LTC Ricardo Serrazes, Brazilian Exchange Officer and CPT William Sack, Portuguese Instructor, presented an overview of West Point and its 47-month experience via skype to the Academia Militar das Agulhas Negras (AMAN), the Brazilian Military Academy. The presentation was part of the opening of AMAN’s annual leadership symposium. The conference brought together over 1000 personnel, to include Brazilian “firsties,” Academy leadership, and Brazilian Army Leadership. Following their 45-minute brief, LTC Serrazes and CPT Sack answered questions on leadership at West Point and how its programs help create leaders of character prepared for service.

Cadets from the Mechanical Engineering Seminar Course engaged a panel of technical scholarship winners about continuing education. Cadets participated in a panel of technical scholars, all USMA ’17 winners of technical scholarships. Cadets learned about the opportunities for continuing education both via prestigious scholarships as well as later in their careers.

MAJ Sarah Sublett, first-year instructor in the Department of Physics and Nuclear Engineering (PNE), was recently featured in a forum article entitled The Impact of Military Women in Health Physics (VanHorne-Sealy, 2018). The excerpt featuring MAJ Sublett follows, but the article can also be viewed in its entirety at https://journals.lww.com/health-physics/Fulltext/2018/11000/The_Impact_of_Military_Women_in_Health_Physics.9.aspx.

"NMSOs go where the Army goes. Over 15 years of war have required health physics support to medicine, force protection, and radioactive materials management across combat zones. Never one to shy away from a challenge, Major Sarah Sublett (Fig. 4) deployed to the U.S. Central Command area of responsibility, leading a two-soldier team to assess and inspect the diagnostic radiology equipment deployed with U.S. Armed Forces. Military personnel injured in the line of duty deserve the highest standard of care, and Major Sublett played a key role in ensuring quality of the imaging equipment used for lifesaving medicine. Her team provided inspections of U.S. Army, Air Force, Navy, and North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) partner nations for over 80 different medical, dental, and veterinary diagnostic x-ray systems, including 7 computed tomography systems, covering installations in Afghanistan, Kuwait, and Qatar. Additionally, her team conducted surveys at entry control points that use nonintrusive inspection systems (x rays and radioactive material-derived gamma rays) and evaluated radiation safety programs on five bases in Afghanistan."

The Army West Point women's cross country team placed fifth at the Patriot League Championship at Bucknell on Saturday. The Black Knights were led by a strong performance by plebe Shelby Piccinic, who finished 13th with a time of 22:21.9. The rookie's team leading finish earned her the honor of Second Team All-Patriot League. Army had three top-25 finishers in the race, as junior Mika Andrews placed 18th at 22:41.0 and junior Bethany Nunnery finished 25th with a time of 22:49.4. Read More

Fly Fishing Cadet Club weekend visit to the Salmon River in Pulaski, NY. The club had many interactions with the New York Department of Environmental Conservation (NYDEC) during this trip. Cadets stayed at the NYDEC Training Academy (not in session), which is along the river. The location provided a great area for the cadets to learn about the river and salmon fishing. In the evening, they shared stories with the Environmental Conservation Officers who were also staying there as part of the Salmon River Detail (surge in law enforcement during the busy season). Saturday, Vietnam Veteran Jim Kelso, an old friend of the club who has fished the Salmon River for 40 years, guided and instructed cadets. To gain a better understanding of the how the fishery was created and maintained over the past century, the club toured the NYDEC Salmon River Hatchery, led by Fran Verdoliva, Special Assistant, Salmon River Corridor. Saturday's fishing saw cadets learning the techniques and a few hooking fish. By Sunday, the cadets were improving, and all were hooking salmon, many for the first time and for many, the largest fish they ever tried to catch. They found it difficult to land the fish which average 20 lbs., but by Monday, using teamwork, some cadets landed their first salmon.

Despite trailing 2-1 through the opening three sets, the Army West Point volleyball team battled back to secure a 3-2 come-from-behind victory over Lehigh in a Patriot League match on Saturday afternoon at Grace Hall. Allie Strong and Courtney Horace played a huge role in the five-set win over the Mountain Hawks, combining for 41 of the team's 64 kills. Nikki Lum posted a double-double with 35 assists to pair with a team-best 21 digs, while Emmy Barnhost added seven kills and six solo blocks. Read More

Cow Michael Wilson's goals with 11 seconds left in regulation and 3:23 into the overtime period powered the Army West Point hockey team to a 3-2 victory over Atlantic Hockey foe Mercyhurst on Saturday evening. The Black Knights secured their first-ever series sweep at Mercyhurst and are riding a five-game winning streak which includes three consecutive wins. Army sits atop the Atlantic Hockey standings early in the season with as the only undefeated team in the conference with a 3-0-1 mark. After falling into a 2-0 hole through the first two periods, Zach Evancho put the visitors on the board within the first minute of the third stanza.

