Colonel Ty Seidule visited Apple Headquarters in Cupertino, California to discuss Apple’s support of the digital textbook initiative in Military Art. He then visited the company Unity 3D in San Francisco. Unity makes a video game engine that the Department will use to create apps for Gettysburg and Normandy to support cadet education in Military Art and on staff rides.
Award Recognition: On 20 August, COL Ed Naessens presented a PANE Department Coin to Cadet Paul Asare-Agyapong (NENO 2015) for his recognition of being one of the top 7 student interns of nearly 1300 students from across the country at the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL). In the long history of cadet AIADs at ANL, this is the first time any cadet has gained this level of recognition. Cadet Asare-Agyapong's work is also published in a LANL technical report.
Cadet Agyapong & COL Naessens
Astronomy Club participates at Club Night: On 19 August, the first Tuesday night of the new school year, the leadership of the Cadet Astronomy Club consisting of Cadets Alberto Squatrito, Oliver Di Nallo, William Maier, Samuel Hartford, Jonathan Roche and Spencer Collazos along with club OICs Dr. Paula Fekete (PNE) and LTC David Harper participated at Club Night held at Ike Hall. Club night is always a great opportunity to recruit new club members. This year’s event proved to be a great success as well, as more than 100 additional cadets signed up to join the club. We had several of our telescopes showcased at the event. For the first time in many years, the weather decided to cooperate! We were able to take a look at prominences and sunspots visible on the setting Sun courtesy of LTC Harper’s new 60-millimeter Lunt hydrogen alpha solar telescope (the club requested the 100-millimeter version as part of DCA’s last year mid-year funding). The first meeting of the club was its organizational meeting on 25 August, attended by club leaders only. Weekly Astronomy Club meetings will resume on 2 September. The Astronomy Club is looking forward the move to its new observatory, located in the newly renovated part of the Science Building, expected to take place no later than 1 October 14.
Symposium: During 25-28 August, CDTs Ian De Mallie, Steven Vollmer, Melissa Yasnowski, and Christopher Wink will travel to the Directed Energy Professional Society's (DEPS) Annual Symposium in Monetary, CA to present research conducted using the High Energy Laser (HEL) in the Photonics Research Center (PRC). CDTs Yasnowski, Wink, and now 2LT Phil Corbins explored the effects of beam angle on burn-through time in an attempt to answer questions related to engaging UAVs with HELs. CDTs De Mallie, Vollmer, and now 2LT Frank Arnold explored the effects of rotation and conductor-doped surface coatings the heating rates of steel in an attempt to answer questions related to defeating mortars HELs. Work on these projects is ongoing, the status of which will be presented at the symposium. PNE and PRC faculty COL Kraig Sheetz, LTC Louis Florence, and Dr. David Kashinski are session chairs of the employment portion of the symposium in which the cadets will present.