Archive | Education & Culture | Armed with Science

Coast Guard Robotics Competition

Filed under Robots, STEM, Videos by jtozer on May 21, 2013 at 7:27 am {no comments}

A U.S. Coast Guard base hosts a robots competition that is part of a DoD outreach program to get kids interested in science, technology, engineering and math. And what better way to encourage and foster an interest in STEM than with robots I ask you?

How about robots under WATER:

Video provided by U.S. Coast Guard

Robots underwater: bleep-bloop at its STEM best. Want to check out more STEM stories? Click here!

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Fostering STEM Interest With Robots

Filed under Robots, STEM, Videos by jtozer on May 19, 2013 at 7:49 am {no comments}

Everything is more interesting with robots, don’t you think?

The U.S. Army Research, Development and Engineering Command’s Edgewood Chemical Biological Center hosted a Mathematics with Robotics seminar! The seminar presented by the National Center for the Advancement of STEM Education taught Cecil Country Maryland teachers how they can use robotics to make teaching math fun.

Video provided by RDECOM YouTube Channel

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Space Domain Vital To National Defense

Filed under Education & Culture, Space by jtozer on May 10, 2013 at 7:24 am {no comments}

(Photo graphic by Jessica L. Tozer)

A senior defense official told Congress it is critical for the Defense Department to develop and implement space programs and policies to maintain U.S. space advantages in a perpetually changing environment.

Douglas L. Loverro, deputy assistant secretary of defense for space policy, appeared before the Senate Armed Services Committee’s subcommittee on strategic forces regarding the fiscal year 2014 budget proposal for military space programs.

“[It's a] basic reality that space remains vital to our national security,” he said. “But the evolving strategic environment increasingly challenges U.S. space advantages — advantages that both our warfighters and our adversaries have come to appreciate.”

As space becomes more congested, competitive and contested, Loverro said, the department must formulate programs and policies that will secure those advantages for years to come.

But reality, he added, is juxtaposed with providing these capabilities in an environment with increasingly restrained budgets.

Loverro said the growing challenges of budgeting, in addition to increasing external threats, compels the department to think and act differently.

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First GPS NAVSTAR Satellite Goes on Display

Filed under Education & Culture, Scientific Military History, Technology by jtozer on May 6, 2013 at 7:13 am {no comments}

As of April 2013, the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum began to examine the cultural and technological history of precise timekeeping and navigation at sea, in the air, and in space, and the impact of satellite navigation on our everyday lives. The exhibit, TIME and NAVIGATION, will explore ‘how revolutions in timekeeping over three centuries have influenced how we find our way.’

Originally designated TIMATION-IV, Navigation Technology Satellite-2 (NTS-2) was NRL’s final navigation satellite. The NRL navigation satellite successfully prepared the way for the GPS constellation with NTS-2 being the first satellite of the initial demonstration constellation of GPS satellites known as NAVSTAR.
(Photo: U.S. Naval Research Laboratory)

On display, NTS-2 is the first satellite completely designed and built by NRL under GPS Joint Program funding—a working model was launched June 23, 1977, aboard an Atlas E/F rocket from Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif.

The first of a four-satellite constellation, NTS-2 was configured to demonstrate instantaneous navigation positioning.

The effect of relativity on the onboard cesium atomic clocks were measured and corrected so that a GPS receiver on Earth could observe that the rate of GPS time was the same as Coordinated Universal Time (UTC).

The clock frequency stability specification of two parts per 10¹³was met.

NTS-2 was the first demonstration satellite in the NAVSTAR GPS constellation managed by the NAVSTAR GPS Joint Program Office at the Space and Missile Systems Center, Los Angeles Air Force Base, Calif.

Exploiting space-based systems of geodesy, navigation, and timing, U.S. Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) research physicist, Roger Easton, laid the foundation for modern day global positioning systems — GPS.

Proving that a system using a passive ranging technique, combined with highly accurate [atomic] clocks, Easton developed the basis for a new and revolutionary navigation system with three-dimensional coverage (longitude, latitude, and altitude) around the globe.

Sponsored in 1964 by the Naval Air Systems Command, Easton tested his concepts of time-navigation, dubbed TIMATION, executing the development and launch of the TIMATION satellite in 1967.

With the deployment of three additional experimental satellites, TIMATION II in 1969; the first satellite to fly two rubidium standards, Navigation Technology Satellite (NTS-I) in 1974; and the first satellite to fly two cesium atomic frequency standards in a 12-hour GPS orbit, NTS-2, in 1977, Easton had unequivocally proven the practicality and unprecedented accuracy of satellite-based atomic clocks.

Using time measurements from NTS-2, Einstein’s theory of relativity was demonstrated, resulting in the need for a relativistic offset correction that remains in use by every satellite in the GPS constellation.

