Dean s Weekly Significant Activities Report. 21 January Picture of the Week

Transcription

1 Page1 Dean s Weekly Significant Activities Report 21 January 2015 The Dean s Weekly Significant Activities Report is an internal report on all activities conducted within the Departments, Centers & Staff. The Report is provided to the Dean for situation awareness, throughout the organization for shared situation awareness, and to select external organizations for outreach and communication. Portions of the Dean s Weekly Significant Activities Report are further staffed in a report to the Superintendent. POC for the report is MS Lesley Beckstrom at Picture of the Week DFL: Cadets Peter Neise, Left, and McKenzie Beasley, Right visit the Mengjia Longshan Temple ( 龍山 ), a famous Buddhist temple.

2 Page2 Combating Terrorism Center Major(P) Kent Solheim Nelly Lahoud, Ph.D. Daniel Milton, Ph.D. In early January, several members of the Combating Terrorism Center were invited to Fort Bragg, North Carolina, to brief members of the deploying 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division on their latest research on the Islamic State. Major(P) Kent Solheim, Dr. Daniel Milton, Dr. Nelly Lahoud, and Mr. Zaid Thabit provided three briefing sessions to the 3BCT, both presenting their latest findings and answering questions from those in attendance.

3 Page3 Geoff Porter, Ph.D. CTC Associate Dr. Geoff Porter s latest publication, The Impact of Crude s Collapse on the Islamic State, was released this week. The analysis considers the centrality of oil revenue to the Islamic State s operations and how falling prices in the sector could disrupt the group s ability to provide social and other services in the areas it controls. Dr. Porter further examines how IS may adjust to this new development and the broader implications of the group s reaction to the changes. The full Perspectives piece may be found at Center for Enhanced Performance BDE-consolidated TEE prep sessions. On 14 and 15 Dec, the cadet tutor program conducted BDE-consolidated TEE prep study sessions for seven plebe and yearling courses. A leader team of 18 cadets lead by CDT Stuart Vanderkooi, 15, A-3, and Spenser Rapone, 16, H-3 planned and executed the study sessions. Approximately 550 cadets signed in for assistance for the two-hour sessions. The leader team supervised a bank of 200 volunteer cadet tutors.

4 Page4 Department of Behavioral Sciences and Leadership Completed Events Follow BS&L on Facebook: NY/Department-of-Behavioral-Sciences-Leadership/

5 Page5 Department of Behavioral Sciences hosted Toys for Tots Drive The Department of Behavioral Sciences & Leadership aind the West Point community concluded its annual Toys for Tots drive with the Management Program s Omicron Delta Kappa (ODK) National Leadership Honor Society presenting toys to young children at Northeast Gateway to Freedom Shelter in Newburgh, NY on December 20th. Over $5000 and additional toys were presented to the Marine Corps Reserve of Orange County for distribution to children in West Point area. BS&L and ODK want to acknowledge the great support received from ODIA, which greatly enabled the campaign by allowing ODK cadets to collect toys and donations at Army football and hockey games. POC: LTC Todd Woodruff, Todd.Woodruff@usma.edu Faculty member engages in online academic debate Professor Morten Ender waded into the online debate waters of the Military Brats versus CHAMPs controversy. He interviewed with the Washington Post in an article titled Two children s book authors thought military brats deserved a new name. The brats thought otherwise. The article appeared on December 30th and is available on-line at: brats-deserved-a-better-name-the-brats-thought-otherwise/2014/12/29/6a584f98-87d3-11e f79a23c40e6c_story.html?hpid=z5. The story was reprinted in the Stars & Stripes and Messenger-Inquirer.com of Owensboro, KY He did another interview with the Omaha World-Herald and is quoted in an article titled They're brats, and proud of it; mom, daughter who tried to rename military kids feel harsh backlash, available on-line at: The story was reprinted in the North Platte Telegraph.com at: POC: morten.ender@usma.edu. Department of Electrical Engineering & Computer Science EECS Cadets and Faculty Attend ShmooCon Hacker Convention With a big thank you to Mr. Vinny Viola and the ShmooCon organizers, Heidi and Bruce Potter,

