The Department of Social Sciences hosted the 69th Annual Student Conference on U.S. Affairs (SCUSA 2017). 197 students from over 120 universities and 29 countries attended SCUSA to discuss this year's theme: "The Politics of the Forgotten and the Aggrieved: Remaking the World Order." Thirty distinguished scholars and practitioners mentored the student delegates throughout the conference as they worked towards making recommendations for U.S. foreign policy during their roundtable discussions.

Cadets taking Business Law visited two prominent businesses located in Midtown Manhattan. In the morning, they were hosted by Bloomberg LP, the global business information/technology company founded by former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg. Cadets heard from a panel of internal lawyers regarding legal issues arising from Bloomberg’s business and product lines. The cadets also participated in a panel discussion with former military officers and USMA grads now working in the private financial sector. In the afternoon, the cadets visited the offices of The Blackstone Group, the world’s largest alternative investment firm founded by Stephen Schwarzman, primary endower of the Schwarzman scholarship program. Lawyers at Blackstone discussed legal issues arising from Blackstone’s initial public offering and various acquisitions, and Chairman Schwarzman joined the meeting via a video conference feed from London, England.

Department of History Head COL Seidule presented accolades for outstanding achievements by faculty, staff, and cadets. The Commander’s Award for Civilian Service was awarded to Dean’s staff member Ms. Hannigan for her tremendous administrative assistance while the Achievement Medal for Civilian Service was awarded to Dr. Danley, Ms. Gillespie, Ms. McNeill, and Ms. Taylor for their efforts within the USMA library and in support of the Department of History. Additionally, the Department’s indispensable Administrative Officer, Ms. Simonnet, was recognized for ten years of federal service. Lastly, the Department presented the First Captain, Simone Askew, and the Respect Captain, Nette Monaus, with the Army Achievement Medal for their leadership of the Joint Service Academy Mass Atrocity Prevention Symposium. Congratulations to all on these great accomplishments.

For the third consecutive year, the Army West Point women's swimming and diving team left Boston as the Terrier Invitational Champions after collecting 913 points during the three-day meet at the Competition Pool on the campus of Boston U. The Black Knights were followed by Boston U. (710), Boston College (648), Vermont (530), UMass (508), New Hampshire (192), Colgate (173) and Bridgeport (127). Josephine Marsh highlighted the final day of competition by winning the 200 back with a time of 2:02.46. Sabrina Mortell's time of 17:10.99 was good for fourth in the 1650 free. In the 200 breast, Jess Ambrose, Rebecca Morel and Kara Wineinger all placed in the top-five with Ambrose taking third at 2:21.67. Marie Docken posted the best time for Army in the 200 fly and finished third with her time of 2:06.04.

The Army West Point men's swimming and diving team claimed its second straight Terrier Invitational victory after earning 1,022.5 points over three days at the Competition Pool on the campus of Boston U. The Black Knights were the lone squad to score over 1,000 points at the meet as Boston College placed second with 909 points. UMass (814), Boston U. (616) and Bridgeport (262.5) rounded out the top-five. Tom Ottman won his second event of the weekend, finishing with the top time (9:29.10) in the 1650 free. Army received another victory in the pool once Kevin Doo swam to a first-place time and PR of 1:48.07 in the 200 fly. The Black Knights took three of the top-four spots in the 100 free as Nathan Hein (45.53), Brandon McCredie (45.63) and Evin Rude (45.67) finished second, third and fourth, respectively. Ty Dang scored big for Army in the 200 breast, capturing the third spot at 2:03.43. To close out the weekend, Hein, McCredie, Doo and Rude won the 400 free relay after finishing at 3:00.75.

Congratulations to First Captain Simone Askew for being selected as a 2018 Rhodes Scholar. The Rhodes Scholarships are the oldest and most celebrated international fellowship awards in the world. Each year 32 young students from the United States are selected as Rhodes Scholars, through a decentralized process representing the 50 states, the District of Columbia, and the U.S. territories. Rhodes Scholars are chosen not only for their outstanding scholarly achievements, but for their character, commitment to others and to the common good, and for their potential for leadership in whatever domains their careers may lead. The Rhodes Trust, a British charity established to honor the will and bequest of Cecil J. Rhodes, provides full financial support for Rhodes Scholars to pursue a degree or degrees at the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom in partnership with the Second Century Founder, John McCall MacBain and other generous benefactors.