The Black Knights cycled the puck around the horn before a cross-ice pass from Brendan Soucie found Evancho at the back post for the tally. As time wound down in the third period, Colin Bilek fired a one-timed slap shot from the top of the left circle that was blocked. The puck rebounded off the glass and made its way to the far post where Wilson tapped it in with 11 seconds left to tie the game. Wilson sent the Black Knights home with a victory after netting the overtime winner as well. Wilkinson fed a pass from the point to below the goal line to Dominic Franco who found the Fond du Loc, Wis., native in the high slot for the power play score. Read More

The local chapter of the West Point American Chemical Society (ACS) visited Marist College to participate in the Mid-Hudson ACS talk concerning the chemistry of fermentation to produce alcoholic apple cider. The talk was presented by Tim Dressel, a graduate of Cornell University College of Agriculture and Life Science and owner of Kettleborough Cider House in New Paltz, NY. Mr. Dressel presented information concerning the rapid growth in popularity of hard apple ciders in America along with the chemistry science and art of properly producing a quality product. At the heart of the process of fermentation is proper monitoring and control of the aqueous environment with a focus on the acidity (pH) during the fermentation cycle to ensure the biological components are in an ideal environment for production of ethanol and flavor production. Representatives from West Point included LTC Dan Bahaghighat 'Baha', Cadets Ross Poulin '19, Jared Hudspeth '21, and Rachael Dodson '22.

The Army West Point football team used two passing touchdowns in the second half to halt a charge from Eastern Michigan and earn a 37-22 victory on Saturday at Rynearson Stadium.

Kelvin Hopkins Jr. got the start behind center and ran for 105 yards. The Charlotte, N.C., native was impressive in the passing game as well with 126 yards through the air and two touchdowns. Jordan Asberry had a day for the Black Knights, recording a rushing and receiving touchdown in the win. John Abercrombie was crucial in the first half with three made field goals to close out three drives with points early in the game.

Tyler Wiegers threw for 201 yards and two touchdowns for the home team in the loss. Army's defense shined against the EMU rushing attack, limiting the Eagles' backs to a combined 34 yards on the ground and 235 yards of total offense. Read More

The Engineering Psychology program recently had the pleasure of hosting a talk by Dr. Donald L. Fisher, the principle technical advisor in Surface Transportation Human Factors at the DOT Volpe center. He has also served as head for the Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering at the University of Amherst from 2009 to 2015. The talk highlighted several important issues surrounding the human factors components of improving safety for both drivers and pedestrians, including what the concerning issues are, where they exist, and how they can be improved simply and effectively in a manner which ultimately saves many lives. This work is truly innovative, seeing success in a realm where others had been failing to make progress for the last 50 years. The topic of distracted driving, its consequences and solutions, like this talk, should be of interest to everyone.

The Army West Point men's cross country team claimed its second consecutive Patriot League Championship with a commanding performance at Bucknell on Saturday. It marks the first time Army has won back-to-back league titles since 2000-01. The team's 32-point total was its best since its championship winning performance in 2000. The Black Knights were led by cow Roman Ollar's second place finish. Ollar followed up his race victory at Navy with a strong 25:36.0 finish, earning him First Team All-Patriot League honors.

Two other Black Knights received the honor, as firstie Mikey Singer finished fifth at 26:04.8 and cow Ben Petrella finish sixth with a time of 26:07.8. Two Army runners earned Second Team All-Patriot League honors, as cow Robbie Santoyo placed eighth (26:11.2) and plebe Marshall Beatty came in 11th (26:18.1). Beatty was the race's top finishing freshman, earning him Patriot League Rookie of the Year honors. He is the second Army runner to win the award since it was established in 2004, as Daniel Mazzei claimed the honor in last year's meet. Read More

Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS) faculty Dr. Suzanne J. Matthews, former EECS faculty, MAJ Jason Hussey, and Spencer Drakontaidis ’18 traveled to Waltham, MA to attend the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 22nd Annual High Performance Extreme Computing Conference (HPEC ’18). At the conference, Spencer presented the paper, "Toward Energy-Proportional Anomaly Detection in the Smart Grid," which was co-authored by former students Spencer Drakontaidis, Michael Stanchi, Gabriel Glazer, and faculty advisors MAJ Jason Hussey, Dr. Aaron St. Leger and Dr. Suzanne J. Matthews. The paper represents the culmination of the former cadets’ senior capstone project and argues for the need to reduce the total power consumption costs of anomaly detection in the smart grid.

It is a huge achievement for an undergraduate team to have a paper accepted through the peer review process, let alone an IEEE venue. The paper will appear in the proceedings of the 2018 HPEC conference, which will be posted to IEEE Xplore in the coming months. HPEC is the largest computing conference in New England and is the premier conference in the world on the convergence of High Performance and Embedded Computing. Highlights of the conference include talks by Ms. Barbara Helland (Associate Director of the DOE Advanced Scientific Computing Research), Dr. Scott Yockel (of Harvard Research Computing), and others.

The Army men's rugby team clinched the Rugby East title Saturday, after a commanding 31-0 victory over previously unbeaten Penn State. This is the second Rugby East title for the Black Knights (8-0, 6-0), and first since 2015. The Cadets have been amping it up all week in anticipation for the de-facto title game versus the Nittany Lions (6-1, 3-1). "Great performance, I think it was a clinical performance," said head coach Matt Sherman. "We adjusted to the conditions really well and committed really well. It was our best performance of the season and definitely worthy of a victory."

