Dean s Weekly Significant Activities Report. 26 June Picture of the Week

Transcription

1 Page1 Dean s Weekly Significant Activities Report 26 June 2013 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 MAJ Brady (far right) with five cadets and workers from GreenHeat Uganda in front of the second built digester in June 2013.

2 Page2 The Center for Leadership and Diversity in STEM From L to R: Dr. Stephen Wilkerson, Dr. Vallen Emery, LTC Donald Outing The West Point Center for Leadership and Diversity in STEM (CLD_STEM) in cooperation with the Army Research Laboratory (ARL) conducted a STEM Workshop in support of the Hampton Redevelopment and Housing Authority s (HHRA) 2013 Father s Day Program: Reconnecting Families with Dads. The event was held at Hampton University in Hampton, Virginia, where some 60+ middle school students, ages 10-14, residing in low-income communities operated by HHRA, and roughly as many parents, educators, and distinguished visitors were in attendance. Led by LTC Donald Outing (Director of CLD_STEM), the workshop delivered a unique blend of technical and leadership training to the students. Dr. Stephen Drew Wilkerson, (Associate Director for Special Programs in the ARL Vehicle Technology Directorate), and Dr. Kendall Williams, (Assistant Professor in the West Point Mathematics Department), taught them how to build and program small

3 Page3 robots to accomplish autonomous tasks and Mrs. Pat Locke (President of Seeds of Humanity, Inc., and USMA class of 1980) taught lessons on Leadership and Ethics. While students built and programed robots, the dignitaries, parents, educators, and volunteers were briefed on how they could sustain student engagement in STEM. Dr. Vallen Emery (Director of Outreach Programs for ARL) led the effort by promoting ARL STEM and diversity programs for the U.S. Army. Dr. Emery spoke to the adult audience about the plethora of Army Education Outreach Programs while Dr. Wilkerson informed the audience about the First LEGO League program. Mrs. Pat Locke (left) and Deputy Secretary Maurice Jones (center-left) among the crowd to listen as LTC Outing explains the STEM capstone event. Students programed their Taskbots to autonomously complete a short circuit. The list of dignitaries and volunteers that turned out in support of the Father s Day Program organized by HHRA s Director of Resident Relations and Resources, Roxanne Aaron, included: Deputy Secretary of HUD Maurice Jones, HUD Virginia Public Housing Director Jerryl Bennett (USMA 1982), Virginia State Senator Mamie Locke, MG(R) Bruce Davis, West Point Society of Hampton Roads members MAJ Kathryn Pegues (USMA 2002) and Rod Richardson (USMA 1999), CDT Sara Locke (USMA 2015), Mr. Michael Locke, Christopher Outing and several students from Hampton University. West Point s Center for the Advancement of Leader Development & Organizational Learning (CALDOL) Armament Research, Development, and Engineering Center (ARDEC). From June 2013, LTC Pete Kilner visited the ARDEC, located at Picatinny Arsenal, NJ, where he observed two of ARDEC s week-long leader-development courses and met with ARDEC leaders about growing the research relationship bwtween

4 Page4 West Point and ARDEC. LTC Kilner developed and managed the end-of-course survey for the ARDEC Basic Course and will provide recommendations for improving its curriculum. On 18 May, he met with the Director of ARDEC, Dr. Gerald Melendez; the director of ARDEC s Warfighter Central, COL (retired) Kurt Mac McNeely; and Dr. Bill Truran, who this fall will become ARDEC s first LNO to West Point. Warfighter Central funded this travel. Positive, Inspiring, Energizing! POC: peter.kilner@usma.edu Department of Civil and Mechanical Engineering Completed Events 1. Seeley Award Winner. MAJ Berndt Spittka won the 2013 American Society of Civil Engineers (ASEE) Gerald R. Seeley Fellowship Award. The award is given annually at the ASEE Annual Conference to a new civil engineering faculty member who has a conference paper accepted and is deemed a rising star in the Civil Engineering Division of ASEE. The award is named after Gerald R. Seeley, a champion of civil engineering education and a past chair of the ASEE Civil Engineering Division. This was the 11th year of the award, which is open to any current faculty member in civil engineering or closely related field and has five or fewer years of teaching experience. Selection of the award recipients is based on a written nomination and acceptance of a paper at a Civil Engineering Division session at the upcoming ASEE Annual Conference. POC is COL Joe Hanus, Joseph.Hanus@usma.edu. 2. AbilityOne Design Challenge. 2LTs Tom Devane, Justin Suh, and Greg Fearnley were honored at an evening Congressional reception at the Rayburn House Office Building on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday, June 19. The three recent West Point graduates from the Class of 2013 were recognized for their third-place win in the 11 th annual AbilityOne Network Design Challenge to develop assistive technologies that empower people with disabilities to overcome barriers to employment. As part of their senior capstone design project, the three mechanical engineering majors designed and built an ergonomic work station to assist workers with disabilities who assemble staplers at New Dynamics Corporation, a non-profit organization that employs workers with disabilities in Middletown, New York. The work station significantly reduced individual worker time resulting in an average productivity improvement of 28.1%. As part of the competition, the lieutenants developed a video that shows the features of the device: Colonel Daisie Boettner and Major Ryan Goyings, Department of Civil and Mechanical Engineering, were project advisors. POC is COL Daisie Boettner, Daisie.Boettner@usma.edu.