Army West Point Ultimate Frisbee competed in the 2017 Northeast Classic College Tournament. The tournament consisted of 29 club teams from the general area, all competing to win the championship. Army went 5-3 over the weekend, which earned them 9th place. The tournament was a great learning experience and building block for the team's upcoming spring season for returners and new players alike, as the Army team was able compete in Ultimate at a level that the team can expect during the spring season.

A Los Angeles and New York based film crew travelled to West Point to film the reigning national champion Ethics Debate team debating substantive issues in a mock trial. The teams debated two questions. First, the team debated President Obama's decision to shut down the Keystone Pipeline, and, next, they debated whether Facebook has an obligation to combat fake news on their social media platform. The film crew was led by the Co-Founders of Frank News a media outlet set to launch in February 2018. CEO and producer, Tatti Boyd Ribeiro, and President, Clare McLaughlin attended the filming. The goal of Frank News is to provide 60-minute style reporting by going directly to the source of the news, and Frank News' first month's theme is the military. Ms. Ribeiro hopes to use the military themed launch to help bridge the gap between civilians and the military by demonstrating the thoughtful ways in which military members engage with ethical issues.

The Army West Point Marathon Team was invited to compete in the Athens Marathon by the Hellenic Army Academy (HAA) to build a relationship and increase understanding between the two nations. The route of the Athens Marathon closely mirrors the route of the original marathon which was run by a foot soldier named Pheidippides during the Battle of Marathon in 490 BC. Holding off Persian invaders and achieving an unlikely victory, the Athenian Army sent Pheidippides to run to Athens to deliver the message of their victory. After running the full distance between Marathon and Athens, and directly after announcing their victory, Pheidippides collapsed dead. The marathon has become one of the world's most widespread and popular events for people to compete in. The race was tough with much of the first twenty miles being uphill. The team's top male and female finishers were Cadet Aaqib Syed '18 and Cadet Stephanie McDermott '18. Each finisher from the Army West Point Marathon Team was presented an olive branch wreath by MG Charlampos Lalouis, the superintendent of the HAA. Cadet Murray Johnston '20 said "It was an incredible opportunity to run a one of a kind race and meet our brothers and sisters at the Hellenic Army Academy that we will all remember."

Cadets and faculty from the Creative Writing Forum, Film Forum, and Theater Arts Guild traveled to New York to attend Arts in the Armed Forces’ 9th Annual Broadway Show at the American Airlines Theater. Founded by Stars Wars actor and "Marine for life" Adam Driver in 2008, Arts in the Armed Forces is a nonprofit organization that brings live theater to veterans and military service members. Cadets mingled with actors, including comedian Keegan-Michael Key and actor Bill Heck, before a performance of Stephen Adly Guirgis' play Jesus Hopped the "A" Train, starring Mark Ruffalo, Anthony Ramos, Joanne Tucker, David Zayas, and Laurence Fishburne. Afterwards, cadets participated in a Q&A with the cast, director, and playwright. CDT Ashley Pegues '19 asked the final question of the night, about how to find and maintain balance while pursuing an ambitious and demanding career. "I've been working on that for the last twenty years," Laurence Fishburne replied. "Even though I've been an actor for 46 years. Fact of the matter is that the hustle never ends."

Army West Point cow guard Jordan Fox was selected as the Patriot League's Men's Basketball The Rock Player of the Week. Fox scored a career-high 33 points in the Black Knights' victory over Marist to earn his second career player of the week honor. The Jackson County, Ky., native matched an Army West Point single-game record with nine made 3-pointers in the game. He also added five rebounds and five assists in the win. Fox scored 10 points as well, to go along with six rebounds and five assists in a win over John Jay College earlier in the week. The cow averaged 21.5 points, 5.5 rebounds and 5.0 assists per game during the Black Knights' 2-0 week. The Patriot League Men's Basketball The Rock Player and Rookie of the Week awards are selected in a vote by League media members and each school's sports information director, who are not eligible to vote for their own student-athletes. Fox also earned praise from CollegeSportsMadness.com as he was tabbed the Madness Patriot Men's Basketball Player of the Week.

