Biography: Vincent Amico graduated from New York University with a Bachelor of Aeronautical Engineering in 1941. He was awarded a Masters in Business Administration from Hofstra College in 1954 and a Master of Science in Engineering from Florida Technological University in 1973. Mr. Amico worked on the design of naval aircraft as a stress analyst and project stress engineer from 1941 to 1945. He entered the Armed Forces in 1945 and was assigned to the Static Test Unit of the Structures Laboratory at Wright Field as, a structures research engineer. Upon leaving the service in 1947, he joined Republic Aviation Corporation with responsibility for preliminary structural design of missile and advanced aircraft systems.

Amico started his career in simulation when he joined the Special Devices Center in 1948 as a Project Engineer in the Flight Trainers Branch. He was promoted to Branch head, Division head, and then to Chief Engineer of the Special Projects Office. In 1969 he was selected for the Position of Director of Engineering at the Senior Executive level. He was assigned to the position of Director of Research in 1979, where he was responsible for the Navy's training device research and development program. He retired in 1981. Since then he has done consulting and taught many short course on simulation. He currently is the Industrial Affiliates Coordinator for the Department of Computer Science at UCF. Amico has been associated with the research and development programs relating to real time simulation using digital computers since 1952. He has also played a major role in the application of digital systems to all training devices.

Amico is a member of Tau Beta Pi and Alpha Pi Mu Honorary Engineering Fraternities, Sigma Xi, the Scientific Research Society, the American Institute for Aeronautics and Astronautics, AFCEA, NCS, NDIA, and the Society for Computer Simulation.

Major accomplishments include the following:

1. Simulator G-Suit Patent
2. Analog Computer Potentiometer Tapping Kit (1955)
3. Fight Simulator Flight Test Specification (1954)
4. General Specification for Flight Simulators (1955)
5. Computer Generated Visual Supporting Research Project (1958)
6. First Application of a Commercial Digital Computer in a Simulator (1959)
7. Use of On-Board Computer in Simulators (1965)
8. Introduction of High Level Languages of Simulators (1967)
9. Distributed Simulation Systems for Multi-station Trainers (1966)

Conference Leadership:

He was Chair of the N/ITSC for 7 years, the forerunner of what is now I/ITSEC Conference. He was the first General Chair of the I/ITSEC Conference in 1979.

He was member of the Board of SCS and served as VP Conferences. He was member of the initial Board of Directors of the National Center for Simulation and is now the Co-Chair of the Technology Committee.

He was the UCF Conference Coordinator of the DIS Semi-annual Workshops from 1990 through 1995. The Workshop grew from an original attendance of just over 200 to over 1400 in five years.

Awards:
I/ITSEC Lifetime Achievement Award, Dec 1997 SCS Presidential Award, April 1998