Research Summaries

Back A Multidisciplinary Studies Support For U.S. Marine Forces Reserve (MARFORRES)-Technology Support for Training and Decision Making FY19

Fiscal Year 2019
Division Graduate School of Engineering & Applied Science
Department Systems Engineering
Investigator(s) Hernandez, Alejandro D.S.
Hatch, William D.
Sponsor Marine Corps Forces Reserve (Marine Corps)
Summary This proposal is a continuation of Naval Postgraduate School (NPS) work that supports training through research and education to Headquarters, US Marine Forces Reserve (MARFORRES). It is a multidisciplinary approach for addressing decision making and training issues. As such NPS support to MARFORRES will continue to leverage NPS’s academic and research expertise, resources, infrastructure, and capabilities. This support can include NPS’s contracted staff. If warranted and in alignment with student timelines, the research team will recruit students from all military branches and disciplines to participate.
A. Distributed Training and Knowledge Transfer: MAFORRES training centers are spread in over 150 locations throughout the United States and its territories. The ability to provide common training throughout the force is a critical challenge for any command. Distance Learning (DL) and knowledge transfer methods and technologies have been successfully applied to specific groups such as Inspector-Instructors (I-I) who are assigned in all reserve training centers. Work in this proposal period will focus on refinement of current capabilities, further refinement and incorporation of proven DL methods to other MARFORRES groups, and support reinforcement of learning objectives from the DL modules while being mindful of the Marine Corps HRDP.
B. Decision Making, Models, and Simulation (M&S): MARFORRES leaders encounter a number of strategic and operational decisions throughout the year. To support these decisions with quantifiable, credible, and defendable analyses, NPS has developed and is initiating development of two products. The Hurricane Decision Trainer and an equipment distribution model.
C. Cultural Assessment – Organizational Resiliency: When two different cultures collide, there are bound to be serious challenges. These scenarios can involve “we or Active Component Marine” vs. “they or Reserve Component Marine” situations. Provides experiential learning regarding the unique aspects of the Reserve Component for those Marines who have never served alongside Marine Reservists. The will focus on: 1. Assessment, 2. Planning 3. Execution. 4. Analysis Transfer.
D. The NPS IT team is prepared to support the MARFORRES technical teams that will operate the software and products that NPS transitions to MARFORRES. Support will come in several forms such as Sakai software support, the on-site phone Customer Support (Faculty and Students). This effort corresponds with NPS-MARFORRES MOA that is currently active. Per the MOA, such a request will require MARFORRES to provide funds.
The overall effort for projects and infrastructure support has a total cost of $375,900. There are five primary NPS faculty leads for these project, IT support, and contractor (CED3) support. If tasks change, the PI and the MARFORES will coordinate to examine changes to the scope of work. If warranted, additional funds will be sent to NPS. Costs cover all fringes, overhead and routine materiel for NPS. It accounts for travel for students and faculty involved in the effort, which is specified in each proposal. Costs include faculty and staff labor. The partnering that is the norm for NPS research efforts will garner other staff and faculty with different expertise to be part of the overall effort.
This work has different projects. An overview of the work is not based on performing human subject research. However, there may be reason to perform such research. In this case, the project lead will submit separate documents to be in compliance with NPS IRB.
Keywords Measures and Value Functions Optimization Scenario Methods
Publications Publications, theses (not shown) and data repositories will be added to the portal record when information is available in FAIRS and brought back to the portal
Data Publications, theses (not shown) and data repositories will be added to the portal record when information is available in FAIRS and brought back to the portal