Each Receive Best Paper Awards CDT Spencer Drakontaidis and CDT Samuel Miller presented their academic research papers at the 2017 Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) MIT Undergraduate Research Technology Conference in Boston, MA. The conference received 123 paper submissions, but only accepted 47 (38.2% acceptance rate). At the conference, both cadets received best paper awards (CDT Drakontaidis received the first place and CDT Miller received third place). CDT Drakontaidis presented research titled, "Investigating a Raspberry Pi Cluster for Detecting Anomalies in the Smart Grid", which was conducted by last year's Smart Grid Capstone Team and advised by Dr. St. Leger and Dr. Matthews. CDT Miller presented "A Dynamic Ensemble for Estimating the State-of-Charge of Interchangeable Robot Batteries," which was a culmination of his individual study that partnered with a capstone team from last year and advised by LTC Lowrance.

The Army West Point women's basketball team captured a 34-point victory after defeating LIU Brooklyn, 71-37, in a bounce-back effort at Christl Arena on Monday night. In a game that saw 15 different Black Knight (2-2) players see action, 12 Cadets put their name in the scoring column, led by Madison Hovren's 14. The cow forward paired that with a game and season-high 15 rebounds. Janae McNeal also reached double-digit scoring against LIU Brooklyn (2-2) with 12 points, while Destinee Morris added nine. Click here to watch the video recap: https://youtu.be/cYXkFt_J2LQ. Army controlled the game from the tip and shut down the Blackbirds' offense all night long as LIU Brooklyn was held to 22-percent shooting on 13 made shots. Madison Hovren posted her third double-double of the season and 19th of her career. The Spokane, Wash., native has tallied double-digit scoring in all four games this season. In 12 minutes of action, Lena' Hicks reeled in a season-best eight boards to go with five points. Army held LIU Brooklyn to under 10 points in three of the four quarters. Jessica Rawls made her collegiate debut and scored her first career basket. Julia Gibbs appeared in a game for the first time this season and had a rebound. The Black Knights shot 50 percent or better in two of the four quarters. Army never trailed in the game. Read More

CDTs Mcnair and Willis of the National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE) partnered with ACESS Educational Services and went to Bridgeport, CT for a Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) outreach "She looks just like me" All girls community event. There were about sixty participates and the cadets worked with about half. The goal of the event was to expose the participates to all things related to STEM and the cadets represented engineering. The cadets received positive feedback from the coordinator of the event and she expressed the desire to continue the relationship with West Point.

The Cadet Competitive Cyber Team (C3T) gathered in the basement of Thayer Hall to compete on the global stage in the HITCON 2017 Capture the Flag (CTF) competition. HITCON is a highly respected online CTF run from Taipei, Taiwan that has traditionally served as a qualifier for the DEFCON CTF and this year had over 1,000 teams competing. In an intense 72 hours, C3T solved five challenges, finishing 91st overall (top 10%), and 11th in United States. This CTF involved many high difficulty challenges that tested the team's ability to reverse engineer unfamiliar languages like embedded Lua, craft custom shellcode, and exploit a highly constrained command injection vulnerability. These challenges built upon the cadet's fundamental computer science knowledge while also exposing unique security flaws that required creative solutions. Building a solution that met these strict criteria required really digging into the assembly code and finding just the right instructions. In the end one of the team's newest members, CDT Alexander Heldstab '21 was the one to put it all together and get the flag. The team's performance is especially notable as an all undergraduate team competing against the very best in the world.

Tae Kwon Do fought hard at the ECTC Cornell Tournament. The team medaled in most of the competition divisions, even with diminished numbers due to several injuries. Cadet Deil Cho was among the top finalists in Men's beginner's forms, placing third. Cadets Jonathan Liu, Thomas Yoo, and Madison Curry, all new members, placed second in the Men's beginner sparring division. As a team of just two, Cadets Taylor Reim and Nicole Nettles fought up to third place in the Women's black belt sparring division. Finally, Cadets Matthew Galea, Jordan Nettles, and new member Christopher Bang took second place in the Men's black belt sparring division. The Army team placed third overall.

