BattleBuddy Demo January 2023

VA Mission Daybreak Suicide Prevention Demo
The University of Southern California (USC) Institute for Creative Technologies labs won a U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs Mission Daybreak Award for a Suicide Prevention mHealth Application that leverages a conversational AI Virtual Human Mental Health support agent.
The USC Institute for Creative Technologies (USC ICT) Integrated Virtual Humans and Medical Virtual Reality labs in collaboration with the SoldierStrong Foundation received a $250,000 Mission Daybreak award to advance the use of technology to undertake efforts to reduce suicide in Veterans.
Mission Daybreak, a $20 million grand challenge, is part of the VA’s 10-year strategy to limit Veteran suicide through a comprehensive, public health approach. Phase 1 of the competition for this award attracted 1,371 proposals, of which 30 were selected for funding.
The USC ICT team, Arno Hartholt, Sharon Mozgai, and Skip Rizzo, proposed to extend their previous Army-funded research that promotes engagement with a virtual human-led mobile mental health and wellness application, Battle Buddy. This interactive, embodied conversational agent leverages content related to the VA’s Suicide Safety Planning program embedded within brief daily check-ins with Veterans. The virtual human will also allow Veterans to opt-in to connect their wearable sensors to the app, leveraging sleep, exercise and other sensed signals to their overall well-being.
In November, the USC ICT/SoldierStrong team traveled to Washington, D.C. to demo the Battle Buddy prototype and present a long-term research and development vision for the program in competition with the other 29 Phase 1 awardees. Ten winners were selected for Phase 2 development with awards ranging from $500K to 3 million dollars. Winners will be announced in January 2023 in a White House ceremony.
This effort extends upon USC ICT’s collaboration with SoldierStrong that has resulted in the free distribution of USC ICT’s Virtual Reality PTSD Exposure Therapy system (BRAVEMIND) across the VA health network.
This work is highly relevant to VA priorities as U.S. Secretary of Veterans Affairs, Denis McDonough, has stated, “There is nothing more important to the VA than preventing Veteran suicide-it’s our top clinical priority.”
The USC Institute for Creative Technologies at USC is a U.S. Army University Affiliated Research Center (UARC). For over 20 years, USC ICT has been at the forefront of basic and applied research in immersive technology, simulation, human performance, computer graphics, artificial intelligence, mixed reality, and narrative. USC ICT has leveraged this multi-disciplinary research to develop advanced prototypes and pilot projects that solve real-world problems facing service members, civilians, students, and society.
SoldierStrong provides revolutionary technology, innovative advancements and educational opportunities to veterans to better their lives and the lives of their families.