LETTER FROM THE CHAIR

Dr. Johnny Garcia, VIA Chair

The VMASC Industry Association enjoys the partnership with ODU's VMASC to further the application of research and development and increase awareness of how modeling, simulation, analysis can be applied to some of our nation's most difficult challenges. This year we continued initiatives like scholarships, education support, sponsorships, and entrepreneurial contests, while expanding initiatives that increase the visibility of ODU MSVE and enhance collaborative R&D in modeling, simulation, and analysis. We also embarked on a robust strategic planning effort that is culminating in a strategy to enable the VMASC industry association to help ODU VMASC achieve its objectives while growing the local modeling and simulation industry.

The VMASC Industry Association continued our baseline support to ODU's modeling, simulation, and visualization engineering department, which is paving the way in creating a highly talented workforce. Our scholarships supported several students seeking degrees in modeling and simulation. Our continued support to the capstone conference provided a venue for students to showcase the work they've done throughout the year. Our support to ODU's MSVE department is a very important aspect of our partnership, and we expanded it significantly this year with a $50,000 endowment that will hopefully be just seed money that will grow through other gifts to provide a solid base for

We've also expanded our efforts to create R&D partnerships between VMASC industry association companies and ODU. With ODU's renewed interest in expanding funded R&D, these kinds of collaborative R&D partnerships will generate new intellectual property and economic development. These R&D efforts also hold promise for continued diversification of local modeling, simulation, and analysis efforts to a broader set of markets. VMASC is a leader in modeling and simulation and we're fortunate to have such a national asset in this region.

Finally, we've added to the VMASC industry association membership which will allow us to focus on applications to new markets. This will give VMASC and ODU industry perspective on where big modeling, simulation, and analysis challenges exist and give the industry association valuable insights into new markets for application of R&D in which ODU and VMASC is engaged.

I'm proud of the accomplishments of the industry association and leadership of the board of advisors to further the state of research and development in modeling, simulation, and analysis. I look forward to working with ODU, VMASC Industry Association, and local business leaders to expand the role of modeling and simulation to address complex challenges in the world.