ASYMPTOTE: A SYMPle Tool for Optimal Technical Education

Navy technology is exquisitely complex, and thus difficult to diagnose and repair. Acquiring and, more importantly, retaining the technical skills for corrective maintenance of these complex systems is a significant challenge for the Navy. What is needed is an efficient technology for assessing, training, and retraining diagnosis and repair skills among technicians who maintain complex shipboard systems. The next generation tool that we propose to develop to support this initiative is called ASYMPTOTE: A SYMPle Tool for Optimal Technical Education. ASYMPTOTE rigorously measures, models, and predicts future parameters of the arc of learning and forgetting. It includes a device model that fails and tests realistically in a portable, virtual environment. Learning tasks test diagnostic and repair skills, and those are plotted on the learning curve during the training instant. The solution supports training in the schoolhouse with instructor support and retraining on demand on deployment by an independent trainee. In short, ASYMPTOTE represents the physical and functional device; is accessible (portable) and engaging, to encourage use; and measures, models, and manages skill acquisition and decay.