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Athletic Director's Update
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Cadets Receive Iron Pinky Rings
The Department of Systems Engineering hosted the annual Order of the Engineer Induction Ceremony. Current and future engineers from the Chemical Engineering, Civil and Mechanical Engineering, Nuclear Engineering, and Systems Engineering Departments gathered to acknowledge the social responsibility they have in the proper design and execution of projects as Engineers. Each inductee received an iron ring to wear on the pinky finger of their working hand so that as they go about their engineering business, drafting up plans, designs, and specifications, it will clatter along their desk to constantly remind them of their solemn obligation to the profession and to society. BG(P) William H Graham, Commander of the North Atlantic Division of the United States Corps of Engineers, served as the guest speaker for the ceremony.
Photo: All new inductees recite the Oath of the Engineer
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COL Spain Speaks at Holocaust Remembrance Ceremony
COL Spain was a guest speaker at Natick Labs' Holocaust Remembrance Ceremony with his Holocaust Legacy Partner, a 93-year-old Holocaust survivor and then US Army soldier/ concentration camp liberator, Stephan Lewy.
Photo: COL Spain with WWII veterans and a few of the junior enlisted soldiers in the audience
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Mr. Park Philosophy Forum Guest Lecture Series
The Department of English and Philosophy’s (DEP), Philosophy Forum hosted its sixth lecture in its Guest Lecture Series in Jefferson Hall. The guest was Mr. Mike Park. Mike, a former Army Military Intelligence Officer, is COO/Co-Founder of WeBeSchools, and Founder/Vice Chair of Character Moxie Corp 501c(3), each providing 21st Century Character Education programing for schools nationally. Mike gave a talk titled: "If You Can’t Be Smart, Be Good." Mike pointed out that we cannot possibly know everything, yet we face on the spot dilemmas that require intelligence beyond our intellect. This is where virtuous character is most important. Mike gave the cadets five points on how to "stay primed" with good character.
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Water Polo Competes at Chapel Hill
Army Water Polo traveled to Chapel Hill, NC for some sun and good competition. Army played three games on Saturday and one on Sunday before returning to USMA. Army split the weekend, going 2-2 beating Michigan State and North Carolina State, and loses to Boston Metro and a very close one to Ohio State.
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Columbia Law Students Visit West Point
Twenty-five students from Columbia Law School accompanied by Columbia law professor Matt Waxman visited West Point and the Department of Law to Discuss Law of Armed Conflict Issues. The students attended class with cadets, then had the opportunity to eat lunch with cadet law majors in the Mess Hall. Following lunch, the group took a historical tour of West Point, then met with D/Law faculty to discuss law of armed conflict vignettes. This event strengthened ties between the two programs and was part of a larger effort to enhance civil-military relationships and enrich scholar/practitioner collaboration in the area of international law.
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Cadet Orientation and Harbor Inspection Tour
Sixteen cadets enrolled in "Water Resources Planning and Design" traveled to New York Harbor to learn about the mission, capabilities, and operations of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) New York District. LTC Richard Gussenhoven (Deputy Commander) advised the cadets to the organization at the district’s facility at Caven Point, NJ, and then led the group on an inspection of New York Harbor aboard one of the district’s patrol vessels. Throughout the visit, cadets and district representatives discussed USACE support to military construction and civil works projects, particularly those regarding navigation and coastal protection.
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Women’s Team Handball Trains in LA
West Point Women’s Handball traveled to Los Angeles California to train and compete with the US national beach Handball team. The team learned the new sport, including different rules and specialty trick shots such as the 360 and alleyoop. They plan to bring these new skills to the court.
