Columbus Ledger-Enquirer: CSU Gets $1.6 Million Grant To Establish Gaming Institute

By Larry Gierer
Thursday, October 21, 2010

Columbus State University will use a $1.6 million federal grant to establish a Games, Education, Modeling and Simulation Institute as a model project in support of tactical defense efforts at Fort Benning and elsewhere in the region.

The main goal of the project is to save the lives of soldiers.

“We’ll be working on a software system for training junior officers at Fort Benning,” said Wayne Summers, chair of the TSYS School of Computer Science at CSU. “We want to help the officers make better tactical decisions.

Though the word games is used, Summers said: “These are serious simulation models.”

Not only will the work of the institute help the military, but also work done should support games and entertainment industry businesses relocating to the Chattahoochee Valley as well as existing businesses.

Summers credited Georgia Congressman Sanford Bishop with helping to secure the federal grant that establishes the new institute.

“I am glad to be in a position to offer continued support to Columbus State University and to be able to assist with the establishment of the GEMS Institute,” Bishop said in a university news release.

He said the marriage between Fort Benning and CSU is a “win-win proposition.”

“This will put our area on the cutting edge of this developing technology, which, in addition to a tremendous economic impact for our area, will save the Department of Defense billions of dollars in military training costs,” he said.

Summers said that by establishing the GEMS Institute, CSU has taken the first steps toward providing “structure to guide our research efforts in support of the defense, education and entertainment industries.”

“We think we are poised to become a national leader in this arena,” he said.

Currently, there are four graduate students and three undergraduate students involved. Summers expects to add about three students.