The Dept. of Defense announced Oct. 20 the launch of the Cardozo FLEX Lab Aviation Classroom Experience, (FLEX-ACE).
DoD Undersecretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics Frank Kendall spoke with students at the Francis L. Cardozo Education Campus last week.
The DoD Test Resource Management Center and the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering supported the FLEX-ACE as part of its STEM efforts.
Developed by TEQGames, a high-ceilinged Cardozo classroom was turned into a test-and-evaluation, or T&E, lab featuring computer-based aviation platforms and simulators that help DoD test distributed simulation environments and improve students’ ability to learn, comprehend and retain new concepts.
“You’ve got a great opportunity here to take advantage of the equipment, the interaction you’ll have with others, the connection to other laboratories — the variety of things you can do here to open up things for yourselves,” Kendall said.
“This is a real distributed test lab, and the students are emulating test operators,” Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Developmental T&E Dr. David Brown said.
The Cardozo FLEX-ACE classroom has three dual-pilot flight simulators, an air-traffic-control tower and nine remotely piloted vehicle stations. The system lets students role-play in real-world missions that take place at test ranges across the country and in local air space. It is the first of its kind in Washington, and although it is the 18th FLEX-ACE classroom across the country and around the world, it is the third being used as a T&E distributed-test-environment test bed.
FLEX-ACE allows students to see themselves in these roles and encourages their pursuit of challenging higher education, Brown said.
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