Background:

BS in CS from Catholic University of America 1986. Attended Aviation Officer Candidate School and commissioned in October 1986. Operational tours at HS-5, HS-8 and the USS New Orleans; instructor duty at HS-10. Master of Science in Computer Science degree, Naval Postgraduate School in 1998. Military Instructor since 2001.

Research Interests:

Application of emerging virtual environment technology to military training and simulation needs: Determine how to define the training requirements; examine capabilities of emerging technology; match the right training system to the required task and verify the results.

Current Role:

Permanent Military Professor; Director of the Modeling, Virtual Environments and Simulation Institute.
The MOVES Institute was formed from the NPSNet Research Group

Previous Research:

VIRTE

FAA Simultaneous Non-Interfering (SNI) Precision Visual Flight Rules (P-VFR) Routes Utilizing GPS

A "Simulation Engine" Based on Gaming Technology and Open Source Software

An Improved Chromakey Augment Virtual Environment Training System

Recent theses advised: a partial list.

This page gives a short overview of VE/Helo research at NPS.

Publications:

Sullivan, J. A., Darken, R. P., & Becker, W. (2009). Virtual Environment Helicopter Training. In J. V. Cohn, D. Nicholson & D. Schmorrow (Eds.), Handbook of virtual environments for training and education (Vol. 3). Westport, CT: Praeger Security International.

Cohn, J. V., Staney, K. M., Milham, L. M., Jones, D. L., Hale, K. S., Darken, R. P., et al. (2008). Training Evaluation of Virtual Environments. In E. L. Baker, J. Dickieson & W. Wulfeck (Eds.), Assessment of problem solving using simulations. New York, NY: L. Erlbaum Associates.

McDowell, P., Darken, R., Sullivan, J., & Johnson, E. (2006). Delta3D: A Complete Open Source Game and Simulation Engine for Building Military Training Systems. The Journal of Defense Modeling and Simulation: Applications, Methodology, Technology, 3(3), 143-154.

Darken, R., Sullivan, J., & Lennerton, M. (2003). A Chromakey Augmented Virtual Environment for Deployable Training.