The cadets of the Black Knight Drill Team performed at the Cornell University Invitation Drill Competition. The competition consisted of 5 separate performance phases: Color Guard, Squad Regulation, Two Man Team Trick, Platoon Regulation, and Platoon Trick. The competition was successful for the Drill Team as they won 1st place overall, 1st place Color Guard, and 1st place Two-Man. The drill team prevailed over many teams from the region to include the Merchant Marine Academy and Navy.

More than thirty-five Jewish Cadets and Midshipmen from West Point, the Naval Academy, the Air Force Academy, and Texas A&M came together in New York City for faith, fellowship, and fun. To start the weekend off, the group conducted a meet and greet and shared the activities they conduct at their schools as well as planning future Jewish Warrior Weekends in which each university rotates planning and leading each Fall and Spring semester. During the weekend, the group attended Friday night services and a dinner at the Colombia University Hillel, Saturday morning services and lunch at the Town and Village Synagogue, were hosted by the Center for Jewish History for a closed-session visit of the center, and attended a dinner with the Honorable David F. Everett, Westchester Country Court Judge. During the visit, the group was given a private tour of the facility and heard from guest speakers which included LTG(R) Bromberg, Col(R) Jonathan de Sola Mendes, a World War II veteran; and COL Goldenberg. The talks and subsequent discussions highlighted American Jews in the US Military and their decades of service. The desired outcome of fostering spiritual growth and camaraderie throughout the joint service community of future Jewish leaders was successfully achieved.

Twenty-one chemical engineering majors in the separations course (class of 2019) visited the Phillips 66 Bayway Refinery in Linden, NJ. This trip provided cadets with operational exposure to one of the quintessential chemical engineering processes that they study during their academic course of study. The refinery employs chemical and catalytic reactors, heat exchangers, control systems, and, of course, massive distillation columns. The sheer scale of equipment required to process hundreds of millions of gallons of crude oil into useful end products (hundreds of miles of piping, a 10-story tall reactor vessel) was eye-opening for the cadets. "It's great to be able to see so many of the things we study actually in practice in one place," remarked one cadet.

The Army West Point Equestrian Team showed strong at its third IHSA horseshow of the season. The team traveled to the Crosswinds Equestrian Center in Lagrangeville, NY to compete against ten highly competitive colleges in the Northeast region. With five top three finishes in multiple categories of competition, the team represented the Academy well. Some of the most notable placings are as follows: Team Captain Matilda Brady '19 placed second in her Novice Fences class, qualifying her for the Zone 3 Regional 3 Championship in both Novice Flat and Novice Fences. Matilda will now move up a division and compete in Intermediate Flat and Fences. Madyson Paul '21 won first place in her walk-trot-canter class, earning enough points to move into advanced walk-trot-canter at the next show. Amanda Roper '19 earned third place in her advanced walk-trot-canter class. Sydney Campbell '21 earned second in her walk-trot-canter class. Cira Wolf '20 earned second place in her walk-trot class, and Lucy Harrill '21 earned third place in her walk-trot class.

Eight cadets and four faculty members from the Department of Chemistry and Life Science (CLS) presented their research on various chemical engineering topics at the annual AICHE 2017 conference in Minneapolis, MN. Cadets Dan Rabbia '18, Hugh Mahr '18, and Madison Turner '18 presented a poster on platinum nanotube/carbon composites for fuel cells. Cadets Dennis Gilinski '18, Jesse Hudgins '19, and Evan Ousley '19 presented a poster on the science, design, and optimization of beer brewing. Cadet Jenny Wang '20 presented a poster on the self-assembly of graphene/platinum nanotube electrodes for electrocatalysis and cadet Dade Mortimer '20 presented a poster on the self-assembly of polymer/carbon nanotube/platinum nanotube composites for energy storage. In addition, CLS faculty conducted oral presentations at various chemical engineering topic sessions.