6 Page6 28 cadets and 12 faculty attended the 11 th annual Shmoo Conference in Washington D.C. from January ShmooCon is an annual East Coast hacker convention offering three days of an interesting atmosphere for demonstrating technology exploitation, inventive software and hardware solutions, and open discussions of critical INFOSEC issues. This is one of the highlights of the Cyber Leadership Development Program (CLDP) at USMA and facilitates growing and maintaining the pipeline of competent Soldiers and leaders in the cyber domain. There were over 40 talks, including one given by COL Greg Conti and LTC Dave Raymond of the Army Cyber Institute on the art of deception in cyberspace. In addition to the talks, there were a number of other events occurring simultaneously with the cadet favorite being Hack Fortress. Our team of 10 cadets (Avery Austin '18, Sawyer Stacey '18, Will Brattain '15, Kenny McGaffey '17, John Dimmer '17, Thomas Dubyak '15, Noah Ogrydziak '17, Dan Zablocky '17, Ames Evans '15 and MAJ Olson '04) competed against a number of skilled teams to solve hacking challenges in a timebased event, eventually making it to the semi-finals. There were also hands on labs where attendees could learn advanced (or basic) skills on physical security, Wi-Fi hacking, or any other type of related topic in the open labs. Vendors also provided their own competitions while introducing new technologies in the security field. For those who would like to try a challenge themselves, a recommended example that will be available until the end of February can be found at the following URL: Feel free to contact MAJ Karl Olson (karl.olson@usma.edu), or CPT Will North (william.north@usma.edu) for hints (or solutions). MAJ Olson and CPT North developed working solutions and entered them into a drawing for $2,500 of cyber training from SANS.org. Overall, it was once again an eye-opening experience for all USMA attendees regarding the pace of advancement and emergence of new threats being discussed, new research topics being explored and the rapid increase in technical capabilities of the average home user ShmooCon Attendees

7 Page7 (CDTs Gabriel Bann, Tate Bowers, Will Brattain, Daniel Brown, Sean Deaton, John Dimmer, Ames Evans, Gun Woo Kim, Leo Kosta, Dale Lakes, Chris Maixner, Askia Mapp, Thamas Dubyak, Kenny McGaffey, Noah Ogrydziak, Andrew Parker, Matt Seyfried, Adrian Julea, Leo St. Amour, Xiao Tan, Fred Ulrich, Adam Van Prooyen, Jacob Weiss, Allen Hezekiah, Andreas Kellas, Dan Zablockey, Sawyer Stacey, Avery Austin) The Hack Fortress team preparing for a competition round. Department of Systems Engineering 1. Initiation of the Engineering Immersion Internship Pilot Program at Redstone Arsenal, Alabama. The Department of Systems Engineering (DSE) initiated the Engineering Immersion Internship Pilot Program on 5 January DSE sent four engineering majors in their Second Class year on an Engineering Immersion Internship experience for their spring semester, Academic Term (AT) 15-2, from 05 January 2015 through 16 May Cadets Matthew Loza, Zachary Sostak, and Owen Bailey from DSE, and Cadet John Geiger from CME will work directly with and for Aviation and Missile Research, Development, and Engineering Center (AMRDEC) engineers leading programs such as the Grey Eagle Unmanned Aerial Vehicle system, the UH-60V Blackhawk program, Small Unmanned Aerial Systems, and the Multipurpose Munition Launcher Air Defense platform. The cadets will work part-time as engineering interns for programs within the AMRDEC at Redstone Arsenal, AL, while also taking classes at the University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH). The purpose of the internship is to give cadets a better understanding of engineering practice, provide perspective for their engineering courses, and inspire engagement with their discipline. Their functional duties will include project planning and management, software/hardware/complex electronics development, requirements development and management, system design, formal verification and qualification, interoperability testing of Army portfolio elements.

