Implementing Situational Simulations through Distributed Databases

The Virtual Coach is a web-centric virtual environment that creates temporally dynamic clinical exercises known as situational simulations, with the intention of exposing participants to rapidly unfolding events and the pressure of decision-making. This paper deals with the temporal nature of the databases, which store all the data relevant to situational simulations executed by the Virtual Coach. The first part of the paper describes situational simulations and the relevance of distributed temporal computing. The latter half of the paper focuses on developing the temporal information used to establish temporal consistency of data. It also deals with query processing issues across client-server architectures. An Overview of the Virtual Coach The conceptual framework of the Virtual Coach as explained in Rojas & Mukherjee (2002a) serves as the foundation for the development of situational simulations in the Virtual Coach. The components of this framework consist of three major models: the process model, the product model, and the information model. The process model is a representation of the building process, the product model is a representation of the physical facility, and the information model is a representation of the data environment. The conceptual framework also includes a visualization mechanism to provide process and product feedback to the participant. The Virtual Coach uses two databases. The main database is stored on the server and consists of ‘As-Planned’ information regarding the construction project. All the information in this database is static. The model for the ‘As-Planned’ database has been discussed in Rojas & Mukherjee (2002b). The ‘As-Built’ database remains on the client’s machine, and is dynamically updated at the end of each time instant. Definition of a Situational Simulation Situational simulations are temporally dynamic clinical exercises with the objective of exposing participants to rapidly unfolding events and the pressure of quick decisionmaking. The application of situational simulations provides construction managers and other decision-makers with the opportunity of encountering the wide variety of experiences that the unpredictable nature of the construction industry offers.