VMASC RECEIVES ADDITIONAL FUNDING FOR CROWD BEHAVIOR MODELING

Old Dominion University's Virginia Modeling, Analysis and Simulation Center (VMASC) has received a third year of funding from the Defense Modeling and Simulation Office for its research into crowd modeling.

With the $470,287 grant, VMASC will continue to develop a real-time networked simulation that generates crowds of noncombatants in military scenarios. The crowd members' behavior model is psychologically based and produces a realistic range of crowd behavior. Additionally, the crowd simulation is interoperable with existing military simulations.

The 11-person research team includes a number of Modeling and Simulation graduate students and is led by Rick McKenzie, assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering, Ryan Gaskins, VMASC researcher, and Mikel Petty, chief scientist at VMASC.

The Virginia Modeling, Analysis & Simulation Center supports Department of Defense simulation and training technology development and conducts research to improve corporate and human performance. VMASC houses extensive facilities for interactive, three-dimensional graphics (Virtual Reality) as well as a "Battle Lab" for experimenting with applications of modeling and simulation in a number of domains.