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Planets with Two Suns
Dr. Veselin Kostov presented the topic "Planets with two suns". The abstract stated, "Planets with two suns have long captivated our imagination, yet it was only recently that we have started discovering them. Eclipsing binaries, in particular, have long been considered to be ideal targets to search for these planets but early efforts to detect them through transits suffered from incomplete temporal coverage. It was not until 2011 and the continuous monitoring of thousands of eclipsing binaries by NASA’s Kepler mission that the first transiting circumbinary planet was discovered. The field has gathered a considerable momentum since then and today we know of ten such planets, all from Kepler. The small number leaves a vast gap in our understanding of these fascinating distant worlds — similar to the state of exoplanet science twenty years ago." Dr. Kostov reviewed the current status of the field, described the detection methods and analysis tools required for the detection and characterization of planets with two suns, discussed the theoretical implications of our discoveries, and touched on future prospects to fill this gap.
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CDT Johnson Analyzes Armor at the MET
CDT Vaughn Johnson conducted research at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, measuring the thickness of a variety of pieces of fifteenth and early-sixteenth century armor. The resulting data will be analyzed in his Senior Thesis, which addresses how changes in armor design related to changes in tactics in Late Medieval England. Professor Cliff Rogers worked with Dr. Don LaRocca, Curator of Arms and Armor at the Met, to arrange for Johnson to have access to pieces from the museum's collection.
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Men’s Team Handball Hosts CPT Pace Memorial Tournament
Men’s Handball hosted the CPT Scott Pace Memorial Tournament. Black took second place in a hard-fought championship game. Trey Ratliff lead the way with his physical presence throughout the weekend.
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Cadets at the Mid-Hudson Regional Business Plan Competition
Cadets enrolled in an independent study, "Entrepreneurial Leadership", developed a mature a business idea, and competed at the Mid-Hudson Regional Business Plan Competition (Hudson Valley's "Shark Tank") for an opportunity to earn a slot at the New York State Championships. The following five teams will be competing in two weeks in Albany, NY. 1st Place: The Extra Mile – Social/Non-Profit. 1st Place: Nano Amour – Advanced Technology (Pictured). 1st Place: Gaea – Clean Technology. 2nd Place: Sprouts Investments – IT/Software. 2nd Place: Franklin Strategic – Advance Technology.
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Tae Kwon Do Cadets Visit South Korea
Ten members of the Army Taekwondo team were fortunate enough to visit South Korea to learn more about South Korean culture, the sport of Taekwondo and build relations with cadets at the Korean Military Academy. The first two days were spent in Seoul, South Korea, learning about South Korean culture. The team took a tour of the National Museum of Korean Contemporary History, Gyeongbokgung Palace, and attended a martial arts theatrical performance. The team also went to Insadong, which is a district in Seoul known for their traditional tea houses and handcrafted goods. The next two days were spent at the Korean military Academy (KMA). The cadets took part in KMA's mandatory taekwondo class, the equivalent to West Point's plebe boxing. It is interesting to note that, KMA requires each cadet to obtain a black belt in taekwondo in order to graduate, demonstrating just how important the sport is to Korean culture. Staying at the KMA allowed the cadets to see the similarities and differences between the military culture of the two counties and help establish relations that could prove useful in the future. The last part of the trip was spent at Taekwondowon, a government funded facility dedicated to the improvement of taekwondo for athletes around the world. The team received world class training, history lessons on the sport as well as exposure to traditional Korean drum ceremonies.
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Debate Wins Annual Military Ethics Case Competition
The Ethics Debate Team won the fifth Annual Military Ethics Case Competition at the Naval Academy. This is the first time USMA has won this competition. This achievement is especially remarkable because the debaters this year were two plebes and a yearling. CDTs Elijah Brown '21, AnnMarie Moolenaar '21, and Jake Hohmann '20 worked diligently under the guidance of CIC Reed Johnson '19 to create a superb presentation and develop sufficient comprehension of the case to handle judge's questions with ease. The Military Ethics Case Competition brings the nation's service academies together to compare their responses to a selected case. This year, the case imagined an elaborate cyber-attack by North Korea against the United States and its Allies is underway. Each team was asked to create a 20-minute briefing for US Cyber Command that assesses the nature of the threat and uses ethical, legal, and strategic lenses to recommend an appropriate cyber response. The team worked intensely to understand the history and nature of the North Korean regime, the geopolitics of conflict with North Korea, cyber warfare and the specific vulnerabilities of the North Korean regime, and the complex ethics and law of cyber war. In beating Navy, Air Force, Coast Guard, and The Virginia Military Institute (VMI) in a head-to-head competition, USMA's Ethics Debate Team brought home the Military Ethics Cup.