5 Page5 Left to right, Cadets Justin Suh, Greg Fearnley, and Tom Devane with their ergonomic work station on Projects Day at West Point Left to right, Mr. Bob Chamberlin (President and CEO of NISH), 2LT Tom Devane, Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA), 2LT Justin Suh, and Mr. William Brown (Director, New Dynamics Corporation) at the Congressional reception (2LT Greg Fearnley was unable to attend.) Department of Geography and Environmental Engineering 1. West Point Cadets Leave a Lasting Legacy of Environmental Sustainability in Uganda. West Point's contribution to conservation efforts in western Uganda was recently mentioned in the environmental and conservation news site Mongobay.com (see The impact of the biogas system built in 2012 by LTC Jeff Starke and five cadets was highlighted as an example of how local solutions and building techniques can make a positive impact upon conservation efforts. West Point's work with the Kasiisi Project and Director Elizabeth Ross is mentioned along with the contributions from Harvard and MIT. MAJ Adam Brady is currently leading a cohort of five new cadets (funded through the Center for the Study of Civil-Military Operations) to continue the project. Cadets were involved in the construction of the second digester system, to include building the dome of the digester. Cadets have also been involved in the clearing of a road to the river at the edge of the Kasiisi Project farm. This clearing will allow a contractor to do a visual inspection of the road and grade it for use. Once complete, this road will provide access to an environmentally sustainable campsite and provide a boundary to the demonstration farm that will be constructed. This farm will be used to show that the effective use of conservation techniques, coupled with indigenous plants, is an economically viable option that is much more environmentally sustainable. POCs are LTC Starke at Jeffrey.starke@usma.edu and MAJ Brady at adam.brady@usma.edu.

6 Page6 Picture: 2LT Joshua Karper (Class of 2013, Engineers) is shown contributing to the construction of the biogas system in June Picture: Cadet Ethan Dewart '14 is laying bricks for the biogas digester dome in June 2013.

7 Page7 Picture: MAJ Brady (far right) with five cadets and workers from GreenHeat Uganda in front of the second built digester in June AIAD at the U.S. Army War College. Cadets Wade Allen and Jarek Connolly recently returned from a Center for the Study of Civil-Military Operations sponsored internship with the Peacekeeping and Stability Operations Institute (PKSOI) at the U.S. Army War College. As the first cadets to intern at this institution, they organized 1400 document bundles from the Counterinsurgency Academy in Kabul. They also conducted interviews with Dr. Conrad Crane (primary author of FM 3-24, Counterinsurgency) and COL (Ret.) John Agoglia USMA 80 (CENTCOM planning staff , CENTCOM Liaison to CPA Iraq 2003, PKSOI Director , COIN Academy director ) while editing PKSOI papers and books on how the military conducts training of foreign police forces. From these projects, they learned the importance of civ-mil cooperation, coordination and unity of effort in achieving a lasting victory. They also professed learning firsthand through the COIN Academy documents that civ-mil operations are taking place through the lowest levels of command and that the war can be won or lost at those levels. POC is Mr. John Melkon at john.melkon@usma.edu.

8 Page8 Picture: CDT Allen (left) and CDT Connolly) 2 nd from left with their USNA intern counterparts at PKSOI Picture: CDT Allen receiving a certificate from PKSOI Director COL Jodi Petery 3. Faculty Outreach. Dr. Peter Siska participated in training with Fountains Forestry in Schenectady, NY on June The workshop focused on Geographic Information System techniques for mapping and conducting spatial analysis using ESRI s ArcGIS 10.1 software. The POC is peter.siska@usma.edu.