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Improving The Science Of Decision Making

Filed under Education & Culture by jtozer on May 5, 2013 at 7:37 am {no comments}

Defense Department personnel pride themselves on their decision-making ability, but Nobel laureate Daniel Kahneman believes there are ways to systematically improve and help remove biases from the process.

Kahneman presented his opinions during the “New Ideas @ OSD” seminar in the Pentagon this morning. Former Navy Secretary Richard Danzig moderated the discussion.

Defense leaders literally make life-or-death decisions. They decide how to spend billions of dollars of taxpayer money. They decide how best to approach leaders in other countries and how to best implement programs and policies.

Kahneman received the Nobel Prize in Economics in 2002 and wrote the New York Times bestseller “Thinking, Fast and Slow.” He said there are three elements in making decisions: options, judgments and evidence. The judgments and evidence feed into providing options, which constitute the crux of decision making.

Stressing the need for quality control in the process, Kahneman urged that defense leaders be aware of the role their biases play.

“Institutions in general can be viewed as factories that produce decisions,” he said. “When there is a production line, there is a need for something called quality control.”

He suggested a quality control checklist for decision making.

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Star Wars Software Engineer Teaches Computer Science at Naval Academy

Filed under Education & Culture, Space by jtozer on April 24, 2013 at 7:38 am {no comments}

Hollywood may be a long way from Annapolis, but through the experiences of Cmdr. Kevin Blenkhorn, one of the creators of Yoda in the most recent Star Wars films, midshipmen can get a taste of what happens behind the bright lights.

(Graphic by Jessica Tozer)

Blenkhorn (USNA ’91) served 10 years on active duty before pursuing a civilian career in computer graphics with Industrial Light & Magic, the company behind such graphically complex films as Star Wars, Avatar, and Star Trek.

“I had the privilege of working on episodes one and three of Star Wars,” said Blenkhorn. “It’s great to work with people who are on the cutting edge of technology. The people who were hired to work on that movie pushed computer science to the max, further than any other company. It was the peak of my computer graphics career.”

He maintained his status as an active reservist and when the opportunity arose to apply as a faculty member at the academy, he put his application in.

“I’ve always wanted to come back,” he said. “I was lucky to get accepted and return to the Naval Academy.”

Blenkhorn’s work on the CGI Yoda has gotten good reviews. According to film critic Nathan Adams of the website FilmSchoolRejects, “With this new change Lucas has unified the whole look of the prequel trilogy. You can check out the old and busted puppet Yoda in contrast to the new hotness CG Yoda.”

Now a permanent military professor and associate chair of the academy’s Computer Science Department, Blenkhorn shares his civilian experiences with midshipmen on a daily basis.

“Based on my experience at Star Wars, I always tell people that they should ask for what they want,” he said, something he learned from a grad school professor who encouraged his class to apply to Industrial Light & Magic when the company first started working on Star Wars.

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It All Started With A Moon Landing…

Filed under Education & Culture, Scientific Military History by jtozer on April 2, 2013 at 7:30 am {no comments}

When Neil Armstrong made history with man’s first footsteps on the moon, Susan Helms needed a little nudging from her mom to get excited. And get excited she did. She realized that there would never be another first step on the moon, and even as a young 11-year-old, knew the feat was something special.

(Graphic by Sylvia Saab)

Little did she know that a little more than two decades later, then Maj. Helms would be the first woman military astronaut to fly in space.

“I would read books on science, the planets, the universe and nature,” Helms said. “I spent a lot of time with my nose in a book.”

That interest in science would lead to graduation from the U.S. Air Force Academy with a bachelor’s degree in aeronautical engineering in 1980, as a member of that first graduating class of women cadets.

Helms began her Air Force career as an F-15 and F-16 weapons separation engineer with the Air Force Armament Laboratory at Eglin Air Force Base, Fla. After going back to school to obtain a Master of Science degree in aeronautics and astronautics from Stanford University, she would head back to the Academy as an assistant professor of aeronautics.

In 1988, she would spend the year attending test pilot school at Edwards AFB, Calif., where she would graduate as a distinguished graduate and earn the R.L. Jones award for outstanding flight test engineer. Helms would then spend more than two years as a flight test engineer with the CF-18 at Cold Lake, Alberta, Canada.

She would then get the assignment that would catapult her into the history books.

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STEM Leaders Encourage An Early Start In Science

Filed under STEM, Teacher Feature, Videos by jtozer on March 26, 2013 at 7:10 am {no comments}

What have you done for STEM lately?

Mary Doak is the program manager for community and education outreach at the U.S. Army Research, Development and Engineering Command‘s Edgewood Chemical Biological Center. She discusses her role in supporting science, technology, engineering and mathematics education in the APG area.