James Korris

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.[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. Korris was also designated a Massive Change Visionary in Bruce Mau's Massive Change exhibit in October 2004,[5] which premiered at the Vancouver Art Gallery and travelled most recently to the Chicago Museum of Contemporary Art.

In 2007, Korris was appointed to the Naval Research Advisory Committee, the senior scientific advisory group to the Secretary of the Navy, the Chief of Naval Operations, Commandant of the Marine Corps, and the Chief of Naval Research. In 2008, he was named to lead a US Marine Corps study on virtual simulation training for ground forces.

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. In 2008, CTI teamed with Boeing to develop virtual training solutions for military and law enforcement.

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 and Brian Grazer's Imagine Films. Friends Rick Berman, (Star Trek: Next Generation Executive Producer) and Maurice Hurley (Co-Executive Producer) named character Captain Korris 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.[6] 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.

Notes and references
  1. Modeling and Simulation, Linking Entertainment & Defense, National Research Council, Committee on Modeling and Simulation, 1997
  2. Full Spectrum Warrior Bios - XtremeGaming - Tech News The Spider Web Network (2003)
  3. The War Room, Wired Magazine, September 2004
  4. Design Life Now: National Design Triennial 2006: ICT Leaders Project Archived 2007-04-02 at the Wayback Machine
  5. Vancouver Art Gallery Presents: Massive Change Visionaries, 2004 Archived 2007-10-23 at the Wayback Machine
  6. The Killing Yard (2001, Showtime) - Full cast and crew

Selected publications

Selected Invited Talks
  • Technology as a Solution to Effective Homeland Security, Featured Speaker, British American Business Council Annual Transatlantic Business Conference (2007)
  • Naval Research Advisory Committee Study on Distributed Operations (2006)
  • eg2006 Featured Speaker (Entertainment Gathering 2006 - Richard Saul Wurman) (2006)
  • Association of the United States Army, Winter Symposium, Featured Speaker (2006)
  • Joint C4 and Space Operations for the Current and Future Force, Association of the United States Army, Greater Los Angeles Chapter, Keynote (2005)
  • US Army Training and Doctrine Command (TRADOC) Senior Leadership Conference, Panelist (2005)
  • Training Fall Conference & Expo, Featured Speaker (2005)
  • Training & Simulation, 24th Army Science Conference, Panelist (2004)
  • Interservice/Industry Training, Simulation & Education Conference, Panelist (2002)
  • 23rd Army Science Conference, Panelist (2002)
  • Simulation and Modeling for Acquisition, Requirements and Training Conference, Keynote (2002)
  • International Test & Evaluation Association Annual Modeling & Simulation Workshop, Keynote (2001)
  • The Cinema – Now and the Future, Society of Motion Pictures and Television Engineers Seminar, Keynote (2001)
  • Interservice/Industry Training, Simulation & Education Conference, Panelist (2000)
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