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 http://news.mongabay.com/2013/0620-hance-zacc-ross.html). The impact of the biogas system built in 2012 by a team including five cadets was highlighted as an example of how local solutions and building techniques can make a positive impact upon conservation efforts. A new cohort of five new cadets (funded through the Center for the Study of Civil-Military Operations) will 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.
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 2002-3, CENTCOM Liaison to CPA Iraq 2003, PKSOI Director 2004-8, COIN Academy director 2008-11) 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.
Army Research Labs:
Cadet 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.
Columbia University AIAD: 
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.