Media Room - Press Releases - 2006

BreakAway in Partnership with RTI International Win DoD Small Business Innovation Research Funding

BALTIMORE, MD (12/14/06) --- BreakAway, Ltd. has teamed with RTI International to win the first of what is expected to be many collaborative efforts. The Department of Defense's Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program has selected BreakAway and RTI International of Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, to create an advanced equipment maintenance training tool for military personnel. The team will include resources and technologies from both RTI International and CyberLearning Technologies.

The training tool will provide the US Marine Corps personnel real-world equipment maintenance training in a virtual gaming environment. By providing equipment maintainers an interactive, visually-stimulating, and highly intuitive game, military officials expect trainees to better understand and retain new technical concepts. In addition RTI International will be pushing the boundaries of our understanding of learning by using advanced sensors for trainee cognitive state to influence the training environment. The end goal is to create a training system that can adapt to individual users and increase training efficiency - all in an engaging gaming environment.

"According to new data, today's generation will have played 10,000 video games and sent 250,000 emails by the time they are old enough to join the military," says Doug Whatley, CEO and founder of BreakAway, Ltd. "In light of these figures, it only makes sense to develop a video game-base training tool for US Marine Corps equipment maintenance personnel who've grown up playing these kinds of games." Whatley adds that the new systems will generate interest from students far beyond currently fielded systems.

The new training tool will be developed in three phases: an initial video game-based training system which challenges users to overcome a series of equipment maintenance challenges; a prototype video game; and a field demonstration that allows the prototype to be tried and eventually transitioned to the fleet.

The DoD's SBIR Program provides early-stage R&D funding directly to small technology companies. The purpose of the SBIR program is to harness the innovative talents of the nation's small technology companies for U.S. military and economic strength.

BreakAway has become widely recognized as one of the nation's foremost developers of serious games - advanced training models, simulations, and 3-D visualization tools - for both entertainment and military applications. RTI International has developed maintenance training (both hands-on and virtual) for many DoD large ground vehicle programs since 1993. RTI is a 503(c) non-profit with over 130 scientific disciplines engaged multidisciplinary research and services that improve the human condition.

About BreakAway, Ltd. (www.breakawayltd.com)
Founded in 1998, BreakAway is a leading developer of entertainment games and game-based modeling, training and simulation software. The company's featured product, mōsbē™, is the first Lite Simulation Development Platform, created to power serious games for training, analysis, and experimentation in the military, intelligence, homeland security, medical practitioner, and first responder communities. With a client list that includes Electronic Arts, Microsoft, the Department of Defense, FDIC, and the National Institute for Justice, BreakAway has emerged as the top serious games company through its Lite Simulation products. A two time Deloitte's Technology Fast 50 winner, BreakAway employs nearly 100 people in its Hunt Valley, MD headquarters and at its Corpus Christi, TX studio.

About RTI International (www.rti.org)
RTI International is dedicated to conducting research and development that improves the human condition by turning knowledge into practice. With a worldwide staff of more than 2,500, RTI offers innovative research and technical solutions to governments and businesses worldwide in the areas of health and pharmaceuticals, education and training, surveys and statistics, advanced technology, democratic governance, economic and social development, energy, and the environment. The second largest independent nonprofit research organization in the United States, RTI maintains nine offices in the U.S., five international offices, and one international subsidiary, as well as project offices around the world. For more information, visit www.rti.org.