Army flexed its muscle early with a try in the seventh minute by Rob Niscior to take the early 7-0 lead. The first half continued to be all Black Knights, with three more tries to take a 24-0 lead into the half. The Black Knights opened the second half with a Marco Carrabotta try in the 48th minute, and there was no turning back. Stout defense and continued pressure secured the win down the stretch. Read More

Publication of recent article in the Journal of Power Sources. The Journal of Power Sources published a study authored by MAJ Patrick Linford (and team) demonstrating a system to harvest power from intermittent heat sources using electrochemical redox couples. The system shows the potential to harvest low-quality waste heat to power wireless sensors and can operate in environments without temperature gradients in space, only in time such as diurnal cycles. The article is titled Multi-cell thermogalvanic systems for harvesting energy from cyclic temperature changes. The work has also resulted in a filed patent with the US patent office.

After extending its unbeaten streak to five, the Army West Point hockey team received votes in the USCHO.com National Poll on Monday. The Black Knights swept Mercyhurst last weekend by scores of 5-1 and 3-2 (OT). It was the first road sweep over the Lakers in series history. Army had a landslide victory on Friday night scoring five unanswered goals to secure the win. The goals were scored by five different Black Knights, and three Cadets had multi-point performances.

Saturday was a similar situation with Mercyhurst taking an early 2-0 lead, but Army netted three-straight including the game-winner in overtime extending its unbeaten streak to five games. Trevin Kozlowski was outstanding in net with 52 saves on the weekend and just three goals against. The yearling had a .945 save percentage in the two games and a 1.49 goals against average. Dalton MacAfee led the team with four points on a goal and three helpers. Michael Wilson netted the game-tying goal and then the game-winning goal on Saturday. Alex Wilkinson extended his point streak to seven with an assist in each contest.

The Black Knights return to Tate Rink to host Air Force this Friday and Saturday. Read More

Eight members of the Mountaineering Team, along with four OICs, went on a trip to the Gunks (Shawangunk Mountains). They set up top ropes at two separate locations and had solid practice creating anchors and rappelling down. Two members completed a multi-pitch for their first and second times, while some of the other members outdoor climbed for their first time.

The Black Knights welcome service-academy rival Air Force on Saturday for the teams' 53rd all-time meeting.

Saturday's game is slated for noon and has Commander In Chief Trophy implications. If Air Force wins, the Falcons will claim the trophy outright after defeating Navy earlier this season. If the Cadets win, they will retain the trophy from last season and will have a chance to win it outright when they play Navy on Dec. 8.

How to Follow: Televsion - CBS Sports Network | Radio - Army Sports Network | Game Notes - Army Notes •  Air Force Notes | Live Stats - GoArmyWestPoint.com
Twitter -  @ArmyWP_Football. Read More

The Crew team competed in the men’s club and collegiate categories of the world-famous Head of The Charles Regatta in Boston, competing with over 11,000 athletes and 400,000 spectators from all around the world, including competitors abroad from China, Great Britain, Sweden, and nationally from the U.S. National Team, Harvard, Princeton, U-Penn, Navy, and Coast Guard. Select novice gained valuable racing experience on the Charles and a deeper appreciation for the sport of and culture surrounding rowing. The coaches helped launch John Fey, U.S. Army Retired, who is part of the Veterans Adaptive Rowing, Dallas United Crew. He was competing in the Head of the Charles for the first time. The coach is LTC (R) Chuck Mueller who taught in Civil and Mechanical Engineering (CME) in the late 1970's. The program helps those with spinal injuries or amputation become involved in and compete in the sport of rowing. SGT Fey visited with cadets at their trailer following his race.

The Orienteering Team hosted the 14th Annual Orienteering Skills Weekend at the Lake Frederick Reservation. This event served as an opportunity to instruct and mentor local Boy Scout Troops in basic land navigation skills. Over 150 scouts participated in the event and completed the first seven requirements for the Orienteering Merit Badge. This event marked a tremendous opportunity for the Army Orienteering Team to engage with the local community and teach kids about the military.

Firstie defender Sydney Witham and yearling goalkeeper Sydney Cassalia of the Army West Point women's soccer team were named to the All-Patriot League team, the league announced Monday morning. Witham collected first team honors for the first time in her career, while Cassalia garnered second team accolades for her first time. Both players earned their second career honors after being third team honorees a season ago. Additionally, Witham is the first Cadet since Clare Shea in 2016 to collect first team accolades. 

"The recognition these ladies have received is deserved and accurate," head coach Adrian Blewitt said. "They have been our most consistent performers all season, and their high level of play has had a direct impact on the team's success. Our staff and players are proud of them as they have become the figureheads and standout leaders of our team." Witham was one of four Army players to start all 18 games this season, playing every minute in 16 of those contests. The Crown Point, Ind., native's 1,716 minutes played were the most among position players. She totaled four points on the year with a goal and two assists on 26 shots (13 on goal). Witham ranked second on the Black Knights in assists, shots and shots on goal, while setting personal bests in each category. Read More