Aptima, has been selected as a winner of the 2007 Tibbetts Award, which recognizes the best achievements in the Small Business Innovation Research program (SBIR). Aptima's development of SPOTLITE, an electronic assessment tool for accurately measuring the performance of F-16 pilots in training, sparked the company's creation of a new division and a related $11M in revenue.
Named for Roland Tibbetts, who began the SBIR program as an experimental project at the National Science Foundation, the award recognized SPOTLITE for its enhancement of Air Force training. Aptima is one of 55 companies awarded from over 4,000 companies that annually receive a combined $2 billion through SBIR research contracts.Originally developed for training Air Force F-16 pilots, SPOTLITE is an electronic assessment tool that allows observers and trainers to assess team performance in simulated and live training exercises in real time. SPOTLITE is now operational at the Air Force's Distributed Mission Operations training facility in Mesa, Arizona, as well as the Air Force Air and Space Operations Center (AOC) Dynamic Targeting Cell, and the Marine Corps School of Infantry (East) (SOI-E). SPOTLITE's development formed the foundation of an entirely new domain at Aptima, the measurement of team performance in simulation-based training. This work led to the creation of a new company division devoted to human performance, allowing Aptima to secure over $11M in new contracts related to the development of performance measurement systems and warfighter training competencies. Since the initial SPOTLITE SBIR Phase I contract award in 1999, Aptima has grown from 20 employees to 100+ employees – and is today an acknowledged leader in the field of human-centered engineering. 'The SPOTLITE project epitomizes the power of the SBIR program,' said Daniel Serfaty, president and principal founder of Aptima. 'The project was born out of an innovative insight into measuring human performance in simulation-based training, and demonstrates how the fruitful partnerships between a small business like Aptima and our Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps customers can produce a truly useful tool for the warfighter.' Aptima will receive the Tibbetts Award on October 10 at the Westin Washington, located at 1400 M Street NW in Washington, DC. |
