Naval Warfare Studies Institute
Newsletter  -  4 October 2023

Happy New Fiscal Year!  NPS, and the NWSI team particularly, has been working hard over the summer on several initiatives. In this newsletter, we update you on the latest Warfare Innovation Continuum and recent efforts by our Wargaming Team.

• We just kicked off this year’s Warfare Innovation Continuum (WIC) and this year’s topic of Integrated Naval Campaigning with September’s WIC workshop. We’ve got highlights from the final briefs, plus a summary of outcomes from last year’s WIC that looked at a Future Hybrid Force.
• NPS’s Wargaming Mobile Education Team has been traveling the world to instruct other organizations on how to design, develop, and deliver wargames. They visited multiple countries including Japan, Germany, and Finland over the past 6 months. In this issue, we focus on their March engagement with Sixth Fleet in Italy.

And in the news recently, Secretary of the Navy Carlos Del Toro called for a new maritime statecraft during remarks at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government:

• “This afternoon, I stand before you to call for a ‘new maritime statecraft’ to prevail in this era of intense strategic competition. Maritime statecraft, in a broad sense, encompasses not only naval diplomacy but a national, whole-of-government effort to build comprehensive U.S. and allied maritime power, both commercial and naval.”

Del Toro’s vision aligns perfectly with the work our WIC teams just completed, making the topic choice of Integrated Naval Campaigning a prescient one. In future issues, we’ll bring updates on how these efforts are progressing over the year to provide additional insights in support of this critical Naval priority.

Lastly, in August, we welcomed NWSI’s first permanent Director, Randy Pugh, Col, USMC (Ret.).  Our next newsletter will share his vision for NWSI and how he sees its work supporting and connecting the critical research, education, and innovation happening at NPS.

Workshop Catalyzes New Thinking on Integrated Naval Campaigning

The year-long NPS Warfare Innovation Continuum (WIC) for FY24-25 kicked off last month with the annual concept generation workshop, an event that drew over 100 active participants and over 70 observers.

• The weeklong workshop concluded 21 September with presentations by eight interdisciplinary teams consisting of students, professors, government scientists, engineers from industry, and military officers from the Service Headquarters and the Operating Forces.
• They shared findings and recommendations related to this year’s WIC theme: the impact of disruptive emerging technologies on integrated naval campaigning.

Why it matters: The Warfare Innovation Continuum exposes NPS faculty and students to priority naval challenges and synchronizes cross-campus educational and research activities around a central theme of critical interest to the Naval Services.

How it works: Participants were able to query senior thought leaders in various areas during four “discovery panels” and to gain insights from a distinguished keynote speaker. They then worked as teams to refine their understanding of challenges in their team’s designated area and develop “minimally viable ideas” for how these challenges might be overcome.

• These concepts will fuel classroom projects, theses, and other research initiatives over the next year and will feed into NPS’ Naval Innovation Exchange (NIX) teams and Innovation Capstone Projects.

Final briefs and sticky notes: Several teams shared how they used the sticky note-fueled methodology of rapid concept generation now common for group innovation events.

The Coalition Operations team found their high-value quadrant by labeling the X and Y axis (usually termed “difficulty” and “impact”) “the squeeze” and “the juice,” respectively, bringing new life to a well-used bit of military jargon.

• This team targeted three concepts that landed in the high juice/low squeeze quadrant: technical communications, training, and relationship building. All three of these areas would strengthen relationships with coalition partners to enable effective future integration when need arises, and all three reinforce each other.
• The team suggested current joint exercises held in the Indo-Pacific and Middle East expand to include international partners to begin the process of training together, which will bolster relationships and identify challenges in technical communications.

The future vertical takeoff and landing team studied the art of the possible with crewed helicopters partnered with future “launched effects” that could include drones or drone swarms, according to team co-lead Professor Bonnie Johnson. The team identified that all future scenarios will need to account for the inevitable mix of humans and machines in aviation configurations.

• In 2045, they argued, “nothing should be done only by a human.” Naval aviation operations should always be augmented with optionally crewed or uncrewed “wingmen”.

To make that happen, they made the following recommendations: 

• To optimize human-machine teaming in future scenarios, service members need to get high quality education to understand – and especially trust – how complex machines process and present information.
• Operations should have a goal of knowledge centricity – ensuring that information, and even intelligence, not just data, is transferred from point to point.
• The procurement process needs to integrate and emphasize knowledge centricity guidelines once they’re established.

Other unclassified teams presented on amphibious operations, contested logistics, and gray zone operations (competition below the threshold of war).

Three teams worked on classified problem sets: offensive mining, undersea operations, and long-range fires.

• These teams produced analysis and recommendations that will continue over the next six to nine months through interdisciplinary research projects across campus and in DoD research and development organizations.

What’s next: Just three days after the WIC Workshop, many follow-on activities are already underway, according to WIC Coordinator Jeff Kline.

• The Systems Engineering Analysis Cohort 33 will construct designs for a new mobile mine capability.
• The Total Ship Systems Engineering course work will create a new ship design for surface tender (afloat expeditionary maintenance forward).

Want to get involved?

Final Report on WIC Hybrid Force (FY22-23) Now Available

In case you missed it, last year’s Warfare Innovation Continuum on Future Hybrid Force fueled multiple research and education activities at NPS: 9 capstone projects, 4 classes, 2 group research efforts, and one wargame. 

NPS Provides Wargaming Course for the Sixth Fleet

In March, members of NPS’ Wargaming Mobile Education Team (MET) traveled to the Navy’s Sixth Fleet in Naples, Italy, to help the organization build its own wargaming capability.

The wargaming team conducted a two-week Basic Analytic Wargaming Course, teaching the design, development, execution and analysis phases of wargaming to members of the fleet’s newly organized wargaming department.

• The goal is for Sixth Fleet to be able to conduct its own wargames whenever the need arises, rather than outsourcing the process.

Why it matters: Sixth Fleet is the first numbered fleet to stand up an organic wargaming capability.  This ability will allow greater creativity and responsiveness to challenges facing Naval Forces Europe-Africa (NAVEUR).

Immediate impact: Less than three months after this visit, the Sixth Fleet wargaming cadre was given one day’s notice to develop and conduct a wargame to facilitate an operational planning team. David Watkins, N53D Deputy Director of Deliberate Plans & Wargaming, said the team applied its NPS training and succeeded at all goals:

• “We conducted the wargame with great success, and with many appreciative participants.” Wakins said. “The U.S. Navy Maritime Operations Center training staff that was here thought I worked for the Naval War College.
• “Of course I told them I was trained by you [Profs Jeff Appleget and Rob Burke].”
• This success prompted a subsequent request from NAVEUR commander ADM Munsch to design and develop a wargame for a NATO ally in the maritime domain.

Wargaming capabilities delivered to the fleet: The NPS wargaming team offers a unique value: it doesn’t just conduct wargames; it trains individuals and organizations in the knowledge, skills, and content needed to operate their own wargaming units.

Yes, and: The team hits the road regularly to bring their expertise directly to organizations around the world.

• The NPS team has conducted over 40 courses with partners, allies, and organizations that need and want the capability.
• This June, they were in Yokosuka, Japan, working with PACFLT/SUBPAC alongside Japanese and Australian partners and in Hawaii to conduct a wargaming course with U.S. Pacific Fleet as part of NPS’ Extended Campus and NPS Hawaii. They traveled to Wiesbaden, Germany, in July to work with US Army Europe.

How it works: The five-day Basic Analytic Wargaming Course delivered by the NPS Wargaming Mobile Education Team brings two huge benefits to the sponsoring organization:

• First, it teaches a group of up to 20 students analytic wargaming through a series of hands-on practical exercises.
• Second, those practical exercises are tailored around a wargaming topic that the sponsoring organization provides, so the students actually design a wargame that their organization can use immediately to investigate current and future challenges important to their organization’s command.

What’s next: The Wargaming Team isn’t slowing down. Their next stop is conducting a one-week course for II Marine Expeditionary Force at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, from 23-27 October 2023. 

Want to get involved?

• Students looking to help and organizations that want to schedule an NPS Mobile Education Team visit should contact Dr. Jeff Appleget.

Upcoming Events

Secretary of the Navy Guest Lecture: Condoleezza Rice
5 October 2023  |  1500 King Hall on the NPS campus

This will be an in-person only event.  No Teams, livestream, or recording will be available.

JIFX 24-1
23–27 October 2023
NPS Field Laboratory at Camp Roberts

Event Focus Area: Operations at the Edge

Live Virtual Constructive (LVC) Exploration Workshop
NWSI Concepts Branch
14-16 November
NPS Campus

This is the final workshop of a four-workshop sequence to develop, draft, and publish a Live Virtual Constructive (LVC) Science and Technology (S&T) Master Plan with ONR Code 34. Conducted in collaboration with the NPS Modeling Virtual Environments and Simulation (MOVES) Institute.

POC: Lyla Englehorn

NPS News of Note

Call for Applications for the FY24 Marine Corps Graduate Education Program–Enlisted (MCGEP-E)

The new MCGEP-E program increases opportunities for enlisted Marines to earn a master’s degree from NPS. This Service-level initiative is a direct result of research by NPS alumnus 1stSgt Brandon Smart. The initial FY23 six-person cohort arrived in June.

Deadline: October 20. 

Read more. 

Call For Articles: NPS Foundation Invites Writing On Integrated Naval Campaigning CIMSEC

Keep the conversation going by articulating your perspective on what integrated campaigning means for naval forces. A starting point proposed by some at the Naval Postgraduate School is that “an integrated naval campaign is a series of operations in, and from, the maritime domain conducted by joint, interorganizational, and allied forces to achieve national strategic and operational objectives.” What forms can an integrated naval campaign take, and how might it enhance or benefit from all elements of national power? What emerging capabilities might enhance naval integration with partners and allies? How may unmanned force structure transform naval campaigning? Concepts for naval campaigning could define how naval forces evolve and operate for years to come.

