US Navy Awards Aptima Contract for AI Solution to Accelerate Training Development
NAUTICAL leverages Large Language Models (LLMs) to speed training development in support of Ready Relevant Learning
Orlando, FL – December 9, 2024 – Aptima, Inc., announced today the award of a $3.2 million contract from the Naval Air Warfare Center Training Systems Division (NAWCTSD) to mature NAUTICAL, an AI solution that revolutionizes instructional systems design (ISD) tasks and workflows to accelerate training analysis.
NAUTICAL, the Novel AI Utility for Training, Instruction and Comprehensive Analytic Learning, is a web-based tool that leverages large language models and generative AI to streamline and automate much of the labor-intensive, time-consuming processes required of Instructional System Designers and Developers to perform the critical training analysis to ensure Sailors receive the right training at the right time in the right place.
Aptima was awarded the contract after earning the top score in a “Ready Relevant Learning Challenge,” a call to industry from NAWCTSD and Central Florida Tech Grove for AI solutions that could produce quality task analysis, learning analysis, and media selection in reduced time.
Ready Relevant Learning (RRL) is the Navy’s model for maintaining warfighter readiness. The RRL goal is to meet the Fleet’s requirement for well-trained Sailors in decreased time with increased responsiveness to today’s dynamic geopolitical climate. Historically, training analysis is a labor- and time-intensive task that can take instructional system designers (ISDs) months to complete.
NAUTICAL enables ISDs to leverage large language models, using custom-engineered prompts to conduct task analysis and produce high quality, validated outputs in a fraction of the time. Rather than ISDs pouring through extensive documentation and interviewing subject matter experts (SMEs), NAUTICAL can ingest and analyze vast volumes of technical manuals, training plans, doctrine and other materials. In this way, it complements existing ISD, Instructor, and SME skills, unlocking operational advances by efficiently generating high-fidelity training analysis artifacts.
Aptima Director of Government Programs
“By applying large language models to the training development challenge, we can offload much of the highly repetitive, tedious processes that ISDs must complete in order to create effective learning experiences,” said Terry Ritchie, Aptima Director of Government Programs. “This will free up our valuable, yet finite human talent to do what they do best, and that is to design and develop exceptional training.”
Under the current contract, Aptima will mature NAUTICAL as it is applied to the US Navy EA (Engineering Aide) rating. NAUTICAL is being designed to support other Navy ratings and has high applicability to ISD analyses conducted for other Service branches.
NAUTICAL is designed to expedite the ISD workflow while maintaining that important human-in-the-loop component required. “Where NAUTICAL can deliver an accurate solution at 85% in a very compressed timeframe, the human can apply their cognitive expertise to take it across the goal line,” said Ritchie.
“Over time, with NAUTICAL learning from the input of its human counterpart, the quality of the analyses and outputs will get better and better.”
“This will not only reduce the time it takes to develop training analysis but can improve the quality of training as well. By supporting a more streamlined cycle of feedback from the Fleet to the schoolhouse, training can be kept current and updated for the demands of new missions,” added Ritchie.
About Aptima, Inc.
For more than 25 years, Aptima has been dedicated to optimizing performance in critical, technology-intensive environments. To explore how Aptima is revolutionizing how humans learn, train, and work in the age of AI, visit www.aptima.com.
Media Contact:
Joel Greenberg
DCPR
Joel@dcpr.com
202-363-1065 | 202-669-3639 cell
