| Her strengths include a unique combination of both technical abilities to understand the advanced information technology possibilities, and analytical abilities to design and conduct analysis and experiments at assessing the effectiveness of these technologies. Ms. Loughran has over 17 years of experience in a variety of advanced information technologies applicable to computer-based analysis and training applications. Some of these areas include requirements analysis, technology assessment, data visualization, virtual teams, collaboration technologies, and application of games for analysis and training.
Ms. Loughran is highly sought out for her advice throughout the U.S. government. She has contributed to the Department of Defense's Training Transformation (T2) strategic and implementation plans and she is an active member of a senior-advisory group advising the Department of Homeland Security in the development and implementation of a national training and exercise strategy for domestic preparedness.
Ms. Loughran has the business expertise and leadership skills to continue to lead ThoughtLink in its impending growth and transformation to a company working with employees vs. their earlier sub-contracting model.
A few recent ThoughtLink projects include:
Department of Homeland Security's Office for Domestic Preparedness: Conducted a requirements analysis of counter-terrorism training and exercises and evaluated 100 models, simulations, and games that might augment the current training and exercise programs. Providing a road map describing how games, models and simulations can help support the increase in demand for preparedness training for terrorist events.
Department of Defense Joint C4ISR Decision Support Center: Continuing ThoughtLink's research in command and control using games, participated in designing an experiment plan that used ThoughtLink's SCUDHunt game to evaluate factors affecting team decision-making and how distributed teams develop shared situational awareness.
Previous work includes:
Institute for Defense Analyses 1987-1997
- M&S Project Leader/Research Staff: Project Leader for numerous tasks in the areas of modeling and simulation. Secured multiple new contracts; she was able to identify more project dollars than IDA (an FFRDC) could legally accept. One of the projects led by Ms. Loughran included:
- Project leader of six-member team developing the Virtual Training Repository (VTR) prototype; assessing the feasibility of finding lessons learned from aggregated distributed interactive simulation data. This included collecting 12 months of data from the Virtual Training Program at Ft. Knox , defining data elements required to support Measures of Performance and Measures of Effectiveness (MOPs and MOEs), creating an intermediate data storage format, and developing a tool for visualizing the data. The resulting tool (TARGET) was successful and used at the Army's Armor School , Ft. Knox , KY.
- Research Staff, AI & Expert Systems: Worked for 6 years in the development of large-scale expert systems for the Federal Bureau of Investigation. During this time, participated in all phases of system development, including requirements definition, knowledge acquisition, interface design, software testing, and field training. In addition, assisted in project management; writing annual 5-year tactical plans for Department of Justice review and funding.
Education:
M.S., Artificial Intelligence/Information Systems Technology, George Washington University , 1993
B.S., Communications, Minor: English, University of Utah , 1985
Clearance: Secret
Professional Activities:
- Member, Department of Defense Information Superiority Working Group
- Member, Department of Homeland Security's Office for Domestic Preparedness Training and Exercise System Study (TESS) group
- Member, Military Operations Research Society ( MORS )
- Member, National Defense Preparedness Association
- Speaker at numerous simulation and training conferences. Conferences include: International Command and Control Research and Technology Symposium, NATO Partnership for Peace Simulation Workshop, Interservice/Industry Training Simulation and Education Conference, National Defense University Joint Innovation Symposium, Simulation Interoperability Workshops (SIW), Military Operations Research Society Symposium (MORSS), Simulation Technology and Training (SimTecT) Conference, Virtual Worlds and Simulation Conference, DARPA-sponsored Multi-User Domain (MUD) Conference, DIS Standards Workshop, Army's ATXXI Conference, Army STAARS Workshop, Education Foundation Data Processing Management Association's Synthetic Environments Conference
Open Publications:
- Co-author, “Review of Models, Simulations, and Games for Domestic Preparedness Training and Exercising”, Volumes I, II and III, Department of Homeland Security May 2003, October 2003, and March 2004
- Co-author, “A Review of Related Initiatives to Support Domestic Preparedness Training and Exercises”, February 2004
- Co-author, “Exploring Rapid Customization of CARs: Results from User Workshops and Interviews”, Evolving Logic/DARPA, May 2003
- Co-author, “Office for Domestic Preparedness Exercise Program Review: Opportunities for Models, Simulations, and Games”, March 31, 2003
