USC institute creates interactive program to help train soldiers


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USC’s Institute for Creative Technologies has created a new program that could hold national importance.

The ICT has developed an interactive program that takes participants through life like scenarios similar to those that would be encountered during wartime.

The program, known as the Mobil Counter-Improvised Explosive Device Interactive Trainer, is currently being used in training programs at Fort Bragg in North Carolina and Camp Pendleton in California.

According to the ICT website, the program helps soldiers understand and prepare for the ways insurgents often utilize explosive devices. The hope is that by exposing soldiers to real life training they can learn how to avoid common mistakes that could cause serious harm.

“It’s about letting them go through various scenarios so they can be familiar with things that are likely or possible to happen without negative consequences,” said Dr. Paul Rosenbloom, a professor of computer science at the Viterbi School of Engineering. “You don’t want them to think that no matter what you’re going to do, you’re going to come out alive. They have to learn what could end up with them dead.”

Aaron Yee, a senior majoring in Public Policy who is also a member of Army ROTC, said he thinks these kinds of training methods are extremely beneficial for soldiers preparing to be deployed overseas.

“Unless you experience something like that, you’ll never know what it’s like until you’re out in the field,” Yee said.