Experiencing the Future

What if? What if company X goes public or branches out into an entirely new product line? What if Indiana is faced with the aftermath of a terrorist attack? What are the likely outcomes, and what are the correct responses as the situation unfolds? A Purdue University initiative, co-directed by two Krannert School of Management professors, Dr. Alok R. Chaturvedi and Dr. Shailendra Mehta, is using an innovative war games-inspired technology to help provide answers to these and other wide-ranging questions.

Supported by a grant from the 21st Century Research and Technology Fund—which enabled them to secure additional funding, including a federal National Science Foundation grant—the professors have developed a technology called SEAS (Synthetic Environments for Advanced Simulations), a computer-based, business-economic version of the military’s simulated war games. SEAS mimics real-life business and economic environments, including simulated economies and markets with fully functioning goods, labor, asset, bond and currency markets. It gives researchers and business people a virtual window into the future, letting them test different strategies and see the consequences of their decisions and actions—all in a simulated but vividly realistic environment.

The result of seven years of research, development of SEAS technology is a joint effort between Purdue University, the Office of Naval Research and Simulex Inc. Anticipated commercial uses, some of which are already available, include an array of business and industry applications—ranging from telecommunications to agribusiness—as well as versions for the government and military in areas as diverse as power management, smart highway development and military recruiting. Additionally, Drs. Chaturvedi and Mehta have developed an SEAS-based Homeland Security Simulation tool designed to aid collaborative planning for an effective Indiana homeland security program. In April of 2002, this computer model allowed teams from local, state and federal agencies to formulate and test responses that work best in an unfolding crisis situation, within a context that included government actions, reactions of the economy and public sentiment.