By MC3 Brian H. Abel

Dr. Cameron MacKenzie, then an assistant professor in NPS' Defense Resources Management Institute (DRMI), provides a brief on the NPS-developed MATLAB Hurricane Decision Simulator at Marine Corps Support Facility New Orleans in June 2015. Created by developers in the university's Center for Educational Design, Development and Distribution (CED3), the simulator was designed to assist key government officials with decision making prior to a hurricane making landfall in the Gulf Coast region.

"The simulator helps users gain experience with the key hurricane preparation decisions that must be made in the five days to 24 hours before the hurricane impacts affect New Orleans," said DRMI Associate Professor Dr. Eva Regnier. "These decisions are high stakes, and must be made under conditions of dynamic uncertainty."

Robert McGuiness, Director, Information and Knowledge Management, Marine Forces Reserve in New Orleans, explained that the current version of the simulator is designed to specifically assist the leaders and staff at Marine Forces Reserve in getting knowledge and experience in the types and timing of decisions required during pre-storm situations.

"It is a training tool not intended for use during a hurricane," said McGuiness. "If the leaders of the force know what to do in a timely manner, they can make the best decisions given the challenging circumstances when a named storm enters the gulf."

The simulator has been well received with leadership, with plans to further develop similar products for other regions.

"The simulator, and future projects, can educate our leaders in a more effective way both in terms of the time they need to spend on the tool and in the effectiveness of the tool," said McGuiness. "Our intention is to add modules to the tool to support our units located in other hurricane prone areas such as Galveston, Mobile and Miami."