jk Dean s Weekly Significant Activities Report - West Point Weekly Activities Reports...

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Dean’s Weekly Significant Activities Report

22 February 2017 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 938-5105.

Picture of the Week

The West Point Model United Nations Team braved the cold weather in Boston, MA to compete in the Harvard National Model UN Conference on 16-19 February.

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Department of Mathematical Sciences

Center for Leadership and Diversity in STEM

CLD STEM Motivates Boston Middle School Students to STEM possibilities

On 2-3 February 2017, West Point’s Center for Leadership and Diversity in STEM (CLD-STEM) led a

VEX robotics workshop for 83 students at TechBoston Academy and Jeremiah Burke High School in

Boston, MA. These workshops were a collaboration between CLD STEM and College for Every Student

(CFES). In the workshops, middle school students designed and programmed “portable unmanned ground

vehicles”. CDTs Christopher Monroe, Geneva Vezeau, Isaiah Valdez and Nikiay Comer spent the

remainder of the morning assisting the students in both workshops. The afternoon witnessed the students

attempting to navigate an obstacle course for the robotics workshop. Small prizes were awarded to the most

exceptional teams.

Faculty members involved were Dr. Samuel Ivy and MAJ David Dunham from the Dept. of Mathematics.

TechBoston Academy

Above: Two different groups spent the morning phase of the workshop building their “portable unmanned

ground vehicles. CDT Isaiah Valdez assists in the construction.


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For the afternoon portion of the workshop, students were given a scenario in which the utilization of an

“unmanned ground vehicle” was beneficial. This competition phase challenged teams to program their

robots to traverse a path create within the scenario. Dr. Ivy and MAJ Dunham (D/MATH) assisted

students within the workshop.


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Jeremiah Burke High School

Above: Ninth graders from Jeremiah Burke working on the construction of the VEX robots.

Above: CDT Geneva Vezeau and Nikiay Comer assist in the programming phase of the workshop. Proud

workshop participants commemorate their experience by taking a picture with CDT Christopher Monroe.


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Department of Chemistry and Life Science

National Research Council (NRC) Davies Fellow, Dr. Alex Mitropoulos invited to attend New York Academy of Science’s Interstellar Initiative

Dr. Alex Mitropoulos, an Assistant Professor-Davies Fellow working in the Department of Chemistry and Life Science and Department of Mathematical Science, was invited to participate in the New York Academy of Science’s Interstellar Initiative. The Interstellar Initiative — presented jointly by the Japan Agency for Medical Research and Development and the New York Academy of Sciences — will recognize the world's most promising Early Career Investigators in the fields of cancer, regenerative medicine, and


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neuroscience. Individuals accepted into the Interstellar Initiative will participate in a three-day conference at the New York Academy of Sciences from March 17–19, 2017, where they will be grouped within teams of three and asked to propose a solution to a major research question, guided by mentors who are at the peak of their respective disciplines. This opportunity benefits the academy by promoting the superintendent’s New York City Initiative and provides research opportunities in the fields of cancer, regenerative medicine, and neuroscience for cadets. For more information on his work please visit www.regenbiogroup.org. Chemistry & Life Science Influenza Collaboration with Australian Army Malaria

Institute

The Department of Chemistry & Life Science is working a collaborative effort to analyze

influenza outbreaks within the Corps of Cadets from 1890-1910. The overarching project

is sponsored by Professor Dennis Shank at the Australian Malaria Institute. LTC Melissa

Eslinger and Cadet Natalie Nepa (CLS ’19) will retrospectively examine cadet sick call

records for influenza patterns and determinants prior to the 1918 outbreak.

Cadets from the US Naval Academy are performing a similar retrospective analysis for

the comparison arm of this study. 2LT Carissa Pekny, currently at the USUHS Medical

School (USMA ESC ’16), began analysis of the ~6,000 records during her time as a cadet,

in conjunction with the Australia AIAD. Data will be submitted and trend analysis

performed to determine whether patterns and determinants differ from contemporary

outbreaks for the centenary influenza conference.

http://www.regenbiogroup.org/


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Department of Foreign Languages

Current Week HIGHLIGHTS:

German: From 20-21 February, BG Cindy Jebb, COL Mark Gagnon and LTC Michael Breuer visited Cadets Rebecca Griswold ‘18, Mitchell Magill ‘18 and Grant Oncay ’18 in Hamburg, Germany. The Dean spent two days observing semester abroad Cadets in their classrooms, meeting with university officials and observing the cultural competencies of our students. One of the highlights of the trip was the Cadet-planned lunch and walking tour through Hamburg city center. Cadet Oncay prepared an excellent program that included lunch at a local café and visits to the St. Nikolai Church and Rathaus. This was an excellent way for our Cadets to brief some of the history of the city of Hamburg and demonstrate their language and cultural skills.