- Co-author, “Interagency Education and Training: How to Fix What's Broken”, Interservice/Industry Training, Simulation, and Education Conference, Orlando , FL , December 2002
- Co-author, “Exploring Joint Force Command and Control Concepts Using SCUDHunt – Final Report”, Joint C4ISR Decision Support Center , October 2002
- Co-author, “C2 Concepts and Experimentation Literature Review,” Joint C4ISR Decision Support Center , October 2002
- Author, “Virtual Teams – Lessons Learned”, annotated brief, Capitol PC Users Group Entrepreneur and Consultant SIG, Washington, DC, May 2002
- Co-author, "Key Drivers for C2 Performance: Data Mining SCUDHunt Experiment Data", Joint C4ISR Decision Support Center , November, 2001
- Co-author, "Blue DICE Experiment" Lester B. Pearson Canadian International Peacekeeping Centre, October, 2001
- Co-author "SCUDHunt Data Dictionary" Joint C4ISR Decision Support Center , September, 2001
- Author, "Simulation Across The Spectrum: Less Is Sometimes More: How Distributed Games Can Be Used for Training and Analysis”, SISO Webletter, September 2001
- Co-author, "Interagency Training and Education Survey”, National Defense University , June 2001
- Author "Using A Web-Based Tool for Complex Contingency Training", NATO PfP/PWP Simulation Workshop, Brno , Czech Republic , May 2001
- Co-author, "Gaming and Shared Situation Awareness", DARPA, November 2000
-Co-author “ Crisis Planning and Response (CPR) Portal: Opening the Doors Between Interagency and Coalition Communities", Interservice/Industry Training Simulation and Education Conference , November 2000
- Author, "Working Together Virtually - The Care and Feeding of Global Virtual Teams", 5th International Command and Control Research and Technology Symposium, Canberra , ACT, Australia , October 2000
- Co-author, "The DICE Experiment: Creating and Evaluating a Web-based Collaboration Environment for Interagency Training", DARPA and C4ISR Cooperative Research Program, May 2000
- "DICE: The Effectiveness of Web-based Environments for Training", National Defense University Joint Innovation Symposium, Washington DC , February 2000
- Author, "Virtual World Instrumentation to Determine Training Effectiveness", Society for Computer Simulation's Western Multi-conference- - Virtual Worlds and Simulation, San Diego , CA , January 2000
- Author, Simulation Across The Spectrum: Collaboration: The Power is in the People, SISO Webletter, December 1999
- Author, Simulation Across The Spectrum: The Island of Complexity Models and Adaptive Agent Simulations, SISO Webletter, September 1999
- Author, "Using Web Based Collaboration for Interagency Training", 67th Military Operations Research Society Symposium (MORSS), West Point, NY, June 22-24,1999 Author, Simulation Across The Spectrum: The Island of Entertainment Simulations, SISO Webletter, June 1999
- Author, Simulation Across The Spectrum: The Island of Business Simulation Tools, SISO Webletter, March 1999
-Co-author, “The Role of a Distributed Interactive Collaboration Environment (DICE) for Interagency/Military Training”, Proceedings of the Command and Control Research and Technology Symposium, 1999.
-Co-author, “Applying Commercial Gaming and Collaboration Technologies to Augment JTF Staff Training”, DARPA Final Report, January 1999
- Author, Simulation Across The Spectrum: The Inhabitants of Simulation Islands , SISO Webletter, December 1999
-Co-author, “Spinning a Web Site to Catch an Audience”, July 1998.
- Co-author, “New Technology Brings 3D Cyberspace to Defense Applications”, April 1998.
- Co-author, “Analytical Augmentation of 3D Simulation Environments”, in Visual Data Exploration and Analysis V , Robert F. Erbacher, Alex Pang, Editors, Proceedings of SPIE Vol. 3298, pp. 38-43 (1998).
- Author, “Evaluating Aggregated Performance Data from Distributed Simulation Training Exercises,” Dr. Christopher Landauer, Dr. Kirstie Bellman, Editors, Proceedings of Virtual Worlds and Simulation Conference (VWSIM '98), Simulation Series Volume 30, Number 2, pp. 119-124 (1998).
- Co-author, “Integrated Rapid Scenario and Situation Generation Toolset to Support Training Exercises and Mission Planning,” SimTecT98-020, Simulation Technology and Training (SimTecT) Conference, March 1998, Adelaide , Australia .
- Co-author, “Using VRML and Collaboration Tools to Enhance Feedback and Analysis of Distributed Interactive Simulation Exercises,” SimTecT98-019, Simulation Technology and Training (SimTecT) Conference, March 1998, Adelaide , Australia .
- Co-author, “ Battle Explorer: VRML Technology for Replaying and Analyzing DIS Exercises”, 97F-SIW-077, Fall SIW, 1997, Orlando , FL
- Co-author, “TARGET: An Analysis Environment for Aggregated Simulation Training Data”, 97S-SIW-143, Spring SIW, 1997, Orlando , FL
- Author, “Beyond After Action Reviews: Developing a Lessons Learned Database”, briefing presented at DPMA's Synthetic Environments Conference, May 1995, Washington , DC .
- Co-author, “A Repository for DIS Data Tools”, 94-120, Proceedings of the 11 th DIS Standards Workshop, 1994, Orlando , FL
Limited Distribution Publications :
- Co-author, IDA P-3062, “Review of Defense Modeling and Simulation Office Projects and Activities for Fiscal Years 1992-1994”, August 1995.
- Author, “ADS Technology Advisory Board Summary Reports”, 1995.
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