Center for Enhanced Performance
BDE-consolidated TEE prep sessions. On 14 and 15 Dec, the cadet tutor program conducted BDE-consolidated TEE prep study sessions for seven plebe and yearling courses. A leader team of 18 cadets lead by CDT Stuart Vanderkooi, ‘15, A-3, and Spenser Rapone, ’16, H-3 planned and executed the study sessions. Approximately 550 cadets signed in for assistance for the two-hour sessions. The leader team supervised a bank of 200 volunteer cadet tutors.
Department of Behavioral Sciences and Leadership
Department of Behavioral Sciences hosted Toys for Tots Drive. The Department of Behavioral Sciences & Leadership aind the West Point community concluded its annual Toys for Tots drive with the Management Program’s Omicron Delta Kappa (ODK) National Leadership Honor Society presenting toys to young children at Northeast Gateway to Freedom Shelter in Newburgh, NY on December 20th. Over $5000 and additional toys were presented to the Marine Corps Reserve of Orange County for distribution to children in West Point area. BS&L and ODK want to acknowledge the great support received from ODIA, which greatly enabled the campaign by allowing ODK cadets to collect toys and donations at Army football and hockey games.
Department of Electrical Engineering & Computer Science
EECS Cadets and Faculty Attend ShmooCon Hacker Convention. With a big thank you to Mr. Vinny Viola and the ShmooCon organizers, Heidi and Bruce Potter, 28 cadets and 12 faculty attended the 11th annual Shmoo Conference in Washington D.C. from 16-18 January 2015. ShmooCon is an annual East Coast hacker convention offering three days of an interesting atmosphere for demonstrating technology exploitation, inventive software and hardware solutions, and open discussions of critical INFOSEC issues. This is one of the highlights of the Cyber Leadership Development Program (CLDP) at USMA and facilitates growing and maintaining the pipeline of competent Soldiers and leaders in the cyber domain.
There were over 40 talks, including one given by COL Greg Conti and LTC Dave Raymond of the Army Cyber Institute on the art of deception in cyberspace. In addition to the talks, there were a number of other events occurring simultaneously with the cadet favorite being “Hack Fortress.” Our team of 10 cadets (Avery Austin '18, Sawyer Stacey '18, Will Brattain '15, Kenny McGaffey '17, John Dimmer '17, Thomas Dubyak '15, Noah Ogrydziak '17, Dan Zablocky '17, Ames Evans '15 and MAJ Olson '04) competed against a number of skilled teams to solve hacking challenges in a time-based event, eventually making it to the semi-finals.
There were also hands on labs where attendees could learn advanced (or basic) skills on physical security, Wi-Fi hacking, or any other type of related topic in the open labs. Vendors also provided their own competitions while introducing new technologies in the security field. For those who would like to try a challenge themselves, a recommended example that will be available until the end of February can be found at the following URL: http://pen-testing.sans.org/challenge2015. Overall, it was once again an eye-opening experience for all USMA attendees regarding the pace of advancement and emergence of new threats being discussed, new research topics being explored and the rapid increase in technical capabilities of the average home user.
Department of Systems Engineering
Initiation of the Engineering Immersion Internship Pilot Program at Redstone Arsenal, Alabama. The Department of Systems Engineering (DSE) initiated the Engineering Immersion Internship Pilot Program on 5 January 2015. DSE sent four engineering majors in their Second Class year on an Engineering Immersion Internship experience for their spring semester, Academic Term (AT) 15-2, from 05 January 2015 through 16 May 2015. Cadets Matthew Loza, Zachary Sostak, and Owen Bailey from DSE, and Cadet John Geiger from CME will work directly with and for Aviation and Missile Research, Development, and Engineering Center (AMRDEC) engineers leading programs such as the Grey Eagle Unmanned Aerial Vehicle system, the UH-60V Blackhawk program, Small Unmanned Aerial Systems, and the Multipurpose Munition Launcher Air Defense platform. The cadets will work part-time as engineering interns for programs within the AMRDEC at Redstone Arsenal, AL, while also taking classes at the University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH). The purpose of the internship is to give cadets a better understanding of engineering practice, provide perspective for their engineering courses, and inspire engagement with their discipline. Their functional duties will include project planning and management, software/hardware/complex electronics development, requirements development and management, system design, formal verification and qualification, interoperability testing of Army portfolio elements.
Department of Foreign Languages
Semester Abroad Program (SAP) / Academic trip sections:
Arabic: Five Arabic students arrived in Amman, Jordan on Sunday, 18 JAN and began in-processing with AMIDEAST. In addition to academic counseling, registration, and local orientation they will go to the US Embassy Thursday to receive a security and procedures brief before they begin their studies. The three Arabic students in Morocco have completed the pre-session studies at AMIDEAST in Rabat and transitioned to Al Akhawayn University in Ifrane, Morocco, this past Friday. They are also going through add-drop and orientation before beginning their studies later this week.
Spanish: 5 Spanish Language Cadets departed on 21 January to Mexico for their semester abroad. Cadets Connor Wernecke, Brian Fydenkevez, Nathan Swanson, Jeremy Tetro, and Benjamin Greif began their journey as the first USMA cadets to attend Mexico’s famed Universidad Nacional Autonoma de 
Mexico (UNAM). UNAM is the largest university within Latin America and originated from the oldest University in North America. The cadets will study a variety of topics ranging from Mathematics and Engineering to Philosophy and English Literature. Apart from the Cadets individual courses, they will each further their Spanish skills through host family interactions, cultural immersion trips, and advanced Spanish courses.
Chinese: The Chinese Language cadets studying in China and Taiwan have settled in to their new environments and have started to venture out and get a feel for the new cultural environments. Cadets Beasley and Neise in Taiwan visited several Buddhist temples. Cadets Brad Smith, Lashondra Maddox, Dylan Maher, Thomson Phung and Christopher Young have started working their way through the Beijing subway system in order to be able to enjoy the cultural sites in and around Beijing.
Department of Geography and Environmental Engineering
Energy metering and monitoring incorporated into cadet education. On Wednesday, 14 Jan 15, members of the West Point Energy Council met with contractors for DPW Garrison, West Point to discuss opportunities for energy metering of West Point buildings to be designed in such a way that the building energy use information could be incorporated into cadet education and be used in future cadet energy reduction competitions run by cadet Energy and Environmental Officers. The meters would be supported by graphical interfaces that would be located within a secure computer network that could display a variety of energy information about a particular West Point building. The participants discussed the need to develop a secure, accessible manner this information could be viewable to cadets, faculty, and staff.
Department of English and Philosophy
American War exhibit for Cadets enrolled in EP374 (The Arts of War). On 16 January, the USMA Library’s Special Collections and Archives Staff hosted a Spanish-American War exhibit for the 17 Cadets enrolled in EP374 (The Arts of War). The exhibit contained archived letters, memoirs, and photographs from the Spanish-American War, specifically from deployments to Cuba and the Philippines. The exhibit included Andrew Rowan’s wartime account How I Carried the Message to Garcia (USMA 1881), personal correspondence from President Theodore Roosevelt, the journals of John “Gatling Gun” Parker (USMA 1892), and several other artifacts. This display enabled cadets to witness the military tradition of wartime correspondence and journaling.