Close Up and Hands On: Cadet AIADs

AIADs, or Academic Individual Advanced Development sessions, are typically conducted during the summer intersession. Pictured above is CDT Issa Moussa, a Class of 2010 Civil Engineering major, on his AIAD with the Sacramento District of the Corps of Engineers. In the photos, CDT Moussa is inspecting the tower access bridge at Coyote Valley Dam, north of San Francisco.

Army Chess Team Defeats Air Force and Navy to Claim a 5th Consecutive CIC Crown

With the departure of Cadets David Jacobs (3x individual champ, runner up last year) and Bovey Zhu (appeared on Regis and Kelly Live), the other service academies were chomping at the bit to end the Army Chess Team's 4-year reign as CIC champs at the 49th Annual Armed Forces Chess Open (AFO)...

More details here.

USMA Geographers and Environmental Engineers honored by Gamma Theta Upsilon

On Tuesday, 14 October 2008, BG Patrick Finnegan officially presented the 2008 National Chapter of the Year Award to Lambda Mu, USMA's local chapter of Gamma Theta Upsilon (GTU), the International Geographic Honor Society. Lambda Mu has earned this distinction after only five years in existence in the Department of Geography and Environmental Engineering. Several members of GTU were able to attend the presentation. Pictured with the Dean (from left to right) are Cadets Thomas Bazemore, Caleb McCollum, Heidi Koller, Katie Fichtner, Neal Trump, and Trey Wheeler. GTU Faculty Advisors are MAJ Jon Bushman, Dr. Rick Wolfel, and MAJ Benef Verell. POC: MAJ Jon Bushman (jon.bushman@usma.edu).

ASEM Conference Hosted by Dept. of Systems Engineering

The Department of Systems Engineering (DSE) hosted the 29th Annual American Society for Engineering Management (ASEM) Conference here at West Point in Eisenhower Hall, 12-15 Nov 08.  Former Secretary of Defense Dr. William Perry gave the keynote address and LTG(Ret.) Carl Strock, the last Chief of Engineers, spoke at the awards banquet at which ASEM honored him as their Engineering Manager of the Year.  Two awards of note:

• The USMA Engineering Management (EM) program was once again awarded the ASEM Founders Award for Excellence in Undergraduate EM Education for 2008. This is the 4th year in a row (2005-2008) that this honor has been bestowed on our EM program.   
• DSE had 2 teams competing in the 2nd Annual ASEM Undergraduate Student Case Study Competition during the conference, one of which took top honors in the competition (see photo notes below). Both teams did a great job of reviewing & analyzing an EM case study and presenting their findings and recommendations to a panel of judges. 

Photo Notes:

Photo 1 - (Accepting the 2008 ASEM Founder’s Award, 15Nov08): COL Tim Trainor (Department Head, DSE), COL Donna Korycinski (EM Program Director, DSE), Dr. Kim Needy (ASEM President)
Photo 2 - (USMA Cadet Team accepting 1st Place in Student Case Study Competition, 16Nov08): Dr. Willie J. McFadden II (ASEM current past-president), CDT Chris Molaro, CDT Jen Acojedo, CDT Rick Norman & Dr. Gregory A. Sedrick (Case Study Competition Coordinator)  [CDT Jason Wallace not pictured].

USMA Debate Team In Top 10 at CEDA, NDT

The USMA Debate Team had an excellent season in 2007-2008. The team finished the season ranked in the Top 10 in the nation in both the Cross-Examination Debate Association (CEDA) and National Debate Tournament (NDT) final team rankings. This finish is consistent with the team’s recent performances and this year the team topped powerhouses such as Northwestern, Cornell, Dartmouth, Cal-Berkeley, and of course, Navy. USMA also finished second in the CEDA Northeast Regional Sweepstakes Award.

More at the USMA Debate Team Page...

ACM Special Interest Group

USMA has the first-ever student special interest group in Information Security chartered by the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM SIGSAC). This follows closely on USMA's designation as a National Security Agency (NSA) Center of Excellence in Information Assurance Education.