Deadline: October 25

Read more. 

Naval Postgraduate School Expands Educational Reach with New Hawaii Campus
MC2 Janiel Adames

The Naval Postgraduate School (NPS) and U.S. Pacific Fleet (PACFLT) celebrated a significant milestone on Sept. 8 with the establishment of an NPS branch campus at Pearl Harbor. The new academic center, known as “NPS Hawaii,” will extend the reach and impact of NPS academic offerings to the fleet and force consistent with the institution’s primary purpose to meet naval-unique needs in graduate education. What’s more, NPS Hawaii is also aimed at bolstering NPS’ responsiveness to the specific education and research needs of the Pacific Fleet.  Read more.

NPS Advances Energy Resilience, Sustainability Through Microgrid Research
Rose Mena-Werth

Over the past five years, a multidisciplinary team of Naval Postgraduate School (NPS) faculty has been supporting the development of an energy renaissance of sorts with the potential to redefine what it means to be energy resilient. Working with partners from Naval Facilities Engineering and Expeditionary Warfare Center (NAVFAC EXWC) at Port Hueneme, Calif., and the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee – and dozens of NPS students over the years – the team’s innovative research into microgrids, and development of advanced tools to capitalize on them, is creating opportunities to advance resilience, sustainability, and deliver higher quality power to Department of Defense facilities worldwide. Read more.

Naval Warfare Studies Institute
Newsletter  -  20 July 2023

Happy July! In this issue we bring news of two events that show how the early stages of the innovation cycle at Naval Postgraduate School work to create new ways of thinking about naval warfare.

• Last month NPS kicked off the Naval Innovation Exchange with a workshop for the team researching Intelligent Autonomous Systems.
• Coming up in September, the Warfare Innovation Continuum will start its year-long exploration of integrated naval campaigning with a concept generation workshop.

Both events feed into each other and showcase the innovative thinking power of NPS students and faculty, as well as the impact of connecting to the larger innovation ecosystem that NWSI fosters.

We also share some exciting news from NPS research:

• The Consortium for Additive Manufacturing Research and Education (CAMRE) achieved the first successful demonstration of in-flight 3D printing aboard a MV-22 Osprey.

Read on!

Naval Innovation Exchange Programs Kick Off with Workshop on Intelligent Autonomous Systems

On June 8-9, the first of three recently formed Naval Innovation Exchange (NIX) teams held a workshop to explore research topics related to intelligent autonomous systems (IAS) and hybrid force requirements.

• The NIX is a new program under the Office of Research and Innovation (OR&I) that will support multidisciplinary teams working in short research sprints to produce speedy military solutions.
• The other two NIX teams are researching technology concepts and workforce preparation efforts in Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Additive Manufacturing (AM).

Why it matters: The NIX research sprints will prepare new technologies and practices for adoption into the Fleet, Fleet Marine Force, and shore establishment.

• NIX’s multidisciplinary and collaborative approach includes sponsors, making it more likely for researched solutions to be deployed instead of left sitting on the shelf.
• Plus, this configuration puts NPS students at the front and center of cutting-edge research.

How it works:

• Each team will be led by an NPS faculty member who will oversee student groups as they move the projects forward across overlapping student terms while completing their graduate programs.
• NIX teams will rely on NPS partnerships with laboratories and warfare centers through the Naval Research and Development Establishment (NR&DE), academia, and private industry to bring the best in their fields to the development of warfighting solutions.
• A goal of each NIX team is to reach a prototype state for a selection of its projects and develop a pathway to adoption.

The NWSI Impact: NWSI staff are hosting and supporting workshops to get NIX teams off the ground.

• Cecilia Panella, a Defense Analysis Faculty Associate for Research and NWSI team member, organized the IAS workshop and is deeply involved in the innovation conversation at NPS.
• The latest AI Summit was hosted at NPS on June 8 to similarly support the AI NIX Team.

What’s next: The IAS team is looking to partner with members of Task Force 59 who have done extensive IAS testing in the Middle East, as well as the Navy’s Unmanned Task Force.

• They will also have support from industry experts that partner with NPS through more than 40 active Cooperative Research and Development Agreements (CRADAs).

Get the full scoop:

Warfare Innovation Continuum Begins Research on Integrated Naval Campaigning

The newest Warfare Innovation Continuum kicks off in September with a concept generation workshop that will bring together teams of students, faculty, and guests from allied nations, DOD commands, warfare centers, academia and industry all focused on this year’s theme: Integrated Naval Campaigning.

Robotics and emerging technologies: This year’s WIC will explore the confluence of various emerging technologies to enhance the nation’s ability to conduct integrated missions in the maritime domain.

Jeff Kline, Professor of the Practice at NPS’ Operations Research Department, identified this year's theme that applies new technologies to familiar operational challenges.

• “We have numerous past examples of integrated naval campaigning from the amphibious operations of World War II to counter-piracy operations of today,” said Kline. “However, we will explore opportunities for new concepts brought on by the robotics age of warfare’s contributions to all domains.”

Why it matters: The annual Warfare Innovation Continuum (WIC) Workshop is a “good idea” engine that seeds the work of NPS student and faculty research teams to address problem spaces of key interest to Naval leadership.

Lyla Englehorn, NWSI Concepts Lead and WIC workshop organizer, described the power of this process.

• “‘Good idea fairies’ get a bad rap, but good ideas are required for significant change,” said Englehorn. “Warfighter-centered design will help us harness the power of imagination to rapidly identify and develop potential solutions.”

The WIC Workshop is the first step in both the year-long warfare innovation continuum and the larger innovation continuum at NPS.

• Concepts generated at the WIC workshop may be picked up by Naval Innovation Exchange (NIX) teams or by faculty and students looking for capstone research projects.
• Ultimately, these ideas can transform into solution-focused prototypes in NPS labs and field experimentation sites like Camp Roberts.

How it works: Using tools of warfighter-centered design, small teams of junior officers and early-career engineers respond to a design challenge and rapidly generate solutions to explore further through applied research and experimentation.

This year’s workshop participants will be teamed up in one of five groups:

• 21st Century Amphibious Ops
• Maritime Gray Zone Ops
• Coordinated & Coalition Ops
• Undersea Ops
• Contested Logistics

Students are key to success: September’s workshop relies on the creative insights of NPS students who engage in the concept generation process.  To fill out the teams, we need approximately 25 students.  

• It’s a win-win: Past student participants found the investment deepened their critical thinking skill sets and their understanding of contemporary operational challenges.

Mentors and specialists are also needed: A small group of more experienced individuals serve as guides to share their experience in this vast complex problem space and provide feedback as teams work through the design challenge.

• Facilitator and panelist roles are available by invitation only. If you have unique skills to offer or have been directed to register as a specialist, please register in this role and add a note in your bio. We will be in touch after your registration is reviewed.

We are specifically seeking concept generation team members to help us explore amphibious operations, mobile mining, and sustainment in a future battlespace.

The 2023 Warfare Innovation Continuum (WIC) Workshop will be held over four days from September 18-21 at NPS with remote participation options available.

• Note that this workshop is scheduled in the week between NPS finals and graduation to avoid class conflicts.

What’s next: Registration is open!

NPS in the News

CAMRE Helps Marines Take 3D Printing to New Heights

The Consortium for Additive Manufacturing Research and Education (CAMRE) at the Naval Postgraduate School (NPS) achieved the first successful demonstration of in-flight 3D printing aboard a U.S. Marine Corps MV-22 Osprey tiltrotor aircraft on June 21 in Southern California.

CAMRE’s operational demonstration, which involved the printing of a medical cast aboard an airborne Osprey, was part of larger-scale exercise support provided by CAMRE and the Marine Innovation Unit (MIU) to forces participating in an integrated training exercise (ITX) at Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center Twentynine Palms, Calif., from June 10-22.  Read more.

NPS Hosts the Joint Foreign Area Officer Conference

“Navy Foreign Area Officers are strategic operators who connect high-level national and theater ends to Navy and joint tactical capabilities to deliver strategic-level effects for the United States,” stated Rear Adm. Michael Baker, Senior Defense Official/Defense Attaché to India, during the opening of the Navy portion of the Joint Foreign Area Officer Conference. Read more.

Air Vice-Marshal David Arthurton, Royal Air Force (RAF), Visits NPS

Arthurton met with leaders from the Naval Postgraduate School International Graduate Programs Office (IGPO), Department of Computer Science, and the Center for Cyber Warfare to explore current curricula and potential developmental opportunities for members of the UK Digital Artificial Intelligence Centre and Defence Digital Foundry.  Read more.

Upcoming Events

Quarterly Welcome Social at NPS
Naval Postgraduate School Foundation and Alumni Association
July 19, 2023  1600-1800 PDT  |  The Trident Room

New and current students and their spouses or guests, as well as faculty and alumni, are invited to the Quarterly Welcome Social in the Trident Room on July 19 for socializing and hosted refreshments.

JIFX 23-4: Autonomy and Human Machine Teaming
Aug 7, 2023 to Aug 12, 2023
NPS Field Laboratory at Camp Roberts 

Warfare Innovation Continuum Workshop: Integrated Naval Campaigning
Sep 18, 2023 to Jul 22, 2023
NPS campus and ZoomGov

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Naval Warfare Studies Institute
Newsletter  -  21 June 2023

Happy Summer!  It's the longest day of the year, and we're celebrating with a sunny account of some of the latest NWSI and NPS accomplishments. 

Our top story showcases award-winning research on disruptive technology from two NPS students who briefed their work at the annual conference of the Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE). 