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On Point: Sticking with It
As a walk-on to the Army West Point softball team, Carrie Reilly saw just 31 plate appearances over her first two years. But, the lack of playing time only helped motivate her to work harder and she stuck with it. Her tenacity and never give up attitude paid off as the cow is now leading the Black Knights offensively and is one of the top hitters in the Patriot League.
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Theatre Arts Guild NYC Trip
The Cadets of the Theatre Arts Guild got to enjoy a day in New York City. They split into groups in the afternoon and some went to the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), while others enjoyed the sunny day in Central Park and even caught a matinee of Good for Otto and SpongeBob. In the evening, they attended the showing of the Donna Summer Musical. The show exposed cadets to aspects of Donna Summer's life that they didn't realize (domestic violence, sexual abuse, sexism, and career/family balance). After the show, cadets got to meet several of the cast-members at the stage door. Before the show, they met two working actors who were excited to see cadets because they both had toured through Ike Hall in the past (with MOMIX and Cats) and fondly remembered the experience.
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Skeet and Trap at the ACUI Nationals
The Army West Point Skeet & Trap Team competed in the Intercollegiate Clay Target Championships (ACUI) Nationals in San Antonio, TX. A record number of 816 collegiate shooters representing 84 colleges attended the competition. In the face of stiff competition and stiffer rain through most of the competition, the cadets represented West Point well in the various clay target events. This included team finishes in the following events: 6th place, American trap (479/500); 8th place, American skeet (469/500); 10th place, international trap (269/300); and 16th place in international skeet (231/300). Individual highlights included several perfect rounds (25/25) posted by USMA shooters, as well as a personal best 99/100 in trap for CDT Ean McCool '20. Francis McConnel '21 was the team's high gun in American Skeet with an impressive score of 97/100.
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Robotics Research Center Publishes Article on Killer Robots
The Robotics Research Center recently published an article in the War Room which is a U.S. Army War College (USAWC) online journal. The USAWC released its newsletter and featured the article. When LTC Christopher Korpela '96 graduated from the Army War College, in June, he headed to USMA to direct the Robotics Research Center. Here, he teams with RRC Fellow LTC Michael Saxon '94, Ph.D. to urge not only looking over the horizon, but planning now full autonomy of autonomous weapons in times of supreme emergency, as Michael Walzer proposes in the face of a nation facing imminent defeat by a rights-violating regime. “We must remain reluctant to make the choice for full autonomy and only make it in the direst of circumstances, but, ultimately, any rights-adhering nation that faces annihilation by a rights-violating, autocratic regime must be prepared to dirty its hands. If the mind faces defeat by the microprocessor, one must be prepared to flip the switch, removing humans from the loop.” Size up their logic: Click here to read the article.
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Water Polo Beats Navy
The West Point Water Polo team recently traveled to Annapolis to play Navy as well as other teams. The team came away with a victory over Navy's club team, their second of the year, and played against the New York Athletic Club (NYAC) water polo team.
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National Conference for Undergraduate Research
Nine cadets from the Departments of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Civil and Mechanical Engineering and Physics and Nuclear Engineering traveled to the University of Central Oklahoma in Edmond, OK for the 2018 National Conference on Undergraduate Research (NCUR). The National Conference on Undergraduate Research was established in 1987 with the goal of promoting undergraduate research, scholarship and creative activity in all fields of study. This year the conference hosted over 4,100 participants presenting research in a host of academic areas, from engineering to performing arts. The cadets presented the results from various projects spanning research in the fields of photonics, robotics and disruptive innovations.
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