In a recent announcement, A water utility in Illinois was reportedly hacked in a cyber attack traced back to Russia. The motives aren’t clear, but the act alone demonstrates how vulnerable our SCADA (Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition) networks are, and the potential risks posed to the critical infrastructure of the United States. Dr John James and Dr Frank Mabry of the West Point Network Science Center have been tracking these developments for quite a while. In fact, they helped organize the first IEEE International Workshop on Critical Infrastructure Protection. They also participated in a two-year study sponsored by the Department of Homeland Security on cyber issues with SCADA. Today, select cadets are enrolled in an information warfare class based, in part, on this work. You can learn more at
http://www.thei3p.org/publications/ResearchReport14.pdfMr Paul Manz,
PEO Ammunition Liaison Officer to West Point, presents COL Eugene Ressler,
Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science with a engraved plaque of US Patent # 7,764,185 B1 for the ANCILE system. ANCILE (a novel technology combination and architecture integration) provides real-time event notification based on geo-location to warn dismounted soldiers about threats such as incoming indirect fires and counter IED issues as well as reporting their location to "Blue Force" systems. Mr Manz and LTC Fernando Maymi have been awarded a total of four ANCILE-related patents with a fifth patent pending. This achievement reflects one of the many collaborative benefits resulting from continued close ties between USMA Faculty/Cadets and
Team Picatinny. COL Ressler accepted the presentation award on behalf of LTC Maymi, a West Point Associate Professor currently serving in Iraq.
The Bionic foot is a unique outcome from an intense set of cadet projects in
Civil and Mechanical Engineering. While the entire project is incredible, the individual embedded technologies are breakthroughs by themselves. Most important, advanced prosthetics for
Wounded Warriors is an area of research in which commercial industry has not shown a great deal of interest. If the cadets had not taken on this project, it would not have been accomplished!
In his speech at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, President Obama announced that he approved the recommendations generated by the PSD-10 review and listed five points of action for the Department of Defense, one of which was the Mass Atrocities Workshop organized by Professor David Frey, Director of USMA’s Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies: “The faculty from the service academies will meet at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum at the end of May 2012 to discuss how to incorporate mass atrocity and genocide prevention into their curricula.”
The full text of the President’s statement can be found at:
http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2012/04/23/fact-sheet-comprehensive-strategy-and-new-tools-prevent-and-respond-atro Mention of the USMA-USHMM workshop is roughly five paragraphs from the end.
LTC William Pearman (C&LS and PRC) and Dr. J. Kenneth Wickiser (C&LS) are collaborating with
Dr. Roger Hanlon, a world renown field biologist and expert in animal camouflage. The project involves using Hyperspectral Imagery (HSI) analysis to discover optical clues to creating effective camouflage in regions of the electromagnetic spectrum outside the human visual range. Pictured are (L-to-R) Dr. Roger Hanlon, LTC William Pearman, Dr. J. Kenneth Wickiser, and Justine Allen (graduate student at the MBL and Brown University) and an example of refined hyperspectral imagery data on a flounder.