Speaker: Mike Lewis, Air Force Simulation & Analysis Facility, Project Lead, 40-45 staff members
How did you find out about the MITRE Engineering Platform ?
(e.g. Word of Mouth, MEP Website, Division Meeting, etc.)
Mike Lewis: Yes, I found out about the MITRE Engineering Platform thought several sources actually. The first one was a friend of mine, another project lead for a small project that was using just the licenses from the MITRE Engineering Platform. Another way that I found out about it actually, about two weeks ago is one of our division meetings The MITRE Engineering Platform Folks were speaking about the capabilities that were involved and what was possible. And then I just went to the MEP Website. I believe it's MEP up just fast jumped it and I looked at the different capabilities that were up there and I found that not only was the Provision Environments aspect and licenses something that I might be able to use. But I learned about the knowledge sharing and the ARC capability, the Artifact Reuse Center, I believe it's called would provide some things that I could use for my project.
Describe the purpose of your work, and/or the main problem your team was trying to solve?
(e.g. MITRE Engineering Development work for Sponsor, building models or software)
Mike Lewis: Yes, the purpose of our work Well, first of all, the work was for the Air Force and it was out at right at right Patterson Air Force Base and we were working for the simulation and analysis facility. The project and the project has about 40 to 45 people on it, roughly 12 to 15 STE at any given time. And the purpose of the work was modeling and simulation work that we were building in a development environment. Most of it through MITRE engineers, doing the actual software development using Cameo, using AFSIM. Building various models and then sharing those with the government partner so they can get into the environment that the MEP provides in its Provisioned Environments. And the purpose of it was to build those models to demonstrate the capability to improve modeling and simulation for our customer.
What aspects of the MEP helped your team?
(e.g. Provisioned Environments and/or license use, Artifact Reuse Center use, Solution Engineering)
Mike Lewis: In my case with the SI MA F work, I used all four of the major capability areas that the MEP provides. To begin with in the Provision Environments which also provides licenses. So I didn't actually use the licenses separately I used the software licenses, the MEP provides that are provided in those Provision Environments, which it was very handy for us. They have packages, the billing packages with five user bundles which worked out really well because we were able to use that software in the environment. I didn't have to buy the individual software packages myself. The projects again, they go by fiscal year. So you're not guaranteed funding from one year to the next. It's very convenient because you don't have to hold on to those licenses. In fact, if during the year you decide you're not going to continue the project or you satisfy the customer's objectives and you're done. You can stop paying for the Provisioned Environments. That appealed to me in my budget. I did end up using them all year but I had that option. So I used the Provisioned Environments to build out the software That was demonstrated to the customer in use for the modeling And simulation environments they they were building. A couple other aspects I had not planned on using, But I did use to some extent were the knowledge sharing and the ARC capability the Artifact Reuse Center. I was able to go in there as well as my engineers that I had task leads and actual individual engineers go into that and find some digital engineering models that we were able to use some of the concepts that were out of there for some of the things that we built And then there's an a final capability, the Solutions Engineering And I talked to those folks, they were very helpful They gave me some ideas of what some of the other MITRE projects are doing for their customers out there, especially on the Digital Engineering side I made some contacts They also directed me to a couple of individuals, that they ended up hiring, there are other functions within my task manager and some other places you can go to find expertise and word of mouth But this was a one additional source And the Solutions Engineers helped me find a couple of people that I use for the project.
What would you describe as the most significant results you had working with the MEP?
(e.g. Impacts internal to MITRE, with your Sponsor or beyond)
Mike Lewis: Usually asked by several people, what what aspect of the work, the results or the impactful work and the products that we developed What, what would be the most significant aspects of those for the sponsor I think our work was had impactful results for the sponsor I I know it did, they, they told us it did in the models that we actually built that were used not only within the Air Force and modeling and simulation across the Air Force, but also shared with NAV Air and a F-35 program. So a lot of the models that we built are being used and are going to be used further to develop advanced modeling and simulation capabilities throughout the Air Force and within this joint program with the F-35, I would also go a little bit further and say that what we developed enabled Internal partner inside of MITRE individuals Some folks that I had that were working both for my project and another project, they were able to work a MIP where they built a navigation model that was then used not only by MITRE itself internal, but it was used over within NAV Air and within the Air Force to do some of this modeling and simulation. So the impact of the work was, was beyond just my initial sponsor, it went out to other people, the sponsor was working with and it also went out across and will probably have effects on other people as well in the coming years.
Did the MEP assist you in saving time, money or something else?
(e.g allow you to achieve something you couldn’t have without the MEP)
Mike Lewis: The MEP actually helped us save not only money but time and of course, time is money as well And the, the aspects of the MEP that really helped my project out were number one, I could not have afforded the money to pay for all the licenses that we use nor to maintain the environment that we had for the costs that I paid through the MEP. The MEP charges currently are about $1200 per five users and you add that up over the year and I had 20 Users that were doing work in there That I was paying for, that was a fraction of what I would have paid for all those individual licenses of the security aspects of it I'm working in a CUI environment that I could not have could not have built that capability myself and then still had the resources left out of my STE to do the work that the sponsor needed in the modeling and simulation environment. So to say the MEP allowed my program to succeed is understating what I believe the MEP actually contributed to our capabilities. I would go on to say, just to speak from the, as I mentioned before, there was a friend of mine that had a one STE project, my friend, the other project lead would not have been able to even attempt to do any of the work they did Had they not been able to use the MEP'S Provision Environment capabilities and the licenses for the price that they got them. They didn't have the security expertise, they didn't have the, the time They certainly didn't have the money to do all that work So, from that perspective, I, I can't say enough about the MEP. From the other perspectives, if you look at their knowledge sharing capability in that ARC that I mentioned, the Artifact Reuse Center and then the Solutions Engineering, The MEP provides that absolutely free to anyone within MITRE. They also assist and provide information out to sponsors. So the value that the MEP is, is really covering themselves from the services where they do get some money to keep those services going Those, those services are also invaluable, the Artifact Reuse Center In fact, has increased the number of ARC, use useful artifacts out there and the search capability on it tremendously from what I've observed over the last year. And the Solutions Engineers, as I mentioned, they, they will can only do so much up to a certain point of assisting you without some form of resources or coverage But the times that I talked to them and the information they gave to me, I never paid them anything and I got great contacts, as I mentioned before for both resources of people to work as well as ideas that I could use for my project.
