TOPICS & CATEGORIES
By Cassidy Mills, Staff Writer
Florida Simulation Summit (FSS) keynote speaker Lynn Welch presented “From Battlefields to Smart Cities: Forging the Future with AI and XR,” highlighting the evolution of simulation and artificial intelligence from military roots to modern-day applications across civilian life.
The National Center for Simulation, alongside Orange County Government, hosted the FSS at the DoubleTree by Hilton at the Entrance to Universal Orlando, May 9. The summit offered an immersive experience, featuring panel discussions on smart city research, practical applications and lessons learned in optimizing operations with artificial intelligence (AI) and simulation.
Welch explored how decades of defense-driven innovation are now addressing real-world challenges—ranging from medical training and infrastructure design to emergency response and public safety.
Drawing on her personal experiences in defense research and development, Welch traced the evolution of extended reality and artificial intelligence from high stakes combat simulations to critical tools shaping modern urban ecosystems.
Through a wide-ranging talk that spanned military operations, healthcare systems and public planning, Welch said simulation and AI are no longer niche tools—they are foundational to how societies prepare for the future.
“By running these simulations across entire healthcare systems and community response organizations, you’re able to understand what your surge capacity is and if you’re preparing for future growth,” Welch said. “In many cases, small changes before brick and mortars [are] ever built make a huge difference.”
Welch, whose career began as a graphic designer at the Institute for Defense Analyses (IDA), was hired to support technical publications. After being brought into a simulation lab to evaluate digital terrain for desert combat training, her feedback led to a permanent role on a team tasked with developing simulations for military readiness.
In her time at IDA, Welch said she helped develop one of the first realistic battlefield simulations for the Second Armored Cavalry Division and contributed to simulating the next-generation battle ecosystem for the B-2 stealth bomber.
Welch addressed how military-driven innovation often finds its way into civilian life. In the mid-1990s, Welch said she was introduced to a clunky black box that offered early multiplayer simulation capabilities. The project, developed through Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and Microsoft, eventually became what is now known as the Xbox gaming console. While originally designed as a training tool, it marked an early convergence of consumer and military technologies.
Today, Welch said that pattern continues. Recent work in the healthcare sector where her team partnered with Medtronic to create digital twins of medical devices. These digital replicas help clinicians learn proper device usage and safety protocols.
“One of the most interesting projects that I’ve been able to work on, most recently with my current team, is one of the first medical AI agents,” Welch said. “They are designed to help scale healthcare across enterprises and address the growing shortage of clinical staff.”
The AI, accessible via a headset, allowed medical trainees to ask real-time questions and receive feedback as they practiced procedures. One initiative involved developing an AI agent modeled on a physician known for expertise in difficult airway intubation.
Welch said the next step is integrating such AI tools into augmented reality platforms, allowing clinicians to receive guidance during day-to-day activities without being confined to a virtual environment.
The application of simulation has expanded into public planning. Welch said an ongoing project with a local government in Northern Virginia involves simulating population growth and healthcare demand to evaluate whether current infrastructure plans will remain effective in five years. She cited simple architectural adjustments—such as widening hallways in emergency departments—as small but impactful decisions that could make the difference in handling mass-casualty events or future pandemics.
The approach also includes modeling entire community ecosystems, involving hospitals, public safety agencies and local universities in collaborative simulation environments.
Among the most personal stories shared was one involving her work on a digital model of lower Manhattan in the late 1990s, originally built for National Guard training after the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. On the day of the September 11 attacks, one of the National Guard Civil Support Teams used that model to plan their route into Manhattan after traditional access points were blocked. Welch said they were the first such team to arrive at the site equipped for chemical and biological hazard assessment. The scenario demonstrated the utility of having accurate, accessible digital environments available in crisis response.
While the talk covered a broad array of subjects—from military operations to smart glasses—the underlying message was consistent: the technologies being developed today have wide-ranging implications.
Welch called on developers, technologists and policymakers to recognize that the decisions they make now are shaping future systems—both civilian and military—and urged them to consider how these tools could serve not just efficiency, but also resilience and equity.
“As we all know, we can’t predict the future. We don’t get to pick the moment when the world changes, but what we do about it and how we prepare for it, we can control,” Welch said. “We don’t predict the future, but we have an opportunity to shape it, and I want each of you in this room to realize the part you individually have and how we shape our future.”
Additional coverage on FSS include:
Florida Simulation Summit highlights role of AI and simulation in building smart cities
Industry experts discuss real-world applications of digital twins at 2025 Florida Simulation Summit
Florida Simulation Summit spotlights AI and simulation in smart city innovation
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