We bring summaries of other recent events:

• The latest AI Summit connected NPS warrior-scholars with cyber leaders from the Department of the Navy and the Department of Defense.
• This quarter's Wargaming Week included three classified wargames designed collaboratively by students and sponsors. 
• And last Friday was spring graduation here on the NPS campus.  349 warrior-scholars received graduate degrees, including 25 international students representing 16 countries.

Want to know more about how NWSI is connecting innovators at NPS to the larger naval warfare community? Drop us a line.

NPS Students Present Award-winning Research at SPIE Conference

Two Naval Postgraduate School (NPS) warrior scholars recently won the Student Emerging and Disruptive Innovation Award presented by the Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE).  LtCol Scotty Black and Olha Danilova were recognized and presented their research at SPIE’s Disruptive Technologies in Information Sciences Conference held May 1-3 in Orlando, Florida.

Why it matters: The SPIE Conference has become a gathering place for large and small industry, international coalition partners, Department of Defense (DoD) organizations, and academic institutions.

• “This conference exposed us to some amazing research going on throughout academia, industry, and government,” said Black. “Additionally, it further reinforced the need to build collaborations and partnerships with industry and academia if we are to solve some of our most complex technical challenges within the Department of Defense.”
• “It became obvious how if we are able to fuse the insights provided by our service members, the seeds of innovation provided by academia, and the technological prowess provided by industry, we can accelerate our ability to continue to build the disruptive and innovative capabilities necessary to maintain our technological superiority.”

Applied knowledge of disruptive technologies: SPIE called for students to submit papers on emerging technology they believed represented the most disruptive technology of the future. The NPS students received two out of four awards in this nationwide competition. 

• Black and Danilova spoke on a panel for emerging technologies, presented their research in a poster session, attended SPIE briefs ranging in topics from artificial intelligence to accelerating innovation, and engaged with DoD research organizations interested in collaboration.

The research topics that won them a place at the conference approached the competition theme from different angles.

• Danilova’s research demonstrated a successful example of a system of collecting, processing, and disseminating information about enemy forces, coordinating defense forces, and providing situational awareness according to NATO standards. Danilova is pursuing an M.S. in Financial Management and a Certificate in Data Science. She also brings a unique perspective and experience as a military member of one of our European partners.
• Black presented his research on how to leverage machine learning for wargaming. His presentation described how hierarchical reinforcement learning might be used to create intelligent combat agents capable of potentially superhuman performance in combat simulations to support wargaming. Black is pursuing a Ph.D. in Modeling, Virtual Environments, and Simulation (MOVES).

The NWSI Impact: NWSI announced and promoted student participation in the SPIE competition in alignment with efforts to provide students and faculty with exposure to active military operations.

What’s next: Black is looking to follow up on international collaboration opportunities with the Naval Surface Warfare Center Indian Head Division (NSWC IHD).

Wargaming Week Explores Challenges from the Arctic to the IndoPacific

NPS recently concluded Wargaming Week from 5-8 June. Interdisciplinary teams of students, faculty, and sponsors conducted eight wargames as a capstone to this quarter’s wargaming coursework and training that has included over 50 students from Operations Research, Defense Analysis, and the Modeling Virtual Environments and Simulations (MOVES) Institute. Three of the wargames were classified.

Why it matters: Wargaming Week showcases how proficient students become with wargaming principles after completing NPS wargaming courses—skills they can apply in future assignments. 

Yes, and: Sponsored wargames keeps the NPS community closely connected to current challenges being faced by a range of commands in the Department of the Navy and the Department of Defense.

This quarter's wargames explored the following topics:

• Assessing the performance of fuel delivery platforms in a contested battlespace (sponsored by OPNAV N4)
• Breaking the Belligerent Bear: US and Allies counter Chinese aggression in South and East China Sea (two games, sponsored by MARFORPAC)
• Deterring the PRC – SECRET (sponsored by Joint Chiefs of Staff and J-7)
• Future Capabilities Wargame – SECRET (sponsored by OSD SCO)
• Near-Future Mine Warfare – SECRET: Disruptive Detonations in Deliberate Defense (developed by students in the Operations Research curriculum)
• Race for the Arctic (developed by students in the Defense Analysis department)
• Strategic Shaping and Reconnaissance INDOPACOM (Sponsored by MARSOC)

What’s next:  The NWSI Wargaming Center Mobile Education Team will be taking its wargaming course on the road, with stops in Japan and Hawaii over the next two months. The wargame in Yokosuka for PACFLT/SUBPAC will be the first OCONUS wargame that an NPS student team will conduct.

Latest AI Summit Connects NPS Warrior-Scholars to Cyber Leaders

Recap from Luis Velazquez, Chief Technology Officer (CTO) at United States Marine Corps

NPS successfully convened another meaningful and energetic summit from June 5 to 8, 2023. This gathering saw the participation of significant warfare communities from the Navy's Artificial Intelligence (AI) Task Forces.

• The objective of the summit was to delve deeper into the services’ requirements in manning, training, and equipping, as well as to address the prospects and obstacles associated with the swift integration of AI.
• The event, steered by Mr. Brett Vaughan and John Long, PhD, PhD (LtCol USMC ret), created an atmosphere of mutually beneficial collaboration and cooperation among the participants.

Following the summit, students from NPS had the opportunity to meet and converse with representatives from the Marine Corps Systems Command (MARCORSYSCOM), including Cyber Technology Officer Gaurang R. Dävé, Chief Technology Officer Luis E. Velazquez, and a representative from Deputy Commandant for Information, Service Data Officer (DCI SDO).

Why it matters: This interaction not only offered the students an opportunity to learn more about the central AI-focused areas of the two offices, but also provided a platform to discuss potential collaborations with MARCORSYSCOM and DCI to support NPS student research.

• The students found immense value in these exchanges, emphasizing the significance of such interactions with visitors from organizations like MARCORSYSCOM and DCI where some of the students will find their new assignment following their tour at NPS.

Read the original post on LinkedIn.

NPS Spring Quarter Graduates Embrace Change, Celebrate Teamwork

With teamwork and the inevitability of change as central themes of the day, the Naval Postgraduate School (NPS) recognized its 2023 Spring Quarter graduates on June 16 during a ceremony at King Hall Auditorium.

• Keynote speaker Gary Wipfler, who served as vice president and treasurer for Apple Inc. from 1997 to 2021, lauded the achievements of the quarter’s 349 graduates.

Retired Vice Adm. Ann E. Rondeau, president of NPS, highlighted a few key areas of research that the new alumni focused on through their degrees, including artificial intelligence, cyber warfare, and logistics.

• She also recognized three historic firsts, acknowledging the first female graduates from Pakistan (Army Maj. Rukhsana Zenab) and Trinidad and Tobago (Coast Guard Lt. Sherisse Moore) and the first NPS graduate from Belgium (Army Maj. Cedric Craninx).

Upcoming Events

Applied Wargaming Course at NPS Hawaii
17-21 July

This week-long applied course guides participants through design, development, and execution of an analytical game to support joint and naval planning process. CPF can pick the wargaming topic for execution. The intended audience is any mid-grade or senior naval officer.  Learn more. 

Naval Warfare Studies Institute
Newsletter  -  25 May 2023

Happy Thursday!

Our top story this week describes how NPS is piloting a program to deliver tailored education that supports the specific needs of U.S. Pacific Fleet.

We also bring news from the 20th Annual Acquisition Research Symposium, co-hosted by NWSI and the Acquisition Research Program at NPS. Leaders from across the Navy and Department of Defense discussed a range of issues and illustrated the importance of the research produced at NPS to inform defense policy, strategy, and operations.

In upcoming events, we’re kicking off the Naval Innovation Exchange (NIX) series with an Intelligent Autonomous Systems (IAS) Exploration Workshop on June 8-10. The NIX is part of the larger innovation operating concept at NPS that coordinates innovation from concept generation to delivering capabilities in collaboration with industry. We’ll keep you updated as these efforts continue.

NPS Hawaii campus pilot underway

The first set of NPS educational offerings tailored to support U.S. Pacific Fleet (PACFLT) began on March 27, providing stackable certificates, tailored education courses, and short courses targeted for active duty and DoD civilians currently serving in the Fleet.

Why it matters: NPS is deepening its connection with PACFLT via this relationship that will support the command’s advancement of Indo-Pacific regional maritime security and stability by providing operators with advanced knowledge and skills they can use immediately in their jobs.

• Yes, and: The courses are designed to meet warrior-scholars where they are, with both onsite and distance learning offerings.

How it works: This first offering is a pilot program with a targeted selection of short courses, certificates, and Flag-level sessions.

• Certificate courses began March 27^th and are being attended via distance learning by 20 operational fleet members. They will continue to run on the NPS quarter system.
• Short courses are weeklong, focused, in-person opportunities where NPS faculty fly to Hawaii and provide face-to-face tailored education to the Fleet’s officers “at the point of need.”  For example, an Emerging Technology short course targeted towards flag officers was held earlier in May.

A Partnership with the Fleet: Adm. Samuel Paparo and Vice Adm. (ret.) Ann E. Rondeau, the respective heads of PACFLT and NPS, are leading a historic collaboration that unites one of the most important operational fleet commands with NPS in its strategic position on the west coast.

• Dr. Joe Hooper, Vice Provost of Academic Affairs, has been leading the educational efforts by coordinating with PACFLT to determine the most relevant course topics and logistics.  His efforts with PACFLT are part of a broader NPS educational transformation to reflect the transition to renewed great power competition.
• “The urgency of the geopolitical situation in the Indo-Pacific means we should consider new ways of utilizing NPS," said Hooper. "How should we structure ourselves to deliver education in a different way to the fleet? Short, focused educational content delivered onsite or via distance learning to the operational forces is an interesting approach we are trying in this pilot.” 