BG Jebb, LTC Breuer, Cadet Oncay, Cadet Magill and Cadet Griswold enjoy lunch and discussion at the Helmut Schmidt University cafeteria in Hamburg, Germany.

Arabic: Cadets on Semester Abroad in Jordan have been taking full advantage of

school-sponsored cultural excursions around Jordan. All the while, they have been


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building valuable relationships with their fellow students, who come from Jordan as well

as other universities from around the world. They have consistently challenged

themselves to reach higher levels of Arabic proficiency and deeper depths of cultural

understanding through daily interactions with the Jordanian people. Recent cultural

excursions have included visits to the historic ruins of the Ajloun Castle (12th Century)

and the city of Jerash, a visit to an art gallery in Darat al-Funun, and attendance of

lectures on the historical development of the Palestinian Mandate.

Photo: Cadets Austin Montgomery and Robert Koontz, with classmates from AMIDEAST while visiting

Ajloun Castle in northern Jordan.

Photo: Students from AMIDEAST at the ancient Roman ruins of Jerash.


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Photo: Cadet Robert Koontz visiting the art gallery in Darat al-Funun.

Chinese:

Dr. Tai-Jung Lee lectures in Mandarin Chinese about Chinese geography to LC476, other interested Cadets, and

faculty.


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On 14 February, visiting scholar Dr. Tai-Jung Lee gave a comprehensive lecture on Chinese geography for LC476 (Military Speaking/Reading - Chinese). Additional Cadets with interest in China or the Chinese language also attended the session. The Chinese section filmed the session for future use by advanced Chinese language classes. Dr. Lee will re-conduct the session in English for future use by Beginner Chinese classes or other Departments.

Departmental Faculty Development

On 10 and 11 February, four DFL faculty members presented their research at the Northeast Conference on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (NECTFL) in New York, NY. On 10 February, Dr. Sherry Venere and Dr. Jeff Watson gave a presentation entitled "Collaborative Learning Through the Use of Social Media.” This presentation was an outgrowth of a research project examining a semester-long Facebook collaboration between cadets in the LS483 Spanish Civilization and Culture course and cadets studying abroad at the Spanish Military Academy in Zaragoza, Spain. This research was also selected for publication in the recent NECTFL Review's Special Issue, Intercultural Competence Through World Languages 2017. On 11 February, Dr. Rajaa Chouairi and COL John Baskerville conducted a presentation entitled “Bringing the Arab World to the Classroom.” Their presentation discussed a cultural literacy-based approach to Arabic language instruction in order to bring the culture of the Arab world to the classroom and to facilitate meaningful and beneficial engagement with culture during Cadet immersion experiences. Center for Language, Culture, and Regional Studies (CLCRS)

On 15 February, interdepartmental representatives from the Region-Culture Latin America Sub-thread met and engaged in discussions regarding the integration of Latin-America related history and language courses. MAJ Keating (History Department, CPT Martin (History Department), Dr. Amell (Spanish, DFL), and Dr. Dietrich (Portuguese, DFL) participated in the discussions.

On 17 February, LTC Gregory met with representatives of the Defense Language and National Security Education Office (DLNSEO) in Washington D.C. and discussed


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CLCRS’ way ahead for its DLNSEO-funded LREC e-Portfolio project. The overall intent of the project is to assist the Department of Defense – all three services – to better identify, track, and develop LREC talent from the initial officer accession stage throughout career progression. At its present conception, the project involves potentially three years of funding to CLCRS to serve as the lead coordinator and development partner for the DoD-wide project. Upcoming HIGHLIGHTS Next two weeks:

CLCRS From 11-22 March, six cadets participating in the Army Research Lab-funded joint USMA-University of Virginia cross-cultural simulator development project will travel to Chongqing, China and Taipei, Taiwan in order to conduct socio-cultural research and record actual and staged scenarios related to the project. This CLCRS-coordinated project will fulfill the cadets’ LN 490 DFL capstone project and will provide a valuable tool to the Army.

Department of Civil and Mechanical Engineering

1. Farewell to 2LT Stanley Diddams: On 17 February 2017, CME bid farewell to 2LT Stanley “Scott” Diddams as he departed West Point for the Armor Basic Officer Leaders Course (ABOLC) at Fort Benning, GA. A medical holdover from the class of 2016, Scott was assigned to the Center for Enhanced Performance (CEP), and as his primary duties allowed, graciously served above and beyond as an Assistant Instructor for the CME Automotive Engineering program. Scott prepared, rehearsed, and taught a complete lesson on automotive clutches and band brakes to 20 mechanical engineering cadets. He significantly contributed to course development and laboratory preparation for both ME491 Automotive Powerplants and ME492 Automotive Powertrains and Vehicle Dynamics. Scott prepared and assisted in five automotive engineering labs including powertrain teardown and familiarization, steering dynamics, acceleration and braking, terramechanics, and powerplant teardown and familiarization. He developed a 2-level, 2-factor, Design of Experiment (DoE) framework for the acceleration and braking lab that proved effective at not only evaluating vehicle performance but at applying the DoE methodology on a vehicle application. Scott also coordinated with the West Point Provost Marshal for land use and safety considerations. CME thanks LTC Darcy Schnack and the CEP staff for supporting Scott in his extraordinary efforts. CME wishes Scott well as he begins the next phase in his Army career. POC is LTC Joshua Keena at [email protected] or 845.938.8898.

