USMA Library
Reference & Liaison Librarian Attends Conference on Open Access Publishing On December 5, 2014, Laura Mosher, Reference Librarian and Liaison to USMA’s Civil and Mechanical Engineering Department, attended the Academic & Research Libraries New York Chapter (ACRL/NY) 2014 Symposium in Manhattan. This year’s Symposium, entitled “The Academic Librarian in the Open Access Future,” featured presentations from librarians and other experts involved in the Open Access (OA) movement in scholarship and publishing. OA is a rapidly evolving movement within scholarly research, advocating for no-fee and copyright-free (or less-restrictive copyright protection) access to cutting edge, peer-reviewed scholarship. Advantages of OA publishing include more rapid dispersal of scholarship; access to greater readership - with the collaboration and advancement of research that follows; and ensuring that scholarship and research is widely accessible to individuals/organizations that have been economically or geographically disadvantaged when it came to scholarly knowledge. At the Symposium, Ms. Mosher heard about successful OA efforts to encourage faculty and students at colleges and universities to publish in OA journals (both print and electronic), and learned about projects designed to collect, archive, and make accessible a wide range of scholarly information and research through the establishment of OA repositories. The role that libraries and librarians play in the OA movement is significant, and the potential for West Point’s participation in the OA movement is great. One example: imagine an OA repository for Cadet Capstone projects that provides a home for the vast amount of work our cadets complete, making their research and designs available to other students and scholars around the world. For more information, or if you are interested in starting a discussion about OA here at West Point, contact Laura Mosher at x8296, or via email at laura.mosher@usma.edu.
Department of Civil and Mechanical Engineering
2014 Wounded Warrior Games Champions visit Civil and Mechanical Engineering: Cadets and Faculty from the Department of Civil & Mechanical Engineering welcomed a group of wounded warrior athletes from around the country. The athletes were touring the United States Military Academy as a congratulatory event based on their recent team win of the Chairman’s Cup at the 2014 Warrior Games. The group was welcomed by Dr. Becky Zifchock, COL Bret Van Poppel, and Dr. Rogers, who described the Mechanical Engineering program and some of the biomechanical research going on in the department. They then introduced two teams of cadets, who described their capstone design projects, both of which are using biomechanical principles to design technology to allow soldiers to move more efficiently and with less injury susceptibility, under ever-increasing load conditions. The group then moved to the Biomechanical Research lab, where they had the opportunity to see some of the research capabilities available in the department and some of the biomechanical technology developed by prior capstone teams. This was also an opportunity for the athletes to interact directly with the cadets to learn more about their current projects and design goals, as well as to offer some outside perspectives on how they might improve their design. As current users of assistive technologies, the athletes shared a unique perspective on the requirements of such designs.
C&ME Run to Remember. Sixty-two faculty members, staff, and cadets from the Department of Civil and Mechanical Engineering participated in the Run to Remember for the department’s 17 graduates who have died in the War on Terror. The group started at Mahan Hall and ran a 2.5-mile course past Lusk Reservoir to the West Point cemetery where four of the fallen graduates are buried. During the ceremony members of the group visited the four gravesites and read the name of each fallen graduate, USMA class, and date and location killed in action.
Department of Geography and Environmental Engineering
NSF Service Academy Antarctic Research Visit. CDT Tanner Ellison spent much of his winter break in Antarctica as part of a National Science Foundation funded trip that exposed three service academy cadets (USMA, USNA, and USAFA) to the extreme operational environment that resupply missions consistently face across the continent. Further, CDT Ellison was introduced to at least ten distinct scientific experiments covering meteorology, climatology, environmental science, geology, and oceanography. More specifically, these experiments included: killer whale tagging, seal tagging and navigation, the detection of potentially dangerous crevasses, seismic mapping and ice shift analysis, continuation of an automated weather station, long-duration balloon experimentation, the detection of neutrinos at the South Pole, upper atmospheric LIDAR soundings, an examination of microbial life in Blood Falls, and a marine life diversity study. CDT Ellison spent most of his time at McMurdo Station before travelling briefly to the South Pole, where temperatures were as low as -40°F. To summarize, the NSF Service Academy Antarctic Research Visit exposed CDT Ellison to both military and scientific components of vital research being conducted in Antarctica.
The Geography of Hope – Cartographic Product LTC Edson, who teaches in the Geospatial Information Science Program has been conducting wildlife research with researchers from Oregon State University and the Earth Watch Institute. In addition to producing maps for the book titled “The Carnivore Way” written by Dr. Cristina Eisenberg, the biannual publication Whitefish Review accepted and published cartographic artwork entitled “The Carnivore Way”. The “Carnivore Way” illustrates corridors necessary for North American carnivore survival. The Carnivore Way begins in the Sierra Madre Occidental 400 miles south of the US-Mexico border and ends in Alaska, at the shore of the Arctic Ocean. It contains the current range of the six large carnivore species in the West that are profiled in this map: wolves, grizzly bears, wolverines, lynx, jaguars, and cougars. These species were chosen because they are the most imperiled of the large carnivores in this region. Corridors function like lifelines, enabling animals to flow from one core area to another, navigating through natural and human terrain. Barriers to this basic need to move, such as human development, can provide formidable threats to long-term survival of many species. For the large carnivores, it’s not just about losing the freedom to move, it’s about losing a natural process. Although this may not seem military related, it illustrates an important part of North America we protect.
Department of Physics and Nuclear Engineering
Research Symposium: On 13 Jan, the Department of Physics and Nuclear Engineering will hold its 2015 Annual Research Symposium in the Haig Room, Jefferson Hall at 1250. The purpose of the research symposium is to inform Yearling and Cow PANE majors of the diverse research opportunities in the department. Researchers from the Nuclear Science and Engineering Research Center (NSERC), the Photonics Research Center (PRC), and the Space and Missile Defense Command Space Analysis Research Center (SMDC-SARC) will be available to discuss their current projects with the PANE majors. Almost all projects support current research efforts important to the Department of Defense.