NPS Extended Campus: Hooper has been working closely with Ana Eckhart to enable NPS faculty involvement in NPS Hawaii. In addition to promoting targeted offerings, they have been focusing support resources as a pilot for improved distance learning quality. A broader transformation within Academic Affairs is focused on standing up NPS Extended Campus, a centralized support organization for non-traditional educational delivery.

• “Our faculty members have been offering self-coordinated short courses, but we are now stepping up to support them in this institutional effort with dedicated instructional resources,” said Eckhart. “We are providing them with support from instructional design to media development focused on the development of high-quality distance learning and on-site offerings. This effort could not have been accomplished without the support and collaboration from faculty across campus.”

The NWSI impact: NWSI formalized a relationship between NPS and PACFLT in 2022 with the creation of the Nimitz Research Group. As our team coordinated research topics NPS faculty and students could undertake to support PACFLT’s concept and capability development needs, conversations revealed that PACFLT also had a need for tailored education – and that NPS was exactly the right organization to meet it.

• At the request of Admiral Samuel Paparo, leaders from NPS and PACFLT collaborated to create short courses, courses, certificates, and degrees that fill gaps in operational and technical expertise needed to ensure continued competitive advantage in the Indo-Pacific.

Yes, and: NWSI supports the on-site deliveries in Hawaii and coordinates subject matter expertise from the NPS Warfare Chairs and other faculty. 

• NPS sees tremendous promise in this proof of concept and partnership and expects it will continue to evolve with increasingly tailored opportunities for research, education, and collaboration to be followed by expansion to other Fleet and Fleet Marine Force units.

NPS Undersea Warfare Chair Vice Adm. (ret.) Phillip Sawyer is supporting the NPS Hawaii initiative and helped bring this first session across the finish line. In his work with both NWSI and Hawaii, Sawyer has been an important interface between NPS and the operational fleet.

• “NWSI is a conduit for all Fleets to reach into NPS for support,” said Sawyer. “We started this work with PacFleet first to trial these new initiatives while assisting with the long-term competition against the CCP.  The more NPS can help – whether research or education – the stronger our integrated deterrence.”

What’s next: NWSI and NPS will evaluate results as the first set of students complete courses and certificates over the next 12 months. The continuation and improvement of NPS Makalapa will strengthen and further the important partnership between NPS and PACFLT.

NPS Acquisition Research Symposium Marks 20th Annual Event With Return to Monterey

For the first time in four years, acquisition professionals from the government, academic and private sectors gathered in Monterey as the Naval Postgraduate School (NPS) hosted its 20th annual Acquisition Research Symposium, May 10-11.

• This year’s event marked a return to in-person sessions after three years of virtual gatherings, offering nearly 800 registered attendees the chance to engage with senior officials from the DOD and Department of the Navy.

Why it matters:  Co-hosted by NPS’ Acquisition Research Program (ARP) and the Naval Warfare Studies Institute (NWSI), the symposium provided an invaluable opportunity for NPS faculty and students, as well as other attendees from academia and industry, to experience a wide range of perspectives from leaders and researchers in the defense acquisition domain.

The value of research: William LaPlante, Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment, delivered the symposium’s kickoff address. During his remarks, LaPlante brought up a major theme of the symposium – the continued importance of research and analytics to inform decision-making and fuel innovation in the defense acquisitions process.

• “What are the production rates? Are the production rates truly going up? How are we fixing the supply chain? Data-driven analytics on all those things is sorely needed,” said LaPlante.
• For him and others, this data is important to help DOD better understand and optimize its relationship with industry partners that provide many of the United States’ warfighting capabilities.

LaPlante also shared that his team is putting together a new industrial base strategy that accounts for lessons learned over the past few years, including those from the joint production acceleration cell, or JPAC.

NPS students also had an opportunity to present and discuss their research with attendees during a student poster show on May 10.

• Senior defense acquisition officials and other researchers, many of whom served as panelists or keynote speakers during the two days of the symposium, offered their comments and critiques on the students’ research projects and priorities.

What’s next: The 21^st Annual Acquisition Research Symposium will be held May 8-9, 2024.  Calls for proposals will go out in the fall.

• Read more about the event.
• Watch LaPlante’s keynote address.
• Read more about what leaders had to say about the industrial base and workforce.
• Watch our short three-minute video with highlights from the event.

NPS in the News

Innovation Capstone Gives NPS Students a Pathway to Transition New Ideas to the Fleet

The Naval Postgraduate School (NPS) is currently piloting a new innovation capstone opportunity for NPS’ warrior-scholar students to work with U.S. Navy sponsors on developing and transitioning their innovative ideas within the space of a year.

How it works: The capstone proposal extends beyond normal student thesis requirements in that it must include an acquisition strategy.

• Their proposal is put in front of a mixed panel that can include faculty who determine if it meets departmental standards; naval officers who will decide if the proposal meets operational needs; and Program Executive Officers (PEOs) from the acquisition community, who in this process are the Navy’s “Shark Tank venture capitalists.”
• PEOs are determining not just payoff, but the potential to meet warfighting needs aligned to critical enabling capabilities identified in the CNO’s Navigation Plan (NAVPLAN).

Why it matters: Effective solutions must involve the fleet – and increasingly, partners in industry, where much of today’s technology innovation is occurring.

Read more.

Highlights from JIFX 23-3

Check out highlights of just a few of the projects in action at the latest JIFX event, held May 1-5 at the NPS Field Lab at Camp Roberts and focused on the theme “Autonomous Logistics Enabled by Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning.”

Upcoming Events

Seapower Conversation: Reflections on Navy Strategy & Force Design
25 May 2023, 1500-1700 PDT
Glasgow Hall 109 on the NPS Campus

With Bruce Stubbs, Former Deputy Director of Strategy and Policy (N51), the Director of Strategy (N50), and the Director of Strategy and Strategic Concepts (N722).  

The brief offers a deep dive into Navy Force Design. Its purpose is to provide a “navalist” audience an assessment of Navy Force Design and Strategy.  The brief describes the factors and issues affecting Force Design and places them into a thematic framework. Force Design is a complex subject with many facets.  The brief addresses Key Issues Affecting Navy Force Design (20 Stand-Alone Issues).

Naval AI Summit
5-8 June 2023
NPS campus

The principal objective of the 2023 Summer Naval AI Summit is to facilitate Naval AI Task Force cross communication, information sharing and lesson learning. Additionally, the Summer Naval AI Summit extends a unique opportunity for diverse stakeholder engagement across the Navy, academia, and industry. The 2023 Summer Naval AI Summit will align with NPS Lead AI course, and through the NPS Foundation will include engagement from leaders within the tech industry.

Naval Innovation Exchange (NIX) Intelligent Autonomous Systems (IAS) Exploration Workshop
8-10 June 2023, 0800-1700
NPS Campus 

With the overarching design challenge “How might we identify and prioritize intelligent autonomous systems (IAS) research and development opportunities of the most interest to Naval leadership and align work with affiliated warfare center projects and industry partners?” Small teams of junior officers, academic subject matter experts, and engineers from warfare centers will explore this future problem space, and with tools of warfighter-centered design will generate prioritized lists of opportunities for mutually beneficial projects. The four focus areas include: 1) Role of IAS in Contested Logistics, 2) Best Practices in IAS Research and Acquisition, 3) Strategic Integration of IAS in Mission Sets, and 4) IAS NEXT Technology & Workforce. Please note that this opportunity is only available to NPS students, faculty, DoD personnel and contractors.

JIFX 24-1
7 – 11 August 2023
NPS Field Laboratory at Camp Roberts

Event Focus Area: Autonomy and Human Machine Teaming

Concentration Areas:
• Unmanned Aerial Systems
• Unmanned Ground Systems
• Human-Machine Teaming for Controlling Unmanned Aerial Systems
• Human-Machine Teaming for Search and Rescue Operations
• AI-Augmented Decision Support Systems
• Manned / Unmanned Teaming (MUM-T)

Research Challenges:
• Examination of cognitive load in human-machine teaming
• Multi-Domain UXS Swarming
• Creating virtual environments for evaluation human-machine teaming

Learn more. 

Naval Warfare Studies Institute
Newsletter  -  19 April 2023

The NPS and NWSI teams have been deepening connections with the larger education, research, and innovation ecosystems in the past month. This newsletter brings a few of those efforts to your attention:

• We check in on the Nimitz Research Group one year in as it graduates its first cohort of students. 
• Earlier this month NPS President Ann Rondeau (VADM Ret.) moderated a panel at the Sea-Air-Space symposium focused on the topic “Winning the Innovation Race.” We've got highlights. 

A number of NPS news stories are collected here for you as well, including coverage of the first inaugural Naval Space Summit hosted at NPS and a collaboration between DoD and Hybrid Airship Vehicles initiated by NPS thesis research.

Finally, join us at our upcoming events. 

• This quarter’s JIFX is May 1-5 with a focus on Autonomous Logistics Enabled by Artificial Intelligence & Machine Learning.
• The 20^th Annual Acquisition Research Symposium is May 10-11, both in Monterey and online.
• Our next Seapower Conversation is May 25, where we’ll be talking about Navy strategy and force design.

Hope to see you soon!

Nimitz Research Group Celebrates One Year of Operations

The first cohort of students supported by the Nimitz Research Group (NRG) graduates this June, delivering a diverse range of impact-oriented research projects.

• One year ago, NWSI formed the NRG to support student and faculty work on problems in the Indo-Pacific.

Why it matters:  NPS is poised—geographically, cognitively, and organizationally—to provide powerful resources to better understand and solve challenges in the Indo-Pacific.

• Yes, and: NPS’ warrior-scholar students gain richer understanding of joint operational issues that will prepare them to lead more effectively in future assignments.

How it works: The Nimitz Research Group is run by Vice Adm. (ret.) Phil Sawyer, undersea warfare chair, and Dr. Jarema Didoszak, professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering.