mailto:[email protected]


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(left) LTC Keena and 2LT Diddams during tank testing at Picatinny Arsenal, NJ.

(right) 2LT Diddams receives a CME Athena medallion from LTC Keena at his Jefferson Hall

farewell ceremony.

Department of Geography and Environmental Engineering

Academic Club – Society of American Military Engineers

Lunchtime Seminar – BG(Ret) Joseph Schroedel, Executive Director of the Society of

American Military Engineers:

On 14 February, the West Point Student Chapter of the Society of American Military Engineers (SAME) hosted a lunchtime seminar open to the full spectrum of engineer clubs across West Point. BG(Ret) Joseph Schroedel served as the guest speaker. He provided an engaging, interactive discussion regarding the engineer profession and opportunities both during and after service to our Nation as an Army Officer. Over 35 Cadets attended the event along with over 15 faculty members from a multitude of departments. Participation in this event enabled enrichment of the engineer community and supported a primary goal of the SAME Student Chapter to serve as an integrated club enabling connections across the variety of department specific engineer clubs. POC is LTC Jim Schreiner at [email protected].



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Above and Below: BG(Ret) Joseph Schroedel address a multidisciplinary engineer audience of Cadets and Faculty regarding the engineer profession and opportunities both during and after their service to our Nation as an Army Officer.

New York City Post – Evening Meeting: On 15 February, faculty from the Department

of Geography and Environmental Engineering took five Cadets from different

departments to the quarterly Society of American Military Engineers (SAME) – New

York City Post evening meeting. The event was held in the Harvard Club on New York

City. The USMA SAME student chapter is a multidisciplinary academic club which

exposes Cadets to public/private engineering partnerships which are instrumental to the

infrastructure of our nation in times of peace and war. SAME is dedicated to STEM

initiatives and attendees of the meeting enjoyed a presentation and discussion by Dr.

Michael Horodniceanu, President of MTA Capital Construction, regarding construction

challenges in building the Second Avenue subway. Participation in this event enabled


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enrichment of West Point’s interaction with New York City as well demonstrates the

close relationship between the NYC SAME Post and the USMA SAME Student Chapter.

POC is LTC Benjamin Wallen at [email protected].

Above: Society of American Military Engineers Student Chapter leadership (LTC Benjamin Wallen - OIC, CDT John Rogers – A/CIC Outgoing, CDT Annie Schreiner – CIC Incoming, CDT Nick McNerney – A/CIC Incoming), new club members and faculty after a full evening of networking, dining, and discussions. Below: CDTs Annie Schreiner and Nick McNerney dinning with industry leaders from the New York City area at the quarterly NYC SAME Post dinner meeting.

Diversity Challenge: The USMA Office of Diversity, Inclusion, and Equal Opportunity recently endorsed a challenge created by LTC Jay Ware D/GEnE. The challenge requires participants to do the following:

-Support any USMA diversity-related club, forum or group (includes spiritual-based clubs) -Attend at least 1 EO-sponsored heritage month luncheon



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-Attend at least 1 trip section sponsored by any diversity group (includes ODIEO such as WPLDS, LEADS and STEM Diversity trip sections) or in another program or department. -Attend a USMA-related diversity event sponsored by a club or forum other than the club you are supporting.

Those with approved packets will be invited to the conference to receive senior-level recognition and a certificate of completion for your efforts. POC is LTC Jay Ware at [email protected]

Department Of Social Sciences

Harvard Model UN The West Point Model United Nations Team braved the cold weather in Boston, MA to compete in the Harvard National Model UN Conference on 16-19 February. The Harvard National Model UN Conference is the most competitive conference on the Army MUN circuit where over three thousand college students from schools around the world engage in productive discourse and diplomacy. At the conference, cadets negotiated innovative solutions to some of the world's most pressing contemporary and historical challenges including gender-based violence, the Iran-Azerbaijan Crisis, and the Greek Civil War. Despite the absence of firsties who participated in 100th Night activities, the young team performed exceptionally well with two cadets recognized for their superior performances. Individual awardees include CDT John Govern '19 (Best Delegate-1st Place) CDT Maxwell McVicar '20 (Best Delegate-1st Place).



