Press Releases

Virtual training solution developer, The DiSTI Corporation, along with pilot training innovators, Visionary Training Resources (VTR), have entered into a partnership to develop virtual reality (VR) pilot training for the 737 and A320 aircraft.

Recent research by one of the United States’ leading four-year flight training degree programs estimates that the U.S. has a shortage of at least 3,500 commercial pilots, annually. That number is estimated to grow as approximately 5,000 pilots accepted early retirement offers from mainline U.S. carriers during the COVID pandemic.

“VTR chose to partner with DiSTI because they have a proven record of success,” commented Rick Parker, VTR’s Co-Founder and CTO. “With DiSTI’s VE Studio we get a superior software platform and a collaborative partner that can help us solve the inevitable challenges that come with using cutting edge technology. This will allow us to deliver cost-effective virtual airline pilot training solutions that meet the complex and customized requirements of commercial airlines.”

Focusing on the popular Airbus A320 and the Boeing 737 aircraft, DiSTI and VTR are working to optimize the time pilots spend in training, while simultaneously delivering lower costs compared to traditional airline training methods alone.

This VR-focused solution creates a detailed digital twin of each of the aircrafts’ flight decks, allowing pilots to interact with switches, dials, and levers to build muscle memory before entering more costly simulator training. Additionally, the solution is entirely portable, deploying on mobile VR headsets like the Pico NEO Pro Eye.

In addition to the tracking of all virtual interactions, this solution utilizes the eye-tracking technology provided by the VR headset to track visual inspection tasks performed by the student automatically. With the ability to integrate into any learning management system (LMS) via DiSTI’s Schoolhouse software, students can train from anywhere while having their results recorded and achievements tracked for future review at their respective training entities.

“The combination of immersion, spatially accurate movements, eye tracking, and portability make this solution ideal for procedure training,” explains Chris Van Duyne, DiSTI’s Chief Engineer. “And because the students can train on their own, they can practice as much as they need, so pilots are optimally prepared when they show up to the full flight simulator.”

In its Safety Briefing, the FAA highlighted that the shortage of pilots demands more accessible means for training. The partnership between DiSTI and VTR aims to reduce the unpredictability and costs for airlines by providing highly standardized pilot training and better preparing pilots for simulator training.

Visit our Aviation solutions market page to learn more about DiSTI’s extensive experience building custom solutions for this industry. To learn more about The DiSTI Corporation’s virtual training development and solutions, please contact sales@disti.com.

The DiSTI Corporation and RRC Technology and Innovation (formally RRC Robotica Submarina) have recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to develop, promote, and facilitate Advanced Virtual Maintenance and Training applications to the Oil and Gas Subsea market.

The agreement formalizes a collaboration of both parties spanning back to the first remotely-operated-vehicle (ROV) virtual maintenance training system (VMT) built together over ten years ago.

José Ramos Duarte Junior, Co-Founder, and Director of Technology & Innovation had the following to say about the agreement: “Virtual training and maintenance technology is critical to the Oil and Gas industry’s continued growth within Brazil. This partnership will help train highly skilled personnel faster while lowering training and operational costs. Additionally, carbon footprint reduction is made possible through remote learning/training options aligning with our commitment to the environment.”

Virtual Reality (VR) technology is well-suited for the offshore oil and gas industry, particularly for the virtual maintenance of ROVs and other complex equipment related to the industry. Remotely operated vehicles facilitate the development of oil and gas resources in deeper water. By enabling access to areas that divers could not safely reach, they extended capabilities for handling more complex situations and operations in deeper water.

The partnership between DiSTI and RRC will continue to develop realistic simulations that allow a trainee to make mistakes, sometimes of the life-threatening variety, and experience the outcomes with no serious repercussions. Virtual training solutions can log metrics on the accuracy, time, errors, and completion percentage with the software during training reviewed with the training managers. This approach allows users and trainers to establish pass/fail criteria more accurately. Furthermore, these technologies allow companies to track and trend retention rates performance and identify gaps in the training program.

“We have had the privilege of working with RRC since 2011. We are honored to form a tighter alliance to bring DiSTI’s Virtual Training expertise to the Oil and Gas Subsea markets,” stated John Hayward, CEO of DiSTI.

Virtual training solutions allow companies to address the growing knowledge gap in the Oil and Gas, and Subsea industry. Leveraging new technology will help attract top talent, lower costs improve safety and efficiencies while further growing market share.

Visit our Power & Energy market page to learn more about DiSTI’s extensive experience building custom solutions for this industry. If you’d like to explore your own virtual maintenance training solutions, contact us at sales@disti.com.

A new major revision of The DiSTI Corporation’s HMI development tool, GL Studio, has just been released. This latest update of the popular software tool adds MacOS support, editor internationalization, interactive tutorials, and automatic texture atlasing, amongst other new features.

“For over 22 years, GL Studio has been the HMI software development tool of choice for leading organizations across the globe. This latest release is a reflection of feature requests made by customers as well as DISTI’s own commitment to innovation,” said John Hayward, CEO. “This new version of GL Studio not only helps users future-proof their HMI content but also empowers them with a wide array of cutting-edge features.”

Current users of GL Studio will find that this latest iteration’s editor is now a 64-bit application on Windows. This allows GL Studio projects to bypass the 3GB memory limit of 32-bit applications. Additionally, automatic texture atlasing improves the performance of GL Studio applications on embedded devices.

GL Studio 8.0 now offers MacOS support, allowing the use of the editor on a platform preferred by UX designers and technical artists. Available on MacOS 10.14 or higher, and both Intel x64 and Apple Silicon (M1) Mac users can now easily wield DiSTI’s award-winning GL Studio editor, desktop, ES, and Safety-Critical code generators.