• Together, they connect students and faculty advisors with active-duty military and civilian sponsors at U.S. Pacific Fleet (COMPACFLT) and other Pacific-focused commands to help solve challenges and security threats in the Indo-Pacific.

Nimitz Research Group students visit COMPACFLT at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, in February 2023, with CAPT Old, Dr. Didoszak, VADM Sawyer and Dr. Brutzman.

Outreach on campus: As of October 2022, all incoming NPS students receive briefings about the Nimitz Research Group and can self-select to focus their research on issues relevant to the Indo-Pacific.

• Those who choose to become part of the NRG attend events where fleet leaders present their current problems and spur conversations that lead to thesis topics.
• Students are responsible for selecting a thesis topic from the problems presented to them that relates to their field of study and excites them.
• Faculty ensure the thesis topics meet academic requirements and satisfy both the student’s educational and sponsor’s applied research needs.

Getting out of the classroom: The NRG has taken students to Joint Base Pearl Harbor–Hickam in Hawaii to receive classified briefings from senior leaders at U.S. Pacific Fleet, Fleet Marine Force Pacific (MARFORPAC), and Submarine Force Pacific Fleet (SUBPAC).

• Next stop: A trip to Pacific Fleet at Naval Base San Diego this October, when NRG students who are ready to choose a thesis topic will get the latest leadership briefings.

Shaping the future of submarine communications:  Current NRG student LT Edwin E. Nieves partnered with COMSUBPAC N6 to research the implementation of commercial non-geostationary orbit (NGSO) communications onboard submarines. An information professional officer, Nieves has been in the Navy for 15 years and will graduate from the Space Systems Operations program in June.

• His research coordinated with a recent Submarine RF Communications study, where he supported the deputy chief of naval operations for information warfare (OPNAV N2N6) and submarine systems, sensors and weapons (OPNAV N973) with information related to NGSO constellations. 
• "As part of my research, with support from Naval Undersea Warfare Center, I coordinated the testing and fielding of a portable pier communications system, utilizing PMW-170's STtNG terminal, to provide IP connectivity to submarines moored at disadvantaged locations such as public shipyards and foreign ports,” Nieve explained.
• “My work with the Nimitz Research Group and COMSUBPAC has provided me with opportunities and experiences I never imagined I would be a part of.”

Gaining a holistic perspective on INDOPACOM challenges: LTJG Cortni Thrasher is completing a NRG thesis in partnership with PACFLT fleet supply (N41) to investigate amphibious aircraft’s role in enabling naval logistics operations in forward areas. Thrasher has been in the Navy for 10 years and is now studying material logistics and support management at NPS.

• “As an Aviation Maintenance Officer, opportunities for this much exposure to theater-based strategy and logistic decision-making are infrequent. By working with the Nimitz Research Group, I was able to sit down with key INDOPACOM leaders and come to understand the current challenges they face using the tools that I am currently learning in class,” said Thrasher.
• “I was also incredibly thankful for the opportunity to visit and listen to topic briefs from MARFORPAC, as my experience with the Marine force is limited. The joint nature of this conversation gave me a more holistic perspective and ultimately helped shape my research.”

Other recent thesis topics include:

• The need to predict ice keels—large, submerged ice obstructions that are not visible from the surface
• Support of Expeditionary Advanced Base Operations (EABO) through the integration of joint fires concepts, inter-theater logistics support and adaptable communications
• Utilization of artificial intelligence, commercial satellite, and non-traditional approaches to communications with deployed assets in austere locations

The NWSI impact: The Nimitz Research Group was born out of the NWSI team’s recognition that NPS’ combined expertise in Naval operations and research capabilities could drive solutions faster to the Pacific Fleet and other operational commands.

• NWSI continues to support logistics of the research process and maintain open channels of communication with Pacific Fleet and other operational commands.

What’s next: Twenty students will graduate between June and December with NRG-enabled research projects.

• As it heads into its second year, NRG is setting a pace to generate a consistent supply of Indo-Pacific solutions, coming from 10 to 15 graduating students each quarter.

Want to get involved? Didoszak is ready for new recruits: “Students and faculty, don’t wait to be asked,” he said. “Discover what you can do today as part of the NRG.”

• Email Dr. Didoszak.
• Email VADM (Ret.) Sawyer.

Panelists: Speed of Innovation at NPS Meets Navy Needs for 21st Century Education and Research

Speed is a defining characteristic of the innovation our U.S. Navy and Marine Corps need, from faster risk assessment to more rapid adoption of advanced technology—and the Naval Postgraduate School (NPS) is fostering this speed and agility through its graduate education, applied research, and collaboration processes that take “ideas to impact.”

• Those two points were repeated throughout the panel “Winning the Innovation Race,” moderated by NPS President Vice Adm. (ret.) Ann Rondeau at the Navy League’s Sea-Air-Space expo held April 5 and 6, 2023.

VADM Rondeau (center) on stage with VADM Jeff Hughes, Heidi Shyu, Lt Gen Matthew Glavy, and VADM Frank Morley (left to right).

As moderator, Rondeau pointed out that the areas of expertise represented by the four panelists charted a continuum spanning the lifecycle of fostering an innovative mindset tailored to defense needs:

• The Honorable Heidi Shyu, Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering, is leading outreach to encourage education in defense-focused science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) that begins with kindergartners and continues to the Ph.D. level.
• Vice Adm. Jeff Hughes, USN, Deputy Chief of Naval Operations for Warfighting Development, N7, Office of the Chief of Naval Operations, discussed the role of graduate education for naval professionals at NPS and other institutions in the Naval Education Enterprise.
• Gen. Matthew Glavy, USMC, Deputy Commandant for Information, illustrated how educated military professionals are key to implementing force design.
• Vice Adm. Frank Morley, USN, Principal Military Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Navy (Research, Development and Acquisition), explained how the Navy is working to deliver mature, innovative technologies to the Fleet.

Why it matters: The pace of technological change demands warfighters who can pivot mentally and strategically, informed with the latest knowledge, skills, and abilities to make real-time assessments in line with national security imperatives. NPS provides that context and capability, as both Glavy and Hughes noted.

“NPS has been the secret of success to how fast the Marine Corps Commandant can move on Force Design 2030,” said Glavy.

• Glavy cited examples in cyber operations and cloud migration as times when NPS grads understood how to take capabilities to the next level of relevance–and achieved the goal “without drama.”

A value proposition for education and learning: Hughes argued that the Navy needs strategic thinkers and creative problem solvers who can “deal with uncertainty at machine speed.” 

• Research has the same need for speed, Hughes said, and needs to “drive to solutions faster.”

To make this happen, curriculum and research need to be aligned to deliver outcomes relevant for Navy, naval, and joint forces. One way to do that:

• Tie research to the DOD’s 14 critical technology areas and joint capabilities. “We can’t afford to do education for purely academic purposes or put research on the shelf.”

Both Shyu and Morley discussed developing and deploying new technologies to the warfighters and in line with the latest joint warfighting concept, efforts that require close collaboration with industry partners to understand the latest capabilities and their potential defense applications.

CRADAs are a catalyst: Hughes and Rondeau reflected on how NPS is leading with recent industry partnerships through Cooperative Research and Development Agreements (CRADAs).

• Hughes noted that NPS relationships with Microsoft and Xerox, for instance, “have led to tangible outcomes.”
• Rondeau shared that these and other CRADAs have taught NPS that “risk management of big companies is different than with smalls.” The recent Space Summit held at NPS and collaboration with Hybrid Air Vehicles (see stories below) showcased relevant student research and partnerships that illustrate how this understanding of commercial capabilities has been applied to advance capabilities in diverse settings.

The NWSI impact: NWSI supports many of these innovation efforts at NPS in its role as central connector. Our team has facilitated several recent CRADAs, supports the faculty embark program that keeps NPS educators tightly connected to the fleet, and research groups that solve challenges initiated by and iterated with operational commands (such as the Nimitz Research Group profiled above).

What’s next: NPS and NWSI are moving out on several initiatives, including the Naval Innovation Center at NPS, other efforts to modernize facilities, and a streamlined focus on nine core research areas. Stay tuned for updates on these and other efforts that are picking up the pace and sharpening the focus of NPS research, education, and innovation.

• Read more about the conversation at Sea-Air-Space in this article in National Defense Magazine.
• Watch the full conversation on YouTube.

NPS in the News

Naval Space Summit Brings SECNAV, Other Senior Leaders To NPS
Lt. Cmdr. Ed Early, Naval Postgraduate School

Secretary of the Navy Carlos Del Toro speaks at the inaugural Naval Space Summit.

As global dependence on space-based technology continues to grow, senior leaders from throughout the Department of Defense joined Secretary of the Navy Carlos Del Toro at the Naval Postgraduate School (NPS) from March 29-31 to examine the challenges, needs and opportunities of space operations unique to the maritime domain. 

• The inaugural Naval Space Summit at NPS featured a series of classified discussions involving top representatives from the DOD’s major stakeholders in the space domain.
• The main goals of the summit were to foster greater understanding about the reliance of the Navy and Marine Corps on existing space capabilities, to acknowledge the issues faced in adapting to and incorporating rapid technological changes, and to identify the challenges involved in enabling future naval and joint warfare and protecting the United States and its allies. Read more.

Charting the Navy’s Future Course in Advanced Space Education
NPS Public Affairs

From the very beginning of the “space race” in the late 1950s, the U.S. Navy established itself as a global leader in the utilization of the space domain. In today’s era of strategic competition, however, naval and joint operations depend more than ever on the space domain – everything from intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance, to positioning, navigation, and timing, to communications, environmental monitoring, space domain monitoring and more.

• One organization poised to help the Navy answer that call is the Naval Postgraduate School (NPS), which has played a critical role in the evolution of the Navy’s space leadership through education, space-related science and technology research since 1959, most notably with the establishment of its Space Systems Academic Group (SSAG) in 1982. Read more.