8 Page8 Top Left to Right: Mr. Bill Crawford (AMRDEC Public Affairs Officer), Cadet Matthew Loza, Cadet Owen Bailey, Mr. Kerry Wagner (AMRDEC Chief Systems Engineer). Bottom Left to Right: Cadet John Geiger, Cadet Zachary Sostak Department of Foreign Languages Current Week HIGHLIGHTS: Semester Abroad Program (SAP) / Academic trip sections: Arabic: Five Arabic students arrived in Amman, Jordan on Sunday, 18 JAN and began inprocessing with AMIDEAST. In addition to academic counseling, registration, and local orientation they will go to the US Embassy Thursday to receive a security and procedures brief before they begin their studies. The three Arabic students in Morocco have completed the presession studies at AMIDEAST in Rabat and transitioned to Al Akhawayn University in Ifrane, Morocco, this past Friday. They are also going through add-drop and orientation before beginning their studies later this week. Spanish: 5 Spanish Language Cadets departed on 21 January to Mexico for their semester abroad. Cadets Connor Wernecke, Brian Fydenkevez, Nathan Swanson, Jeremy Tetro, and Benjamin Greif began their journey as the first USMA cadets to attend Mexico s famed Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico (UNAM). UNAM is the largest university within Latin America and originated from the oldest University in North America. The cadets will study a variety of topics ranging from Mathematics and Engineering to Philosophy and English Literature. Apart from the Cadets individual courses, they will each further their Spanish skills through host family interactions, cultural immersion trips, and advanced Spanish courses.

9 Page9 Cadets Peter Neise, Left, and McKenzie Beasley, Right visit the Mengjia Longshan Temple ( 龍山 ), a famous Buddhist temple. Chinese: The Chinese Language cadets studying in China and Taiwan have settled in to their new environments and have started to venture out and get a feel for the new cultural environments. Cadets Beasley and Neise in Taiwan visited several Buddhist temples. Cadets Brad Smith, Lashondra Maddox, Dylan Maher, Thomson Phung and Christopher Young have started working their way through the Beijing subway system in order to be able to enjoy the cultural sites in and around Beijing. Language or International Club key events: This Sunday 25 January the Model Arab League begins its weekly Sunday evening meetings in which the Cadets research their assigned Arab state for upcoming competition and teach themselves parliamentary procedure. The Cadet in Charge, Ian Myers 16, will be on semester abroad in Paris, France this term, so the ACIC, Wilhelm Bunjor 16 will assume leadership of the club for the coming term. The next intercollegiate competition is 6-8 Mar in Los Angeles, CA, where the team will face off against a number of new opponents including the US Air Force Academy.

10 Page10 Department of Geography and Environmental Engineering Members of the West Point Energy Council discuss with DPW contractors about potential locations of energy meters and monitors that could be incorporated into cadet education. Pictured in the center are DPW Garrison, West Point contractors Marissa Almstrom (left) and Brian Balzar (right), surrounded by members of the West Point Energy Council on the left MAJ Pat Sullivan (MATH) and LTC Mark Smith (GENE), and on the right Dr. Russ Lachance (AARS), LTC Mindy Kimball (GENE), and COL Fred Meyer (CME). Energy metering and monitoring incorporated into cadet education. On Wednesday, 14 Jan 15, members of the West Point Energy Council met with contractors for DPW Garrison, West Point to discuss opportunities for energy metering of West Point buildings to be designed in such a way that the building energy use information could be incorporated into cadet education and be used in future cadet energy reduction competitions run by cadet Energy and Environmental Officers. The meters would be supported by graphical interfaces that would be located within a secure computer network that could display a variety of energy information about a particular West Point building. The participants discussed the need to develop a secure, accessible manner this information could be viewable to cadets, faculty, and staff. Future meetings about this topic are planned. POC is LTC Mark Smith at x3136, mark.smith@usma.edu.. Department of English and Philosophy 1. American War exhibit for Cadets enrolled in EP374 (The Arts of War). On 16 January, the USMA Library s Special Collections and Archives Staff hosted a Spanish- American War exhibit for the 17 Cadets enrolled in EP374 (The Arts of War). The exhibit

11 Page11 contained archived letters, memoirs, and photographs from the Spanish-American War, specifically from deployments to Cuba and the Philippines. The exhibit included Andrew Rowan s wartime account How I Carried the Message to Garcia (USMA 1881), personal correspondence from President Theodore Roosevelt, the journals of John Gatling Gun Parker (USMA 1892), and several other artifacts. This display enabled cadets to witness the military tradition of wartime correspondence and journaling. POC is COL John Nelson, DEP, john.nelson@usma.edu. Cadets enrolled in EP374 (The Arts of War) examine artifacts from the Spanish American War. Cadet Katja Rowell ( 17) browses through news accounts of the conflict, while Cadets Scott Filbert ( 15) Nicolos Archuleta ( 16) appreciate wartime correspondence and photographs.