessment, and instrumentation of student performance; and (5) research acquisition and decay models to enable longitudinal modeling tracking of students' skill development. Benefits: This effort is intended to develop empirically-validated, engaging, advanced training protocols informed by the science of learning, as well as tools for assessing training maintenance skills within a simulated operational environment. The resulting maintenance training capability will improve technicians' mental models of equipment functioning to increase the durability and generalizability of both technical and non-technical skills. The work will also support development of a model of skills acquisition and decay to guide initial, refresher, sustainment, and enhancement training and the scheduling and delivery of that training. Return