Photo By Elizabeth Woodruff | The U.S. Military Academy hosts the 24th Annual Projects Day Research Symposium....... read more read more
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The latest in West Point research and technology was on full display as cadets showcased their efforts to modernize the Army and lead the way in various scientific endeavors and other academic pursuits during the 24th annual Projects Day Research Symposium May 4 at the U.S. Military Academy.
In Jefferson Hall, Bartlett Hall, and other locations in Central Area and beyond, military and industry leaders were thrilled to engage with cadets exhibiting state-of-the-art hardware like "Drone Swarms," the "High-Altitude Balloon Closed-Loop System," and an "Adaptive RF Emitter," to name a few.
"Projects Day is an incredible platform for our cadets to showcase their ingenuity, innovation, and problem-solving skills," said the Dean of the Academic Board, Brig. Gen. Shane Reeves. "Through this event, we empower our future Army leaders to take on complex challenges, adapt to new technologies and situations, and advance the mission of the U.S. Army."
Class of 2024 Cadets Raymond Triggs and Paul Bruce took on the responsibility of advancing the Army's mission when they teamed up with Class of 2026 Cadets Qinglang Lao, Michael Speer, Spencer Stovall and Reid Wesley on developing the "High-Altitude Balloon Closed-Loop System.
When high-altitude balloons ascend into the upper atmosphere, the pressure decreases. Correspondingly, the volume of the balloon increases, causing it to pop.
"These balloons can only stay in flight for so long, so what we propose is a closed loop control system that can regulate the amount of helium inside of a balloon so that the altitude can either stay constant at a certain height that we tell it to or fly up and down to adjust and go into altitudes that we apply to it," Bruce said as he and his team presented their project. "We want to eliminate the possibility of the balloon popping and have the payload stay on the balloon for a long period of time so we can bring it down safely and raise it up again."
The balloon would function as a satellite that can provide both a global positioning signal and a communications system for Soldiers conducting military operations.
Triggs explained that at the beginning of the project, there were only complex bits and parts on the table that were difficult to piece together. Now in their second year, it was humbling to see how much the team has grown and how far they've come with the project.
" ... We went from, 'OK, how do we turn this thing on' to actually having something automated on a Raspberry Pi," Triggs said. "It was very, very rewarding, but we know we're not done just yet because we still need to optimize the system and get it to launch whenever that time comes. We've definitely come a long way, but we still have a ways to go."
Class of 2023 Cadets Eddy Mark, Brooke Rosenfeld, Phillip West, Zachary Hellebuyck, Joshua Reese, John Farley and Collin Miller spent their last year working on Drone Swarms.
The project aimed to develop intelligent behaviors for a diverse group of autonomous robots that perform reconnaissance. Designed to assist Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear operators, each robot carries a chemical sensor to survey and map an area of interest.
For example, Quadcopter drones would map out an area and focus on a central GPS location and the robotic quadruped pet dog moves to that location to identify any CBRN threats in the area.
"At first, we spent time orienting ourselves to the project because none of us specifically signed up to do Drone Swarms," West said. "It was given to us. It was mainly learning about the systems we were working with, specifically the drones, figuring out how we can build them, how we can improve them, and how we can program them."
The cadets faced many challenges in troubleshooting issues with the code.
"It was a really complicated and frustrating debugging process. New problems came up every time," West said.
However, the team eventually found their rhythm working on their perspective tasks during the last few months leading up to Projects Day.
"I think it was nice to see the team actually produce something in the end. Many times, in the middle of it, you ask yourself, 'is this ever actually going to amount to anything,'" Farley explained. "So once we finally got the drones to fly together, it was a really cool moment and it was nice to know that we would have something to actually show for Projects Day."
Class of 2023 Cadet Zachary Wolsborn worked with Class of 2024 Cadet Sebastian Wilkinson and Class of 2025 Cadet Samuel Della-Santina on the "Adaptive RF Emitter" (ARFE), a device meant to support various "electronic warfare training and force protection missions," allowing users to produce signals with multiple attributes, including "frequency hopping," to prepare Soldiers for a 21st-century battlefield.
Upon completing the project, the team entered the ARFE into the Warfighter Innovation in Science & Engineering competition on April 25.
The WISE competition is a Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math event where all five prestigious U.S. service academies compete to see which team develops the most innovative solution to "service-specific or joint-mission challenges in a virtual format."
Each team's product was judged on breakthrough innovation, technical approach, the impact on the Warfighter, and the ability to effectively communicate the project's objective.
The USMA team took first place, with Wolsborn, Wilkinson and Della-Santina rejoicing at a well-earned victory.
"It was super rewarding! It was great to go up to the panel of judges and present alongside very skilled competitors. It felt great to have a complete project where we can say, 'hey, this is what we've done over the past year. It works, It's effective, and it fulfills an Army need,'" Wolsborn said. "Being able to present the project not only showcased our abilities as a team, but also showed how we were able to use the resources we had at our disposal. It was nice to win for all the people who helped us along the way."
Della-Santina said that learning to manage his time was one of the challenging obstacles he had to overcome. However, working harmoniously with his teammates allowed him to complete all his mission objectives.
"Working with these guys was easy-going. They made working on this project pretty streamlined, and they are very smart guys," Della-Santina said. "We all showed up on time to work on our specific components and eventually merged them together to create the final product."
Conducting thorough research and paying strict attention to detail allowed Wilkinson to gain the experience needed to troubleshoot issues.
"Having to do all the background work on your own to fix an issue and diving deep into the material and how the code works was a big learning experience for me," Wilkinson said. "My teammates made it easy. I've had class with both of them before and during the research project so even though we were all different class years it was easy to work together. We all had our own fields of study and they all combined nicely to see the end state of the project."
The team presented the ARFE during Projects Day, marking the conclusion to a year's worth of in-depth research that helped all three cadets build their time management skills, improve their leadership qualities, and prepare for what awaits them once they commission into the U.S. Army.
"At West Point, we believe that experiential learning is key to developing the leaders of tomorrow," Reeves concluded. "By providing our cadets with hands-on experiences, we prepare them to excel in complex and unpredictable environments and to lead with confidence, competence, and character."
| Date Taken: | 05.08.2023 |
| Date Posted: | 05.12.2023 11:45 |
| Story ID: | 444308 |
| Location: | WEST POINT, NY, US |
| Web Views: | 26 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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