UPCOMING EVENTS:
1LT Josh Lospinoso
Recently the United States Military Academy’s newspaper, Pointer View, published a feature article on 1LT Josh Lospinoso, a class of 2009 graduate. In 2009 Josh was one of 32 American students to win the prestigious Rhodes Scholarship and has spent the past three years completing a PhD in statistics. His academic success is not the only thing that makes him stand out though, Josh is a notable graduate for other reasons. He has chosen to use what he learned at West Point and at Oxford University to mentor a new group of soldiers and cadets. 
Lessons from West Point
Josh considers prioritizing one of the most important skills he learned in his four years at the academy. It was about, ‘Knowing that it's sometimes impossible to keep juggling all the balls in the air--and knowing which ones to set down at what time!’ West Point also fostered in Josh two characteristics that led to his success at Oxford, a work ethic and a lot of creative thinking.
Both of these were, ‘hugely helpful in getting a thesis of novel work completed’ especially in the three year time frame allotted by the Army.
Josh on a research trip to the Dar Es Salaam Stock Exchange
Research involvement
Josh’s interest and involvement in research began when he got involved in research being done at the Network Science Center. He was an ideal fit to contribute to the Frontier Markets project using his background in Economics and Operations Research to studying emerging markets in Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania from a network science perspective. His work in network science continued with an AIAD to the National Security Agency where he applied his knowledge of social networks to real world military problems.
Lt. Lospinoso pictured in front of the Victory over America Palace in Baghdad, Iraq. He deployed to the Joint IED Defeat Organization (JIEDDO) and its Counter-IED Operations/Intelligence Integration Center (COIC) in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom in the fall of 2010.
Ongoing Connection
While in graduate school Josh did some work with the COIC in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom. He did a rapid prototype of a convoy route planning software that estimated risk of IED attacks. It was a statistical approach, so the stylized model of IED attacks was fit to historical data. Such things as friendly and enemy activity reports, GPS traffic data, and human terrain team data were used as explanatory variables in the model. His work was invaluable to the army and also gave him a chance to apply his military training even while a PhD student. He brought this experience back to West Point when he returned to mentor cadets in the scholarship program run by the SOSH department. He advises them on how to stand out in a crowd of students who all excel academically but might not have the depth of experience that is often a part of the comes with a West Point education.
By continuing his research through the Network Science Center, he has had many opportunities to return to the academy and has taught classes applying statistics to network analysis including a lesson last spring for the cadets taking the Social Network Analysis for Public Policy course.
Josh shares his expertise with cadets during a lesson in the Social Network Analysis in Public Policy course taught spring 2012
Future
“We graduate 18-20 scholarship cadets every year … and, for the most part, when they leave, they’re gone from West Point,” COL John Graham said. “Josh has redefined how a graduate-scholar stays engaged with the Army during their studies. He was a mentor to current cadets, a guest instructor, a combat deployed analyst and an intellectual leader.”
As 1LT Lospinoso prepares to go to Officer Basic Course he hopes to find opportunities to continue some of his research and possibly one day teach future cadets at West Point. In his words, “If I'm lucky enough to get a spot to teach, I'd like nothing more than to come back.‘ Many future leaders would benefit from his academic success, experience and leadership.
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Network Science AIAD to Addis Ababa
A Network Science Center team consisting of Mr. Dan Evans and cadets Evan Szablowski and Zach Langhans had the opportunity to visit Addis Ababa, Ethiopia in July as part of a Cadet Summer Academic Program. This visit supported the efforts of two ongoing Network Science Center projects; Network Analysis "Tool Kit" and Entrepreneur Networks. These projects are investigating and analyzing economic development networks in frontier markets. Upon arriving in Ethiopia, the cadets demonstrated the “Tool Kit” to members of the Political and Economic Sections during a briefing held at the US Embassy. The briefing was well received and the cadets expertly answered all questions directed to them. The staff members and the research team had a long discussion about the project’s potential and they agreed that they would continue to work with the team as we refine both the data and network model.
The team also continued to develop an entrepreneur network model. Based on the visit in May, we developed a draft survey that captures data about the local environment in which entrepreneurs are operating. The team has collaborated with CORE Lab at the Naval Postgraduate School and utilized an application they have developed called Lighthouse. This application allowed the team to conduct our interviews and collect the data on an Android-platform “smartphone.” This application uploads the data to the cloud, which then allows the team to quickly upload the data into network analysis software. This collaborative effort will be discussed in more depth in a future Network Science Center paper.
Cadet Zach Langhans interviews a local entrepreneur
The team also visited iceaddis, Ethiopia’s first high tech innovation hub. iceaddis is located on the beautiful campus of the Ethiopian Institute of Architecture, Building Development, and City Development (EiABC). The cadets learned about the incubator, met with some of the entrepreneurs operating there, and visited their prototype lab.
 Cadet Evan Szablowski and Zach Langhans visit the iceaddis Prototype Lab
The team was also fortunate to meet Mr. Michael Girma, a project manager with the One Laptop Per Child, a program that aims to “provide each child with a rugged, low-cost, low-power, connected laptop.” The goal of this project is to provide access to this type of tool so that children “are engaged in their own education, and learn, share, and create together.” Mr. Girma invited us to visit a project site near Lake Wenchi about a 3-hour drive from Addis Ababa.
At One Laptop Project Site
Cadet Zach Langhans with children at One Laptop Project Site overlooking Lake Wenchi
Cadet Evan Szablowski at One Laptop Project Site |