US DOD Operational Energy Office Announces Funding for Ground-Breaking Hybrid Aircraft Project Hybrid Air Vehicles Press Release

Marine Corps Capt. Ben Cohen and Capt. John Schmaltz, while students at the Naval Postgraduate School (NPS), became interested in the defense applications of civilian hybrid aircraft like Airlander, the highly efficient aircraft currently under development by HAV, as a disruptive technology, and were introduced to HAV through the NPS alumni network.

• Their thesis, which serves as a guide to interaction and engagement for Department of Defense personnel to navigate the innovation ecosystem while assessing commercially developed, large-capacity transportation platforms, has been instrumental in the current work with HAV.
• In the latest development of this work, the Operational Energy Capability Improvement Fund (OECIF) in the DOD’s Operational Energy Office recently announced funding for the Zero Carbon Logistics Support Via Hybrid Aircraft project.
• This ground-breaking collaboration between the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command and HAV can enhance logistics, Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR) operations, and communications in the Pacific. Read more.

2023 Winter Quarter Graduate Spotlight – Capt. Emily Hastings, U.S. Marine Corps (video)

Watch a video profile of U.S. Marine Corps Capt. Emily Hastings, a recent graduate of the Manpower Systems Analysis curriculum at NPS and a recipient of NWSI support. As a manpower officer, recruitment, retention, and the factors that impact Marines’ decisions are all fundamental to her occupational specialty’s success.

• Last fall, NWSI supported Capt. Hastings when she facilitated the 2022 Manpower, Personnel, and Administration Operational Advisory Group at Quantico. For her thesis, Hastings developed a qualitative study incorporating behavioral psychology concepts at key points in a young Marine’s career.
• Catching the interest of the Department of the Navy Office of Manpower and Reserve Affairs (M&RA), Hastings’ work informed eight initiatives improving Marine Corps talent management practices. Upon graduation Hastings will report to M&RA to implement her research and graduate education.

Current Openings at NPS – Join the NPS Team!

Central Coast Tech Bridge Director, Professor of the Practice Office of Research and Innovation

The Office of Research and Innovation (OR&I) is currently searching for a forward-looking leader to serve as Director of the Central Coast Tech Bridge (C2TB), part of the NavalX ecosystem of Tech Bridges.

Upcoming Events

Joint Interagency Field Experiments (JIFX) 23-3
1 - 5 May 2023
NPS Field Laboratory at Camp Roberts

Focus Area: Autonomous Logistics Enabled by Artificial Intelligence & Machine Learning, including the following concentration areas:

• Logistics in a contested environment
• Autonomous resupply and cargo delivery
• Undersea vehicle maintenance, monitoring, and prediction systems
• Artificial Intelligence based UXO detection
• Runway detection methods and systems
• Fully autonomous unmanned cargo delivery and resupply missions of food, fuel and water

For more information about JIFX events and submissions requirements, visit our How to Participate page. 

Rapid Innovation Design Challenge

NPS is excited to announce the Rapid Innovation Design Challenge for 2023, focusing on how workflow process automation can address local community climate change challenges. Schools and students are invited to envision, develop, and design innovative solutions that unleash the power of technology to solve problems in their communities. Through engagement with NPS student mentors and industry experts, student will engage in scaffolded learning activities that ask teams to consider how science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics (STEAM) can be used to create meaningful solutions with global impact.

The Design Challenge is open to students in grades 9-12. The curriculum instruction and solution development are designed to be accomplished over a 2.5-month period to fit you and your students' needs. Participants will create low code or no-code custom applications for their challenge solutions.

Key Dates

• School Group Registration Open Until April 1, 2023
• Design Challenge Period: February 1 - April 30
• Design Challenge Judging Period: May 1 - 12
• Winners Announcement Event: May 19

Learn more.

20^th Annual Acquisition Research Symposium
10-11 May 2023
Monterey, California

The Annual Acquisition Research Symposium provides a forum for the presentation of scholarly acquisition research, as well as for dialogue between scholars and acquisition policymakers and practitioners. Research papers and presentations are given on recently completed and ongoing Department of Defense and Department of the Navy (DOD/DON)-sponsored projects conducted by researchers at a variety of research institutions. Senior DOD/DON acquisition officials serve as panelists or keynote speakers to present their critiques and comments on research papers and priorities.

This year features keynote speakers Nick Guertin, Director, Operational Test & Evaluation, and Bill LaPlante, Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition & Sustainment.

See the full program and register. 

Seapower Conversation: Reflections on Navy Strategy & Force Design
May 25, 2023, 1500-1700 PDT
Location: ME Auditorium

With Bruce Stubbs, Former Deputy Director of Strategy and Policy (N51), the Director of Strategy (N50), and the Director of Strategy and Strategic Concepts (N722).    The brief offers a deep dive into Navy Force Design. Its purpose is to provide a “navalist” audience an assessment of Navy Force Design and Strategy.  The brief describes the factors and issues affecting Force Design and places them into a thematic framework. Force Design is a complex subject with many facets.  The brief addresses Key Issues Affecting Navy Force Design (20 Stand-Alone Issues). 

Read more and register.

Naval Warfare Studies Institute
Newsletter  -  9 March 2023

Happy Thursday! In this issue, we bring updates on some recent engagements between members of the NPS and NWSI community and the larger military innovation ecosystem.

• Our lead story details how NWSI efforts align to the recently announced NPS Strategic Framework and drive innovation across the Joint Force.
• Professor Ying Zhao shares the results of her yearlong exchange connecting NPS with research efforts at the UK's Defence Science and Technology Laboratory.
• The latest Lead AI Course offering continued to expand the conversation about military applications of artificial intelligence and machine learning.

And there's more on the horizon. Check out several great upcoming events, including these two: 

• The next Naval AI Summit is 13-16 March
• We're thrilled to be hosting Peter Singer of Ghost Fleet fame for our next Innovation for Seapower event on 20 March. 

Naval Postgraduate School Strategic Framework Charts the Path for a More Connected, More Effective Enterprise

In January, Vice Adm. Rondeau announced the Strategic Framework that will guide NPS short-, mid-, and long-term goals over the next five years. This Strategic Framework transitions NPS from lines of effort to portfolios of plans aligned to our institution’s enduring strategic priorities: education, research, innovation, and institution.

Why it matters: As the Department of the Navy’s primary graduate institution focused on science and technology, innovation, defense management, and strategic competition, NPS must exemplify a learning culture so that we can remain at the leading edge of developing ready warfighters and relevant warfighting solutions at the speed of need.

• Our Navy and Marine Corps warfighting posture depends on the intellectual capacity and capability of our warfighters to achieve decision advantage in competition and conflict.

The NWSI Impact: NWSI efforts align with each of the Strategic Framework’s four priorities and amplify NPS’ ability to deliver coordinated, mission-focused results for the Fleet, the Fleet Marine Forces, and the Joint Force.

Education: NWSI facilitates several experiential opportunities and programs that educate students and faculty on the latest priorities and updates from the Fleet.

• Seapower Conversations were created by NWSI to give students and faculty regular access to current stories from active-duty military. These conversations have evolved from YouTube open-access videos to now include on-site secret level conversations, such as the recent post-deployment briefing from the Chief of Staff for Carrier Strike Group THREE. 
• The Scientist to Sea and NPS Fleet Engagement Program gets NPS researchers onboard ships like the USS Carl Vinson (CVN-70) to experience the naval context for their work and maintain a deeper connection to the fleet.
• Events like the Naval AI Summit and Lead AI Courses at NPS bring together senior DoD leaders and members of the NPS research community around a shared goal of understanding disruptive emerging technologies and how they are changing the character of warfare.
• Educational offerings in critical thinking and the art and science of learning help to develop learning mindsets in future warfighting leaders, an essential element of “Get Real, Get Better".

Research: NWSI leverages its position as a central connector to drive warfare-centered research in direct alignment with the needs of operational commands.

• The Nimitz Research Group was established in 2022 to connect current fleet needs in the Indo-Pacific with teams of students and faculty collaborating on research projects in close coordination with operational sponsors such as the Commander of Pacific Fleet.
• Athena is an online collaborative research tool being developed in coordination with partners at Microsoft and the Naval Postgraduate School Foundation & Alumni Association. The NWSI team is coordinating this development on the NPS side to deliver a new way to share data currently stored in numerous separate databases and to make completed and ongoing research insights discoverable by the Services and curated research challenges discoverable by the NPS Research Enterprise.

Innovation: As a key facilitator of NPS transformation efforts, NWSI is future-focused to get ahead of today’s Naval problems while remaining grounded in both the current operational landscape and the NPS research and innovation ecosystem.

• NWSI has collaborated on the evolution of the new Office of Research and Innovation, applying lessons learned from engagements with fleet and industry partners to identify how NPS projects can have a larger impact on the operational community. NWSI will continue to coordinate efforts with this office as our engagements identify opportunities for new research and innovation projects.
• NWSI has facilitated several CRADAs with industry partners, including the most recent collaboration with Qualcomm. These agreements connect industry leaders in emerging technologies with NPS researchers and greatly enhance our understanding of how we can apply the best of American ingenuity to the most pressing naval needs.

• NWSI takes a lead role in the DoD innovation space each September with the Warfare Innovation Continuum (WIC) workshop and leads several innovation-focused activities each year.

Institution: NWSI is supporting infrastructure changes to help define and streamline activity at NPS.

• The NWSI team is supporting larger capacity secret-level gathering places on the NPS campus that will bolster the ability of NPS to conduct classified research, education, and engagement with the Fleet and Service Headquarters.
• NWSI is by design a cross-campus bridge builder. We track efforts across NPS departments, program, and organizations, removing outdated stovepipes and enhancing the ability of NPS to deliver coordinated, complex, research-driven solutions to the Fleet.

