Elevating Awareness for Personnel Under Cognitive Load

CAE Australia has commenced a research project in partnership with UNSW (University of New South Wales) as part of the Australian Government’s Department of Education Trailblazer Universities Program.

Combining the expertise of CAE and University of New South Wales (UNSW), the project aims to develop an assessment system that leverages modern learning approaches and artificial intelligence to improve the training experience and performance of Australia’s Mission Aircrew. The project is part of the Australian Government’s Department of Education Trailblazer Universities program, focusing on the acceleration and commercialisation of innovative solutions to address the critical training and operational requirements of the Australian Defence Force (ADF).

The proposed assessment system will integrate tools and learning approaches, including the CAE Adaptive Learning Environment (ALE), to support improved mission aircrew performance, reduced time in training, and increased situational awareness of personnel who operate under various levels of cognitive load.

“This project will address defence requirements to understand the training needs of system operators where there is the potential for high cognitive load and task performance risk,” said Dr. Oleksandra Molloy, Senior Lecturer at UNSW and Chief Investigator of the joint project.

During the project, CAE and UNSW will focus on replicating complex operational tasks and training scenarios using simulation to assess how advanced training tools and technologies can reduce cognitive load. This will help to improve the decision-making of command-and-control personnel in complex operational environments.

“Innovation is not a choice, but a strategic imperative for our industry to proactively address the evolving requirements of defence and deliver at the point and time of need,” said Matthew Sibree, Managing Director Indo-Pacific, CAE Defence & Security. “Together with UNSW, we can accelerate the implementation of training technologies to enhance the mission preparedness, safety, and performance of our personnel - our most critical asset in defence capability.”

The Defence Trailblazer program, created in partnership between the University of Adelaide and UNSW, connects 41 industry partners with academia and the Government to respond to Australia’s most complex defence and national security challenges. Together with industry partners, CAE continues to integrate synthetic training technology and modern learning methodologies to propose a training experience for Australia’s defence personnel.

“As we advance training capabilities to meet future requirements, training providers must understand learner needs and align research initiatives to better support them,” said Chief Learning Officer, Dr. Regan Patrick, CAE Defense & Security. “Through collaboration with academic institutions and industry partners, we intend to improve the tools and approaches used to obtain new skills and competencies while accelerating mastery.”