Todd Jackson
Systems Engineer, Modeling and Simulation Group
Task Leader, Trident Life Extension Virtual System Simulation
 As friends made a mint writing code for dot.com companies, Todd Jackson was completing his Ph.D. and deciding how
to apply his engineering education. The dot.com world was tempting, but Draper’s simulation group was a stronger draw.
“I always enjoyed studying vehicles, dynamics, and computers and saw an opportunity here to integrate my interests in a
unique environment,” says Jackson.
Jackson is task lead for the MK6LE Virtual System Simulation (VSSim), a tool that can be applied to requirements
analysis, design, integration, verification, and long-term fleet support for the Navy’s Trident Life Extension program.
Simulation is critical to Trident; actual missile test launches have to succeed. “You want 100% confidence that the system
is going to work before launch,” says Jackson. “Through simulation, we have a cost-effective means to test and debug the
system before committing actual flight assets.
“At Draper, we have the skills to create our own tools, yet we try to re-use commercial tools as much as possible. This
lets us focus our in-house development on truly unique problems while reducing the expense and time of unnecessary
development and maintenance. Through this approach, VSSim has created cutting-edge solutions incorporating a
commercially available instruction set simulator for modeling the flight computers as well as a hardware accelerator for
emulating the end-to-end digital design of the system.”
Jackson sees his key role as communicator and facilitator, managing the big picture and how pieces fit together while the
team’s technical expertise makes the simulations work. “It’s very exciting to work on such a large effort and see the Trident
community benefit from our efforts and know that our work is critical to an important national program.” |