Professor Ying Zhao Connects NPS Researchers with UK Colleagues in the Defence Science and Technology Lab

Dr. Ying Zhao, NPS Research Professor in the Information Sciences Department, participated in the Navy Engineers and Scientists Exchange Program (ESEP) from December 2021 to November 2022 at Defence Science and Technology Lab (Dstl), UK. Dstl is an executive agency of the UK’s Ministry of Defence (MoD), providing world class expertise and delivering cutting-edge science and technology for the UK and allies. Dstl is similar to DARPA within the US, with thousands of in-house scientists, engineers, and an annual budget of approximately 7 billion pounds.

The exchange highlighted multiple ways NPS might collaborate with Dstl:

• Participate with Program Agreements based upon existing Memorandums of Understanding (MOUs) with Dstl, including the TTCP (the technical cooperation program) for RD&E within the “five eyes” countries, various US/UK bilateral agreements, and AUSUK
• Collaborate in R&D activities
• Exchange scientists and experts to facilitate technology development and operationalization.

Why it matters: Collaborating with world class defense research institutions such as Dstl accelerates NPS institutional learning. Plus, our allies and partners also benefit from working with NPS faculty and warrior-scholars focused on applied, classified, and interdisciplinary research.

Two technology exchange workshops during this yearconnected researchers from NPS (both faculty and students) with researchers from Dstl.

• NPS and Dstl programs were briefed to a broader audience including the UK’s Ministry of Defence (MoD).
• Participants discussed topics and collaboration potential in future data sciences and novel AI applications.

Applying Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning to Defense: Dr. Zhao worked on a Dstl project titled “Design and Develop AI to Command a Virtual Agent for Integrated Air Defence System (IADS)” at the Novel Simulation Division.

• Zhao and her Dstl colleagues studied and demonstrated nine categories of AI/ML and artificial general intelligence (AGI) techniques for this project.
• Multiple new projects were funded based on the report.

The NWSI Impact: NWSI facilitated Dr. Zhao’s participation in the ESEP, through a grant from the Naval Research Program. The NWSI team is also integrating some of the contacts and expertise generated from the exchange into ongoing and future efforts at NPS in artificial intelligence, automation, and robotics. (See below.)

What’s Next: Dstl’s principal scientist Dr. Deborah Fish will give an invited talk on AI/ML efforts and military applications at the upcoming Naval AI Summit, to be held on the NPS campus March 13-16.

• The NPS team is also looking into other research collaborations, including follow-on personnel exchanges and collaborative R&D projects between NPS faculty and Dstl.

If you are interested in these activities, contact Dr. Ying Zhao, 408-218-8484.

Lead AI Course Enhances Commanders’ Understanding of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning in Warfighting

NPS hosted the second Lead AI Course on February 13-15. This course was led by Dr. Mathias Kolsch, Associate Professor of Computer Science, and designed for senior leaders in the Department of Defense and senior civilian employees to receive executive-level exposure to matters concerning Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML).

Over three days, military and civilian leaders at the O-5 and O-6 level were introduced to the following concepts:

• The core concepts and terminology of AI and ML
• Successful practices and expectations for AI/ML-involved programs
• Use cases for AI and ML in their commands
• Key differences between AI/ML programs in the private sector and the DoD, especially where the DoD programs face additional hurdles
• How AI/ML affects the warfighter and how it affects the course participant’s role
• How AI and ML affect the future of warfighting, national security, and defense
• Responsible AI and what the DoD’s ethics principles mean in practice
• Bias, weaknesses, and limitations in AI technology
• The power and limitations of large language models such as ChatGPT
• What the Naval AI Effort has been planning and staging.

Why it matters: Kolsch noted that bringing senior leaders from across the services and DoD together was the catalyst for in-depth conversations and information exchange about best practices, experiences, and insights regarding AI adoption in the DoD.  These events are great as all participants walked away smarter from this engagement!

Improving the series: The original Lead AI Course was conducted in partnership with Stanford University and the Defense Innovation Unit. Now, NPS is continuing the course to expose more leaders and tailor the content to naval-unique uses and context.

• The most recent course welcomed 32 registered participants plus half a dozen observers and other attendees.
• Kolsch was pleased to see that the level of leadership in attendance was well chosen, based on the degree to which the course format and material resonated and informed participants.

The NWSI Impact: NWSI helps organize and support both the Lead AI courses and the quarterly AI Summits to help grow and inform a wider network of military and NPS minds to focus on AI and ML solutions. Staff from NWSI were available on site to assist with the course.

What’s next: The fifth quarterly Naval AI Summit will be hosted at NPS on March 13-16.

NPS in the News

NPS Representatives Create Connections at WEST 2023 Conference

Representatives from the Naval Postgraduate School and the Naval Postgraduate School Foundation recently attended the WEST 2023 conference, co-hosted by the Armed Forces Communications and Electronics Association (AFCEA) and U.S. Naval Institute (USNI), in San Diego, California. The conference brought together industry leaders with military decision-makers and operators to explore the latest platforms, leading-edge technologies, and state-of-the-art networking capabilities that support naval operations and discuss the challenges facing our Department of Defense.  Read more from NPS and the NPS Foundation.

Technology Trends and Decision Advantage in Defense [Podcast]
Public Sector Future

NPS President VADM (Ret.) Ann Rondeau talks with podcast host AT Ball about the impact of emerging technologies on the defense landscape. 

Rondeau believes that that military-civil fusion has a very different look in the United States and that “we need to have an equivalence to it, without compromising who we are. We need a radical reinvention of a military-civil innovation relationship to lower the existing barriers. [...] So I would tell you is that we’ve signed 30 such CRADAs, with partners ranging from Microsoft to Xerox to AT&T and the panoply of other companies… instead of a military industrial base, why not think about a military industrial network that really takes advantage of the current environment.”  Read more--and listen to the full podcast. 

Adapting Navy Medicine For Future Warfighting: Scenario Thinking For Combat Casualty Care
Art Valeri, Jay Yelon, Juanita Hopkins, and Seamus Markey  |  CIMSEC

This article resulted from a group project for Naval Postgraduate School course  GB3400: Critical Thinking for Strategic Leadership.

In May 2018, the Chief of Naval Operations directed a comprehensive review of Navy Medicine’s ability to support Distributed Maritime Operations and Expeditionary Advanced Basing Operations across all warfighting domains. An effective strategy must anticipate the future environment. Although history shows that accurate forecasting is nearly impossible, scenario thinking can help prepare for multiple alternative futures. Medical planning for future conflicts is a vital component of support of the National Security Strategy. Using lessons learned from past conflicts and predicting the needs of injured or ill service members are vital for planning. Although attention to conflict in the Pacific appears to be a priority, as it aligns with the national strategy, the Navy and Joint medical leadership must also prepare for various possibilities. Within our discussion, we will use scenario thinking as a framework to identify key questions for analysis.  Read more. 

Upcoming Events

Spring Naval Artificial Intelligence Summit
March 13, 2023 to March 17, 2023

The Naval AI Summit facilitates cross communication, information-sharing, and promulgates lessons-learned from across government, academia, and industry. The Spring AI Summit features solution-oriented workshops to address the Naval AI Task Forces' key findings around data, infrastructure, and competency that currently limit the DoD from scaling AI.

Time: 0800-1700 PST

Location: NPS Campus: 1 Monterey Circle, Monterey CA 93943

Registration open for in-person or virtual attendance with government email only.

Event Information

Shipbuilding Acquisition Case Study Workshop: US Coast Guard Offshore Patrol Cutter (Webinar)
Acquisition Research Program at NPS
15 March 2023

Join facilitator Bob Mortlock for a webinar case study discussion on shipbuilding challenges faced by the U.S. Coast Guard. Dr. Mortlock's case studies are based on real-world defense acquisition programs and have been published in peer-reviewed journal articles and/or technical reports.  This webinar is open to defense acquisition professionals at the unclassified level.  Register now.  

NWSI Seapower Conversation: Dr. P.W. Singer, Useful Fiction – The Talk
20 March 2023 – 0900-1030
Glasgow Hall 102 and ZoomGov 

Dr. Peter W. Singer is a bestselling author and consultant for groups that range from the US military to Hollywood, whose recent book Ghost Fleet (ghostfleetbook.com) broke new ground in creating the genre of what has been called “useful fiction” – described as the deliberate blending of narrative and nonfiction in packages that range from books and short stories to bespoke illustrations, videos, and graphic novellas. Whatever the form, there are three primary attributes that make it so useful – understanding, action, and connection.  Register here.

Joint Interagency Field Experiments (JIFX) 23-3
1 - 5 May 2023
NPS Field Laboratory at Camp Roberts

Focus Area: Autonomous Logistics Enabled by Artificial Intelligence & Machine Learning, including the following concentration areas:

• Logistics in a contested environment
• Autonomous resupply and cargo delivery
• Undersea vehicle maintenance, monitoring, and prediction systems
• Artificial Intelligence based UXO detection
• Runway detection methods and systems
• Fully autonomous unmanned cargo delivery and resupply missions of food, fuel and water

For more information about JIFX events and submissions requirements, visit our How to Participate page. 

Rapid Innovation Design Challenge

NPS is excited to announce the Rapid Innovation Design Challenge for 2023, focusing on how workflow process automation can address local community climate change challenges. Schools and students are invited to envision, develop, and design innovative solutions that unleash the power of technology to solve problems in their communities. Through engagement with NPS student mentors and industry experts, student will engage in scaffolded learning activities that ask teams to consider how science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics (STEAM) can be used to create meaningful solutions with global impact.

The Design Challenge is open to students in grades 9-12. The curriculum instruction and solution development are designed to be accomplished over a 2.5-month period to fit you and your students' needs. Participants will create low code or no-code custom applications for their challenge solutions.

