USMA Digital Commons (United States Military Academy, West Point)
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Making Connections: Ensuring Strength of the Civil Engineering Curriculum
No full textA fundamental structural design philosophy is to make connections stronger than the elements they connect. The same must be true within engineering education: the connections between concepts and courses must be stronger (or at least as strong) as the content learned. Teachers are encouraged to create structure for new knowledge, sometimes referred to as scaffolding. This scaffolding, much like shoring for a reinforced concrete building, can only be safely removed when the knowledge structure created by the student has gained sufficient strength, including connection strength. An inability to recall previously learned knowledge is a symptom of an underlying problem: a lack of effective understanding of engineering concepts and principles to then see their application in a new context. In other words, the connections between concepts and applications are weak. To address this underlying problem, civil engineering students at the US Military Academy at West Point were required to solve review problems on each homework assignment in two civil engineering design courses. This paper describes the theoretical underpinnings of these assignments and their implementation. Assessment includes three semesters of academic performance, time spent outside of class, student feedback, and teacher observations
Character strengths and performance outcomes among military brat and non-brat cadets
No full textAlthough many studies have compared military vs. civilian samples on a wide variety of characteristics, few have examined these differences within the context of those who commit a portion of their life to the military. In this study, we explored how West Point cadets with (“military brat cadet”) or without (“non-brat cadet”) a family military background might differ in terms of their character strengths. Although the cadets shared many similarities, we found that several strengths related to self-control were higher in non-brat cadets than brat cadets and that many of these self-control-related strengths were important predictors of performance for brat cadets (but not non-brat cadets). For non-brat cadets, strengths related to a drive to fully involve themselves and navigate relationships with others were better predictors of performance. In a second study utilizing a different class of cadets, we again found support for the idea that nonmilitary brat cadets possessed more self-control than military brat cadets. Better understanding the unique strengths and weaknesses of those within the military who have vs. don’t have a military background may provide important insights for future recruitment, training, and military preparation
James Monroe and American Military Policy: A Lifetime of Connection and Advocacy for a Standing Army
No full textData Gap Classification for Terrestrial Laser Scanning Derived Digital Elevation Models
No full textExtensive gaps in terrestrial laser scanning (TLS) point cloud data can primarily be classified into two categories: occlusions and dropouts. These gaps adversely affect derived products such as 3D surface models and digital elevation models (DEMs), requiring interpolation to produce a spatially continuous surface for many types of analyses. Ultimately, the relative proportion of occlusions in a TLS survey is an indicator of the survey quality. Recognizing that regions of a scanned scene occluded from one scan position are likely visible from another point of view, a prevalence of occlusions can indicate an insufficient number of scans and/or poor scanner placement. Conversely, a prevalence of dropouts is ordinarily not indicative of survey quality, as a scanner operator cannot usually control the presence of specular reflective or absorbent surfaces in a scanned scene. To this end, this manuscript presents a novel methodology to determine data completeness by properly classifying and quantifying the proportion of the site that consists of point returns and the two types of data gaps. Knowledge of the data gap origin can not only facilitate the judgement of TLS survey quality, but it can also identify pooled water when water reflections are the main source of dropouts in a scene, which is important for ecological research, such as habitat modeling. The proposed data gap classification methodology was successfully applied to DEMs for two study sites: (1) A controlled test site established by the authors for the proof of concept of classification of occlusions and dropouts and (2) a rocky intertidal environment (Rabbit Rock) presenting immense challenges to develop a topographic model due to significant tidal fluctuations, pooled water bodies, and rugged terrain generating many occlusions
Improving Stochastic Analysis for Tradeoffs in Multi-Criteria Value Models
No full textIn multi-criteria value modelling (MCVM), uncertainty clouds decision making by complicating choices that inevitably must be made among an offering of competing alternatives. In stochastic MCVM settings involving value versus cost (risk) tradeoffs, exposing and communicating ramifications that choice instigates becomes increasingly difficult directly in response to the increased sophistication of mathematical methods needed to distinguish between alternatives, leaving the decision maker potentially unprepared for eventual opportunity or disaster. This article introduces an approach called realization analysis that leverages stochastic simulation, probability theory and tradespace geometry to estimate full spectrum outcome probabilities in an effort to enrich decision making and reduce the potential for surprise or regret, demonstrating its effectiveness when competing alternatives are tightly co-mingled in their potential realizations causing issues for traditional stochastic dominance methods. The approach is surprisingly straightforward to implement, with results easily communicated to technical and non-technical decision makers. A brief acquisition case study involving competing alternatives is presented to illustrate how this approach offers advantages for multi-criteria decision analysis practice
Digital Weapons of Mass Destablization
Get PDFIn the coming decade, a global proliferation of networked technologies will widen the cyber threat landscape. Pairing new and unforeseen cyber vulnerabilities with weapons of mass destruction (WMD) increases the secondary threats that cyber attacks bring and also necessitates a shift in definitions. WMD will become weapons of mass destabilization, allowing adversaries to gain strategic advantage in novel ways.
