Academy cadets win People’s Choice award

  • Published
  • U.S. Air Force Academy Strategic Communications

U.S. Air Force Academy cadets earned the People’s Choice award from the Serious Games Showcase & Challenge. They were presented the award during the 2024 Interservice/Industry Training, Simulation, and Education Conference held Dec. 2-6, 2024, in Orlando, Florida.

Cadets First Class Michaela Kovalsky and Kieran McCauley created the Land Engagement Adjudication Platform game as part of a summer research and challenge problem submission.

LEAP is used in the Academy’s Mutli-Domain Laboratory giving cadets the ability to apply operational level inputs to a capstone wargame. Using questions designed to lead cadets toward critical elements of force employment, the game leverages basic operational design research to provide realistic results to force-on-force engagements. LEAP can send and receive Distributed Interactive Simulation message traffic allowing it to communicate with other software systems used by the larger DoD Modeling and Simulation ecosystem.

The Academy was one of 17 teams chosen to compete at the 19th Serious Games Showcase & Challenge during I/ITSEC. The term “serious games” describes a gaming subgenre that focuses on educational and training outcomes, not entertainment, which can have applications in industrial, medical and military training.

I/ITSEC is the world's largest modeling, simulation, and training event, organized annually by the National Training and Simulation Association. This year’s conference, which promotes cooperation and innovation in training and education across government, industry, and academia, was attended by 18,000 people from 55 countries.

The People’s Choice award, that Kovalsky and McCauley won, is unique from other recognitions at the I/ITSEC, as it is the only award decided by the popular vote of attendees who play the games during the conference.

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Media registration: A media event is scheduled for 1 p.m. Wednesday Jan. 15 where the cadets will showcase their award-winning game. News media planning to attend the event must email the following information by Tuesday, Jan. 14 at 4 p.m.: Media outlet, first name, last name, and cell phone number. Information should be sent to: media.rel@afacademy.af.edu. One email may list all attending representatives from each outlet. Arrival instructions will be provided to registered media. For more information, please contact U.S. Air Force Academy Strategic Communications at (719) 333-7731 or email media.rel@afacademy.af.edu.