9 Page9 Picture: GIS workshop at Fountains Forestry Inc. 1. Chemistry and Life Science AIAD s. Department of Chemistry and Life Science Army Research Labs CDT Aaron Beyea, '14 chemical engineer and USMA American Institute of Chemical Engineers AY14 President, is working on an Advanced Individual Academic Development program at the Army research Lab in Adelphi, MD under the direction of Dr. Dimitra Stratis-Cullum. Cadet Beyea worked on electrochemical sensors for academic research credit during the AY2013 and is continuing his research at the Army Research Lab this summer.

10 Page10 CDT Aaron adds various enzymes, primers, and buffers to DNA sequences. These enzymes, primers, and buffers are part of a polymerase chain reaction that will produce many copies of specified sections of DNA. The sections of DNA will be added to plasmids which will be taken up by competent E. coli to induce transformation, or genetic modification of the E. coli. Once transformed, the E. coli will then produce and display desired peptides useful for electrochemical sensor devices. Columbia University This summer Cadet Harrison Heath, 14 mechanical engineer, joined the Columbia University Electrochemical Engineering Group as part of the USMA/Columbia University Chemical Engineering Advanced Individual Academic Development Program. Cadet Heath is running separations experiments in Dr. Alan C. West's Electrochemical Engineering Laboratory.

11 Page11 Pictured here, Cadet Heath prepares for an experiment by testing the lines for a pumping system attached to the quartz crystal microbalance. Cadet Heath assembled the flow cell and is also learning about how to do separate TNT from solution with a crystal enabled with a peptide. This research is related to the Long Term Monitoring of Munitions Constituents (MC) in ground water. Department of Physics and Nuclear Engineering Completed Events Conference: On 23 June, COL Bryndol Sones, Nuclear Engineering Program Director, attended the ABET Fundamentals of Program Assessment training held at the ASEE Conference in Atlanta, GA. This training was part of preparation for the ABET record year, AY14. Radiation Safety: On 26 June, Dr. Dan Schultz, D/P&NE Radiation Safety Officer met with SFT Sanchez, an emergency management specialist from to talk about our emergency plans for our radioactive materials. Current Events IAD(A)s: The Department of Physics and Nuclear Engineering prepared 22 cadets (including one plebe) to go on AIADs to nine locations (two international) this summer. The numbers are down from last summer (39 cadets (5 plebes) to 20 locations (4 international)) due to sequestration. CST: During summer 2013 (21 May 21 August), six officers from The Department of Physics and Nuclear Engineering are supporting cadet summer training events.

12 Page12 NIT: The Department s New Instructor Training began this week. P&NE welcomed 5 military rotating faculty members, two returning faculty members with PH.D. s, and a visitng professor from Los Alamos National Laboratory, Dr. Leo Bitteker, who will be with the Department for two years pending the completion of an Intergovernmental Personnel Act agreement. Department of Behavioral Sciences and Leadership Completed Events Follow BS&L on Facebook: Behavioral-Sciences-Leadership/ Faculty Member Election to Office On 20 June, Division 21 (Applied Experimental and Engineering Psychology) of the American Psychological Association (APA) announced that Dr. Ericka Rovira won the election for President for the Division. She will become president-elect at the meeting in Hawaii and start her term as a Division president in 2014 at the APA meeting in Washington. DC. POC is Ericka Rovira at ericka.rovira@usma.edu. BSL Kicks Off Faculty Development Workshop On 24 June, the Department started its 2013 Faculty Development Workshop, welcoming returning faculty member LTC Maurice (Remi) Haijjar and new faculty members MAJ Christina Fanitizi, MAJ Laura Weimer, CPT(P) Bridgette Bell and CPT(P) Brian Montogomery. In addition to initial orientation briefings from Department senior leadership and their respective core programs, in their first week the new faculty cohort also received briefings on Systemic Design of Instruction, Academic Promotion, the West Point Leader Development System, Teaching Excellence, and Core Curriculum. The new cohort will culminate their week with a

13 Page13 walking tour of the common post areas, a welcome social and tour of the US Military Academy Prep School, and participating as roleplayers in R-Day rehearsal. POC is MAJ(P) Eric McCoy, eric.mccoy@usma.edu. Pictured below COL Banks welcomes the 2013 faculty cohort to West Point and the Department.