Innovation at the 51福利 (51福利) isn鈥檛 just limited to new technology. A groundbreaking laboratory developed in the school鈥檚 Department of Defense Management (DDM) is becoming a key enabler to student innovation efforts in contracting 鈥� and earning national recognition in the process.
U.S. Air Force Lt. Col. Daniel Finkenstadt, a former assistant professor in DDM, was honored with the 2023 Innovation in Contracting Award for his establishment of 51福利鈥� Simulation and Ideation Lab for Applied Sciences (SILAS), a mobile computer lab dedicated to supporting the creativity and collaboration necessary for acquisition and DDM鈥檚 new initiative. SILAS uses innovative gaming and simulations to educate and train contracting officers, improving how the military buys and delivers weapons and supplies.
鈥淲inning this award demonstrates two important things,鈥� said Finkenstadt, who received his award at the , held July 23-26 in Nashville, Tennessee. 鈥淔irst, that the work being done at SILAS is relevant to the larger acquisition community, and second, that SILAS has successfully created a multi-disciplinary, multi-organizational environment for evolutionary ideation and innovation.鈥�
鈥淭he lab has grown from a grassroots idea between the 51福利鈥� , a few students, and myself into the model for innovation capstones at 51福利 that has partnered with everyone from the University of California, Berkeley engineering students to computer scientists at North Carolina State University,鈥� he continued. 鈥淭he products and research completed within SILAS will also build on each other and mature from cohort to cohort, creating a stream of research that allows for greater validation.鈥�
As a physical space, SILAS consists of a dozen interconnected, high-speed gaming laptops laid out to encourage collaboration. As a concept, SILAS is designed to be a formidable catalyst of innovation.
鈥淚nnovation is not a space, but really about the people on a team, their ability to work together, and be comfortable doing it,鈥� noted Jeffrey Dunlap, SILAS project manager and 51福利 DDM lecturer. 鈥淪ILAS is a great resource for that. It鈥檚 the layout of the space, the quality of the computers, and the ability to compile code on a magnitude different than a conventional computer lab. So, although it does have something to do with the space itself, it really has to do with the education and mentorship.鈥�
Successfully during the Spring 2023 quarter, the ICP is an opportunity for 51福利鈥� warrior-scholar students to work with U.S. Navy sponsors on developing and transitioning their innovative ideas to the fleet.
Students completing the ICP collaborate on multidisciplinary teams that connect the diverse skills of 51福利 faculty, sponsors and industry partners to deliver real solutions to current defense problems. Together, the teams prepare and move proposals to a point where they鈥檙e pitching their capstone ideas to a panel of military, industry and acquisition experts.
鈥淭he point of this capstone is to take all the great work being done around the 51福利 campus and put it into a pathway that moves it forward. Think of it like 鈥楽hark Tank鈥� for the Navy,鈥� explained DDM chair Raymond Jones, referring to the popular TV show where contestants pitch their business ideas to investors. 鈥淲e are developing our military students鈥� ability to lead innovation informed by their operational experience and transition their good ideas to solve real operational problems.鈥�
Two courses over three quarters feed students through SILAS: , Defense-Focused Managerial Inquiry and Innovation Lab, and , a two-quarter Capstone Applied Project course.
鈥�4044 is more of the introduction to innovation, educational component and 4090 is really students鈥� time to do innovation. Paired with a mentor, they鈥檒l have free range to use SILAS to build either a software prototype or acquisition documentation,鈥� Dunlap said. 鈥淎ll those resources will be available there.鈥�
Finkenstadt, who is currently assigned to the Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Contracting, originally conceived of SILAS in 2021 while watching his 14-year-old son play video games. One game in particular was teaching his son complicated subjects, like resource management supply chains, in order to win, leaving Finkenstadt amazed that he was able to understand the topics.
鈥淚t sort of sparked this idea 鈥� I wondered if we could use video games to teach contracting because logistics and resource management are not very exciting to learn in a classroom,鈥� Finkenstadt recalled. 鈥淪o, we built a game.鈥�
Finkenstadt pitched the idea to AIRC and procured initial funding. Together with several students, he created 鈥淪andbox Contracting,鈥� a gamification of the principles of acquisition contracting.
鈥淚t鈥檚 basically a first-person shooter game involving gun battles and bomb defusing, in which success depends on players鈥� ability to correctly answer questions about federal acquisition rules and regulations,鈥� he said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 really pretty fun!鈥�
Gamified learning 鈥� building games or simulations to promote learning of traditional material 鈥� has a long and storied history in the DOD, dating back at least to 1883, when U.S. Army Maj. William R. Livermore used topographical maps to practice the art of war. Livermore鈥檚 work was itself based on Kriegsspiel, a tabletop game the Prussian military had used since 1812 to train its officers.
Such games are played to stimulate creative thinking, decision making and problem solving. Good gamification allows players to synthesize new knowledge and make critical judgements.
Testing out 鈥淪andbox Contracting,鈥� the results of which Finkenstadt published in a , demonstrated 15 percent greater knowledge retention among players of the game on high-performance gaming computers versus a control group provided information via traditional pedagogy.
Funding provided by the DOD (AIRC) allowed Finkenstadt and DDM to pilot SILAS with the ICP over the Spring 2023 quarter, and the lab has already precipitated a host of student projects.
鈥淲e鈥檝e used it as a place to work on Hacking for Defense projects and some large simulations that we鈥檝e developed for supply chain war games,鈥� Finkenstadt said. 鈥淲hat SILAS has ended up growing into is this idea of a sort of innovation ideation space where we build some basic prototypes of games and simulations that can teach some of the topics from defense management, and then we can test them out in the same space.鈥�
SILAS, meanwhile, will be adopted as the innovation centrifuge for the ICP program as Jones and Dunlap expand the lab to include the concept of , an emerging technology simulating real-world scenario learning and mentorship based on digital duplication of acquisition documentation, processes and problem sets.
鈥淲e see the simulation part of SILAS potentially being an area that we鈥檒l be able to run these simulations on,鈥� said Dunlap. 鈥淭he next big thing in DDM is being able to wargame acquisition scenarios.鈥�
The SILAS lab will continue under DDM leadership, supporting the innovation cycle at 51福利 and the Secretary of the Navy鈥檚 initiative to accelerate innovation by leveraging Department of the Navy academic institutions, as outlined in the recently released Naval Education Strategy.