Altering this definition provides clarity and specific actions that can be taken to disrupt, mitigate and recover from this combined threat. Additionally, a new class of Digital WMD (DWMD) will emerge, threatening military, government, and civilian targets worldwide. These combined and new threats will require the expansion of current defensive or mitigation activities, partnerships, and preparationhttps://digitalcommons.usmalibrary.org/aci_books/1035/thumbnail.jp
Geometric approximation model of inter-lidar interference
No full textSignal interference between two light detection and ranging (lidar) scanners can occur when the transmitted laser energy from one lidar is coupled into a second lidar either by scattering or direct transmission. By ray tracing lidar transmission paths, it is shown that signal interference can be modeled with the coincidence of intersections between two lidars’ optical axes and a scattering target or medium. A geometric analysis of intersecting transmission paths is presented for circularly scanning lidars from which theoretical interference risks between two lidars may be deduced. Using the geometric rules proposed here for interference, a Monte Carlo simulation is presented that models interference risks and occurrences. This geometric approximation simplifies analysis by ignoring radiometry for scanners within proximity to one another. Simulation results are used to introduce the concept of intersection point density from which one may assess areas of greatest interference risk for two-lidar, in-plane scanning lidar configurations. It is shown from the intersection point density that the risk for signal interference between two lidars exponentially increases as targets are located closer to and between the two scanners. Simulation results are compared to previously published experimental observations of interference to demonstrate the theory’s potential for interference modeling
What COVID-19 can teach us about cyber resilience
No full textThe COVID pandemic is a challenge that will eventually create health risks to Americans and have long-lasting effects. For many, this is a tragedy, a threat to life, health, and finances.
What draws our attention is what COVID-19 has meant our society, the economy, and how in an unprecedented way, family, corporations, schools, and government agencies quickly had to adjust to a new reality.
Why does this matter from a cyber perspective?
COVID-19 has created increased stress on our logistic, digital, public, and financial systems and this could in fact resemble what a major cyber conflict would mean to the general public. It is also essential to assess what matters to the public during this time. COVID-19 has created a widespread disruption of work, transportation, logistics, distribution of food and necessities to the public, and increased stress on infrastructures, from Internet connectivity to just-in-time delivery. It has unleashed abnormal behaviors
Military Workforce Planning and Manpower Modeling
No full textHuman resources planning and workforce design decisions are an extension of traditional operations research problems, as workforce policies strive to place the appropriate and accurate numbers of the correct types of people in the right jobs at the right time. Traditional operations research methods focus on how managers oversee, design, and re-design business operations in the production of goods and/or services in efficient and effective manners. Comprehensive management methods explicitly consider human resource systems as part of these business operations. Military workforce planning and manpower modeling employs the methods and techniques of operations research to address problems of creating jobs and positions, as well as finding and assigning people to these positions. Advanced analytic techniques can also be applied to the scheduling of Soldiers or employees against shifts, optimally assigning the workforce against tasks. The variety of management issues within human resources provide opportunities to leverage simulation, optimization, economics and advanced analytics against practical problems. This chapter provides a survey of previous work in the domain along with descriptions of the fundamental mathematical models used in military workforce planning and manpower modeling useful for the military operations research practitioner and researcher. The chapter also describes two real-world case studies to highlight applications in practice.https://digitalcommons.usmalibrary.org/aci_books/1014/thumbnail.jp
Effectiveness of the Engagement Skills Trainer 2000
No full textThe purpose of this article and study is to analyze the effectiveness of the Engagement Skills Trainer 2000 (EST2000), which is the program of record for Army marksmanship training. The EST2000 has only been used for training with the actual marksmanship qualification being done on live ranges. However, the newest version of the rifle qualification course will include a component of shooting on the EST2000. Thus, this study is designed to evaluate the effectiveness of the EST2000 in capturing real-world performance. USMA cadets were recruited to complete the Basic Rifle Marksmanship (BRM) course on the EST2000, and these results were compared to the shooter’s performance on a live BRM course. A paired t-test was conducted to determine whether the EST2000 scores and the BRM scores were statistically different, and an R2 value was calculated to determine the amount of correlation between the soldier’s performance on the EST2000 and real-world performance