James Korris

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James H. Korris, a pioneer of the current trend in game-based simulation for military training, served as Creative Director of the Institute for Creative Technologies (Institute), University of Southern California (USC) in Los Angeles from its founding in August 1999 until October 2006. Dubbed "The Military Entertainment Complex", the modern collaboration of Hollywood and the Department of Defense at the Institute was first discussed in a National Research Council study published in 1997 ("Modeling and Simulation: Linking Entertainment and Defense")[1]. At the Institute, Korris worked with talents as diverse as John Milius, Randal Kleiser and David Ayer The initial $44.5 million contract grew substantially as basic research in immersive virtual reality and prototype application development was expanded.

At USC, Korris led projects including Full Spectrum Warrior[2], the first military application developed for Microsoft’s Xbox, along with desktop training simulations Full Spectrum Command, Full Spectrum Leader, the Joint Fires and Effects Trainer System[3] and the Department of Defense 2006 Modeling & Simulation Award-winner Every Soldier a Sensor Simulation.

Korris also led USC Institute work in Concept Development and Visualization, a process that brought Hollywood story-telling and production techniques to military informational films. Work included the award-winning video Nowhere To Hide, the US Army/Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency vision of America’s future, transformed land force. His team supported the US Army’s Future Combat Systems critical Block B review which resulted in approval of the $14.7 billion System Development & Design phase of the program.

Korris' work at USC was recognized in the 2006 Smithsonian Institution-Cooper Hewitt Design Life Now 2006 National Design Triennial[4]. He was a featured speaker at Richard Saul Wurman’s 2006 Entertainment Gathering, eg2006.[5] Korris was also designated a Massive Change Visionary in Bruce Mau’s Massive Change exhibit in October 2004[6], which premiered at the Vancouver Art Gallery and travelled most recently to the Chicago Museum of Contemporary Art.

Contents

[edit] Founding of Creative Technologies Incorporated

In October 2006 Korris launched Creative Technologies Incorporated (CTI) as a direct outgrowth of his work at USC. CTI efforts include a large-format, mobile simulation project for the Future Combat Systems program and concept development and content production for the Boeing Company’s Space Segment Design Review for Transformational SATCOM. The FCS Experiment 1.1 Soldier Exercise marked CTI’s entrance to the realm of large-scale live demonstration.

[edit] Writing and Producing

Korris came to USC following work in Hollywood studio production, producing and writing. He began with several creative executive positions at Universal Television, moving on to serve as a staff producer for Ron Howard’s Imagine Films. Friends Rick Berman, (Star Trek: Next Generation Executive Producer) and Maurice Hurley (Co-Executive Producer) named character Captain Korris[7] after him in the episode Heart of Glory. He Executive Produced Showtime/Paramount's "The Killing Yard" which won the 2003 American Bar Association Silver Gavel[8]. He is a member of the writers’ branch of the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, the Writers Guild of America, the Writers Guild of Canada and the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers. Korris earned his undergraduate degree in Economics at Yale University and was awarded an MBA with distinction at the Harvard Business School.

[edit] Notes and References

  1. ^ Modeling and Simulation: Linking Entertainment & Defense
  2. ^ The Spider Web Network - Full Spectrum Warrior "Bios" - XtremeGaming - Tech News
  3. ^ Wired 12.09: The War Room
  4. ^ Design Life Now: National Design Triennial 2006: ICT Leaders Project
  5. ^ Presenters — EG - The Entertainment Gathering
  6. ^ http://www.vanartgallery.bc.ca/press_releases/pdf/Visionaries_release.pdf
  7. ^ Korris - Memory Alpha, the Star Trek Wiki
  8. ^ The Killing Yard (2001) (TV) - Full cast and crew

[edit] Selected Publications

  • The Entertainment Gathering 1/2/3/ Feb 2006 "Making Information Entertaining & Entertainment Informative", Program Book ( Wired 2006)
  • Organizational Simulation “Application of Immersive Technology For Next Generation Simulation” (with Richard Lindheim) (John Wiley & Sons, 2005)
  • Every Soldier A Sensor Simulation: The Ninety Day Wonder – How the Army's Institute for Creative Technologies Developed an Award-Winning Training Application for the Global War on Terrorism in Record Time - 25th Army Science Conference 2006, poster (with Julia C. Campbell and LTC Raymond Compton)
  • Learning To Win: How the Military (& You) Can Build Leaders Through Gaming, ELearning! Magazine October 2006 (cover story) [1]
  • Organizational Simulation (Wiley, 2005) “Application of Immersive Technology For Next Generation Simulation” (with Richard Lindheim)[2]
  • How ICT Built A Cognitive Training Tool for the Xbox – 24th Army Science Conference 2004, (poster)
  • JFETS: Using Immersive Technology to Train the “Universal Observer” – 24th Army Science Conference 2004 (abstract, with Randall Hill and David Hendrie)

[edit] Selected Invited Talks

  • British American Business Council Annual Transatlantic Business Conference, "Technology as a Solution to Effective Homeland Security"[3]
  • Naval Research Advisory Committee on Distributed Operations May 2006
  • eg2006 (Entertainment Gathering 2006 - Richard Saul Wurman), February 2006 (featured speaker)
  • Association of the United States Army, Winter Symposium (featured speaker), February 2006
  • Association of the United States Army, Greater Los Angeles Chapter, “Joint C4 and Space Operations for the Current and Future Force” June 2005 (keynote)
  • TRADOC Senior Leadership Conference (panelist) June 2005
  • Training Fall Conference & Expo, (featured speaker) October 2005
  • 24th Army Science Conference “Training & Simulation” November 2004 (panelist)
  • Interservice/Industry Training, Simulation & Education Conference (panelist) December 2002
  • 23rd Army Science Conference November 2002 (panelist)
  • Simulation and Modeling for Acquisition, Requirements and Training Conference April 2002 (keynote)
  • International Test & Evaluation Association Annual Modeling & Simulation Workshop, December 2001 (keynote)
  • Society of Motion Pictures and Television Engineers Seminar “The Cinema – Now and the Future” May 2001 (keynote)
  • Interservice/Industry Training, Simulation & Education Conference (panelist) November 2000

[edit] External links