The Simulation Exploration Experience, education opportunity in higher education ? Preparing college students to thrive in chaos

An issue in higher education today is that while the demand for distributed simulation expertise keeps growing, not enough experts are teaching the subject in our colleges and universities. This matters because a wellprepared workforce is essential if we are to apply distributed simulation—as we must—to the hazardous, difficult, risky, even life or death complexities of the 21 Century. The Simulation Exploration Experience (SEE) with government, industry and academia support, enables international inter-university student-teams to learn simulation by doing it, study HLA and its standards, work collaboratively with other dispersed and diverse student teams, gain needed skills, learn about employer expectations, discover possibilities and gain confidence. The SEE model suggests potential for Modeling & Simulation (M&S) collegiate research and education in distributed systems, perception, communication, the tensions between rules and disruptive innovation, collaborative teamwork, the economics of simulation, and the purpose of M&S higher education itself.