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The future of Army MUN

Army Debate Competes in District VIII Regionals

Last weekend Army Debate traveled to Binghamton, NY to compete in the District VIII Regional Competition where the team not only qualified for the National Debate Tournament but also earned two best speaker awards in the Novice Division (CDTs TJ Kilcullen and Denton Knight). See the list of other individual awardees below:

Cadet Denton Knight earned the 5th Best Speaker Award in the novice division

Cadet TJ Kilcullen earned the 1st Best Speaker Award in the Novice Division

Cadet Quanzel Caston won the 1st Best Speaker Award in the Open Division

Cadets Copeland and Rosende advanced to Double Octofinals in the Novice Division


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Cadets Quanzel Caston, TJ Kilcullen, and Denton Knight pose with their Best Speaker

awards

Faculty Accomplishments:

MAJs Ben Summers and Jake Sheehan’s article, “Playing Tennis: The Power of Interpersonal Learning,” appeared in The Strategy Bridge. Using the analogy of a tennis match, the article describes how the power and limits of interpersonal learning can add productivity to our interactions with others and nuance to the ways that we address and solve tough problems.

http://thestrategybridge.org/the-bridge/2017/2/21/playing-tennis-the-power-of-interpersonal-learning

http://thestrategybridge.org/the-bridge/2017/2/21/playing-tennis-the-power-of-interpersonal-learning


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MAJ Lukas Berg and MAJ John Chambers recently presented at the American Political Science Association's (APSA) annual Teaching & Learning Conference hosted in Long Beach, CA. Their co-authored original research paper, "Bet Out the Vote: Prediction Markets as a Tool to Promote Undergraduate Political Engagement," was featured on a discussion panel titled, "When Are Simulations Useful?" Based on their outstanding work, MAJ Berg and MAJ Chambers have been invited to submit their paper for peer review and publication in APSA's Journal of Political Science Education.

Combating Terrorism Center

On 14 February, CTC Deputy Director Brian Dodwell participated in a War Council

panel discussion, “Can Closing Borders Enhance our National Security?”, hosted by the

Modern War Institute. The discussion addressed legal, historical, counterterrorism,

and national security implications of the recent Executive Orders on immigration.

Then on 17 February, Mr. Dodwell provided a lecture to approximately 30 cadets in the

Irregular Warfare Group on the topic of foreign fighters. He provided the cadets with

an overview of recent research conducted by the CTC on internal Islamic State

personnel records that shed light on the dynamics of foreign terrorist fighter travel and

radicalization.


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On 21 February, the Combating Terrorism Center was quoted in an article by The

Washington Post about the use of weaponized drones by the Islamic State. Written

by Joby Warrick, the Post article cited analysis by CTC Director of Strategic Initiatives

Don Rassler, CTC research associate Muhammad al-`Ubaydi, and Belfer Center

international security fellow Vera Mironova. In their Perspectives piece, the authors

reviewed and provided context for 21 internal Islamic State documents about the

group’s drone program, which were recovered in Mosul, Iraq, and provided to the CTC

by Mironova.

USMA Library

Library participates in Mobile Technology Fair On Wednesday, February 8, 2017 the USMA Library participated in the Mobile Technology Fair for the first time. Librarians Manja Yirka, Karen Shea, Dan Pritchard, and Heather Seminelli taught participants about how to use the library’s e-book resources. The library has more books available digitally than physically located in the library, and they can be accessed using iPads or computers. Corey Harmon, librarian and History Department liaison, also shared the LibraryBox, a hand-sized wireless fileserver that can be used to share preloaded content with anyone that connects to the network. The LibraryBox's peer to peer network also powered the Department of History's Google Expedition tour of Antietam that was demonstrated during the fair. The point of contact for this event is Christopher Barth at [email protected].

Above: Corey Harmon shares the LibraryBox and e-book technology with COL Yoshitani, D/History.

Library teaches SS202 American Politics Research Tips Clinic On Monday, February 6, 2017 over 30 cadets voluntarily attended an evening clinic designed to prepare them to successfully complete the first American Politics paper.



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The clinic was taught by Mike Arden, Audiovisual Librarian and D/Social Sciences Liaison Librarian, and Dan Pritchard, Associate Director of Curricular Engagement. They taught the cadets search techniques, evaluation skills, and usage tips for the how to use the library’s catalog, Scout search tool, and what databases would be most useful for their paper. Cadets were also shown the SS202 Paper 1 LibGuide, which is designed to help cadets quickly find resources to help them write their paper. The point of contact for this event is Christopher Barth at [email protected].

Above: Screenshot of SS202 Research Guide on Library website:

http://usma.libguides.com/dsoc/ss202P1


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