Microsoft ESP at I/ITSEC 2008

Ed McCahill
Marketing Manager, ESP
Microsoft Corp.

A contingent from the Microsoft ESP team is in Orlando this week for the 2008 I/ITSEC (Interservice/Industry Training, Simulation, and Education Conference) event.  I/ITSEC is an annual conference and trade show that “promotes cooperation among the Armed Services, Industry, Academia and various Government agencies in pursuit of improved training and education programs, identification of common training issues and development of multiservice programs.” In short, it’s the place to be if you work in the simulation and training industries. Check out the event website.

I/ITSEC runs from December 1-4 at the Orange County Convention Center, and we’re in booth 3718. If you’re planning to attend, be sure to stop by and say hello. Last year ESP made its public debut at I/ITSEC and our team has been hard at work since then continuing to build out the capabilities you’ve asked us to deliver.

This year we’ve got several great demos in our booth. The sexier stuff includes some work-in-progress for ESP v2.0, including new multi-channel capabilities (with an F/A-18 Hornet), and a ground scenario operating an MRAP. We’ll show off some ESP v1.0 high-end hardware integration with an F-16 Falcon cockpit made by one of our partners, Flight-Dynamix. You’ll also see a tremendous integration of technology by our friends at the University of Southampton (U.K.) who’ve built a simulation that properly lands a helicopter on a moving ship. This display of computational fluid dynamics involves ESP and Windows HPC Server 2008. Finally, our friends at Northrop Grumman will be in our booth showing off their C2MR (Command and Control Mission Rehearsal) solution that includes Microsoft ESP and Virtual Earth running on a Microsoft Surface computer. Cool stuff!

We’ll post a full trip report once the team gets back.