The new Editor Internationalization features provide full Unicode support throughout the GL Studio editor, allowing for Unicode identifier names, property names, geometry names, file names, and file paths. This Internationalization support improves support for non-English languages in the editor as well. Non-English users can write code, comments, property names, design files, and object names in their native language.

With the new Automatic Texture Atlasing, texture files are automatically combined into atlases at generation time. This feature improves performance by reducing memory usage and overhead from switching between many individual texture files.

Easier onboarding through step-by-step tutorials driven entirely in the editor is now made possible through GL Studio 8.0’s Interactive Tutorials. The revised tutorial highlights key items in the editor necessary to complete each step, validating the completion of each step before moving forward.

“The new GL Studio 8.0 features allow more ways to incorporate existing inputs and assets, train your team, and seamlessly generate applications on your target,” said GL Studio Engineering Manager Linda Flannery.

Along with these new features, many improvements to the HMI software tool are now present in GL Studio 8.0. Some of these improvements to existing features are:

• Code Browser now allows for multiple selections
• Raspberry Pi 4 support added to RaspberryPiDeployment package
• RaspberryPiDeployment now supports multitouch
• FlexNet Embedded stability improvements
• Linker fix for GlsRSOLoader on 64-bit Linux.

Customers under current maintenance and support contracts for GL Studio can log into DiSTI’s customer support portal to download the latest version. For more information on GL Studio, contact us at sales@disti.com.

To learn more about DiSTI’s award-winning HMI software development tool please visit our GL Studio page.

DiSTI has been awarded a Top Workplaces 2021 honor by Orlando Sentinel Media Group.

The list is based solely on employee feedback gathered through a third-party survey administered by employee engagement technology partner Energage LLC. The anonymous survey uniquely measures 15 culture drivers that are critical to the success of any organization: including alignment, execution, and connection, just to name a few.

“During this very challenging time, Top Workplaces has proven to be a beacon of light for organizations, as well as a sign of resiliency and strong business performance,” said Eric Rubino, Energage CEO. “When you give your employees a voice, you come together to navigate challenges and shape your path forward. Top Workplaces draw on real-time insights into what works best for their organization, so they can make informed decisions that have a positive impact on their people and their business.”

“It means a great deal to a company when it is recognized for being one of the top places to work,” states DiSTI CEO John Hayward. “This award is made all the more special because it is based on feedback from our own employees. We work hard to foster the best environment possible for our team, and we will continue listening to our employees to make it even better.”

To learn more about opportunities to work at DiSTI please visit our Career page.

The DiSTI Corporation has been awarded a $5.4M delivery order from the United States Army to upgrade the Stryker Diagnostic and Troubleshooting Trainer (DTT).

DiSTI, the world’s leading provider of virtual training solutions, will upgrade the Stryker DTT virtual trainers to the latest FMT architecture and Common Core software elements, including the Virtual Environment Graphical User Interface (GUI), Student Performance Monitor, Simulation Engine, Message Manager Interface, Instructor/Operator Station (IOS) and Training Management System (TMS).

“DiSTI is honored to have once again been selected by the U.S. Army to support its mission of developing state-of-the-art immersive training for its warfighters,” said DiSTI CEO John Hayward. “This program adds the Stryker to the previously contracted FMT DTTs for the Army’s JLTV, AMPV, M1A2 SEP v3 Abrams, and Bradley Fighting Vehicle.”

This award is a continuation of DiSTI’s support of the Army’s Stryker Maintenance Training System, successfully converting the Stryker DTTs from 2D graphics to 3D interactive graphics on previous Army contracts.

Installation of upgraded classrooms featuring the updated Stryker DTT software variants will occur in U.S. Army Ordnance School, Ft. Lee, VA, Wheel Maintenance Training Department.

The upgrades provided by DiSTI will include the conversion of selected legacy training lessons and the addition of new lessons for the Flat Bottom (FB) versions of the Stryker Infantry Carrier Vehicle (ICV), Anti-Tank Guided Missile Vehicle (ATGM), and Mortar Carrier Vehicle (MCV) variants to Common Core. In addition, the program also includes developing new lessons for the latest Double V-Hull (DVH) version of the Stryker ICV, ATGM, and MCV vehicle variants.

The program also includes Operator and Instructor training, On-call Maintenance and Technical Support, cybersecurity certification, and ongoing FMT Common Core support.

The Family of Maintenance Trainers (FMT) is a program developed by the U.S. Army to establish a Common Core (CC) software baseline to replace its current software architecture with a solution adaptable to address new and emerging technologies for future training needs.

For more details, please contact Sales@Disti.com.

The DiSTI Corporation, the world’s leading provider of virtual maintenance training solutions, has been selected by the United States Air Force for three 5-year Basic Ordering Agreement (BOA) contract awards for both Commercial and non-Commercial Research & Development for Live, Virtual, and Constructive Training Environments, as well as Big Data Analytics.

“DiSTI is proud to be given additional opportunities to serve our warfighters and support the United States Air Force as they develop and deploy immersive training initiatives,” said DiSTI CEO John Hayward. “We look forward to working closely with the Air Education and Training Command to continue DiSTI’s legacy of pioneering transformative solutions.”

These BOAs continue DiSTI’s work of providing the United States Air Force with customized training solutions.

Out of 58 submissions from 38 vendors, The DiSTI Corporation was one of 16 vendors selected in the category of commercial suite of Live, Virtual, and Construction Training Environments, one of 11 selected in the non-commercial Research and Development Live, Virtual, and Construction Training Environments category, and one of 17 in the commercial suite of Big Data Analytics category.

For more information on DiSTI’s experience with the U.S. Air Force and our experience developing aerospace and aviation solutions, please contact Sales@Disti.com.