Key Dates

• School Group Registration Open Until April 1, 2023
• Design Challenge Period: February 1 - April 30
• Design Challenge Judging Period: May 1 - 12
• Winners Announcement Event: May 19

Learn more.

20^th Annual Acquisition Research Symposium
10-11 May 2023
Monterey, California

The Annual Acquisition Research Symposium provides a forum for the presentation of scholarly acquisition research, as well as for dialogue between scholars and acquisition policy-makers and practitioners. Research papers and presentations are given on recently completed and on-going Departments of Defense and US Navy (DoD/DON)-sponsored projects conducted by researchers at a variety of research institutions. Senior DoD/DON acquisition officials serve as panelists or keynote speakers to present their critiques and comments on research papers and priorities.

This year features keynote speakers Nick Guertin, Director, Operational Test & Evaluation, and Bill LaPlante, Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition & Sustainment.

See the full program and register. 

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Naval Warfare Studies Institute
Newsletter  -  16 February 2023

February is the month of love, and we all love innovation! In this issue, we feature several of the paths NPS is exploring to nurture an innovative mindset in our warrior-scholars and faculty, as well as our growing NWSI community of external stakeholders.

• Our lead story offers a peek into the initial operating concept for the Naval Innovation Center. NWSI plays a critical role in NPS' ability to support the innovation lifecycle with efforts targeted at the beginning curation stage.
• We share good news about a new partnership with Qualcomm Technologies, the latest Cooperative Research and Development Agreement connecting NPS to operationally important communications technologies.
• Meet the latest faculty member to take part in the NPS fleet engagement program onboard the USS Carl Vinson: engineering professor Mark Karpenko.
• Wargaming week highlights – across varied domains and time horizons

We have a variety of upcoming events you should attend, including a workshop collaboration with NavalX Centers for Adaptive Warfighting. 

And NWSI is hiring! We have two incredible opportunities: an operations officer and a director. Come work with us!

• Read more and apply for NWSI Director.
   
• Read more and apply for NWSI Operations Officer.

NPS Designs Initial Operating Concept for SECNAV’s Naval Innovation Center

Naval Postgraduate School (NPS) is designing an initial Naval Innovation Center (NIC) operating concept around a portfolio of current and future cross-campus initiatives that move research solutions from ideas to impacts.

• The NIC at NPS, first announced by Secretary of the Navy Carlos Del Toro in December, will solve complex challenges through applied research, analysis, prototyping, and experimentation in collaboration with the defense industrial base, the technology sector, and academia.

Why it matters: The Naval Innovation Center at NPS represents a new whole-of-university approach to methodically address naval priorities with efforts that span a complete innovation cycle:

• Curating challenges underpinning key operational problems
• Ideating possible solutions that apply emerging technologies to those problems
• Prototyping
• Collaborating and experimenting with minimum viable solutions
• Facilitating the transition to a warfighting capability.

The NWSI Impact:  NWSI occupies a critical role at the beginning of the innovation cycle, curating ideas through our engagement with fleet customers and facilitating industry partnerships that connect emerging technologies to naval warfare challenges. 

Yes, and: Although the announcement of the Naval Innovation Center at NPS is new, scholarship focusing on innovation and its processes has a long history at NPS.

• NPS is the Department of the Navy’s only educational institution providing advanced certificates, executive education, and master’s degrees in innovation.

NPS is one of 24 naval centers of innovation – and the only one that is both a research university and a designated defense laboratory.

Qualcomm and Naval Postgraduate School Announce Collaboration to Advance Technological Solutions

The Naval Postgraduate School (NPS) is joining forces with Qualcomm Technologies in a strategic collaboration that will focus on emerging disruptive technologies and their potential applications for the U.S. Navy and U.S. Marine Corps

• The collaboration was announced Feb. 13 at the DON IT Conference in San Diego by Aaron Weis, the Department of the Navy Chief Information Officer (DON CIO), NPS President retired Vice Adm. Ann Rondeau, and Qualcomm Technologies senior vice president Kim Koro.

Why it matters: By combining the talent and capabilities of two hubs of research and innovation, this partnership enhances solution development by the Naval Research and Development Establishment (NR&DE) to speed innovative capabilities to the warfighter.

The NWSI Impact: The NWSI team facilitated the development of this Collaborative Research and Development Agreement, acting to strengthen the inherent link between Qualcomm’s advanced communications technologies, the needs of an interconnected and dispersed naval force, and the research capabilities of NPS faculty, students, and facilities.

• This CRADA continues the trend of other recent relationships NPS has forged with key industry partners.

How it works: Qualcomm Technologies will provide proprietary software, hardware, and development kits to NPS for experimentation, assessment, and evaluation:

• The Qualcomm® RB5 robotics platform and Qualcomm® RB6 robotics platform are equipped with 5G wireless connectivity and artificial intelligence (AI)/machine learning capabilities.
• The Qualcomm® Cloud AI 100 hardware platform is designed to accelerate AI inference – the process of using a trained neural network model to make a prediction – and make edge computing much faster and more efficient.
• The Snapdragon® 8 mobile hardware development kit (HDK) allows for customization of the Snapdragon hardware to support the needs of the mission and of the end user.

NPS Professor Boards USS Carl Vinson with Scientists at Sea Program

Mark Karpenko, professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, participated in the latest Scientists at Sea program. From January 17-23, 2023, Karpenko experienced life at sea aboard the carrier, USS Carl Vinson.

Professor Mark Karpenko, second from right, aboard the USS Carl Vinson.

Why it matters: The Scientists at Sea program aims to provide scientists with firsthand knowledge of the Navy's operations, capabilities, and maritime environment to enhance their understanding of the military's needs and their ability to conduct research.

• The program helps to build bridges between the Navy and the researchers from warfare centers, naval colleges, and universities like NPS, to encourage collaboration and to help build a better understanding of the unique challenges that each face.

Connecting with the Fleet: Mark was surprised to learn that the carrier strike group was building up a technology directly related to his work in space systems engineering at NPS.

• “For me to be able to go and see that what we as professors do on a chalkboard and with computer modeling and simulation actually has a piece of metal attached to it was a very good and grounding experience,” said Karpenko.
• “It’s great to know that I don’t just live in a world of equations. My work maps to a real thing that somebody is using, and hopefully they can use that tool in a way that makes their job easier. So, for me, that was one of the most rewarding pieces. I got a sense for how what we do is hopefully contributing to the mission.”

Five Days in the Life: Mark and his peers were each paired with a running mate who had knowledge or expertise in their field and then were able to "choose their own adventure" as they explored the ship, systems, and lifestyle. 

• Karpenko was shocked by some aspects of life at sea: “We have so much bandwidth onshore. We can click through 20 pages of a website to get to a form to fill in and submit some information. When you're at sea doing something as simple as that is virtually impossible. One of the things that was apparent in almost every discussion we had was how there's a disconnect between a lot of the stuff that's getting developed for Naval use at sea seemingly without a real understanding of the limitations of the resources that is part of life on a ship.”
• After hearing stories about life and work on ships from his students for years, Karpenko left the program with a deeper connection and understanding of his students' experience. He was also able to re-connect with a former student currently working on the ship.

The NWSI Impact: The staff at NWSI are working to make sure the Scientist at Sea program continues to be available and utilized by NPS faculty. NWSI recognized the importance of connecting faculty to the interface where their research is enacted and providing a space for them to meet the people putting their work into practice.

• The program has existed since the 1980s and is open to scientists, engineers, and other technical professionals. NWSI intends to uplift the program and its relationship with NPS.
• It serves as a valuable resource for the scientific community to understand the role of the Navy in national security and to help foster relationships between the Navy and the science community.

An Experience to Remember: Karpenko overall felt that the trip was a unique and rewarding experience, and he would encourage other faculty to participate in the program. "Everyone we talked to was phenomenal and more than willing to share stories and talk about their work. In fact, we were so busy we got to experience “Midrats” the midnight meal. I would definitely go again.”

Wargaming Week Considers Four Challenges Across Geographical and Technological Domains

Dr. Jeff Appleget, Senior Lecturer and Operations Research Department Director, concluded his fall course with four successful wargames from November 30 – December 8, 2022. Through the games, students explored different global scenarios and experienced the full wargaming process. The games included variables such as resources, weather, allies, and military power.

The four wargames explored the following challenges naval forces may face in the near future, with scenarios mapped in 2023, 2027, and 2030:

• Consider how operators utilize Low Probability of Detection/Interception communications in a contested/wartime environment
• Examine the Intra-Theater fuel supply chain gaps and vulnerabilities in support of distributed maritime operations
• Determine how relationships with allies and partners allow Marine Special Operations Command (MARSOC) to achieve effects through Strategic Shaping and Reconnaissance (SSR) activities
• Analyze the criticality of the Panama Canal for force movements, as well as potential scenarios challenging this region.

Why it matters: “This course allows our NPS warrior-scholars to provide real-world Navy and Marine Corps sponsors with insights into the problems that are keeping them up at night,” explained Appleget. “At the same time, our warrior-scholars are applying their NPS education to real-world operational and strategic problems that our Fleet and Fleet Marines will face in the near future.

• “In short, we return value to our Naval forces with wargaming insights and with NPS graduates who are better prepared to face the challenges of the Fleet.”

What’s next: Students can now sign up for the Spring 2023 wargaming course (OA4604). Dr. Appleget is allowed to waive course pre-requisites. The Coalition Anti-Submarine Warfare wargame will be designed during the spring course and played in Japan the last week in June for those interested. 

• For the Fall wargaming course, another coalition wargame will be designed in support of PACFLT. That wargame will be played in Japan in late February and early March of 2024.

NPS in the News

NPS Student Recognized for IW Excellence with 2023 Copernicus Award

U.S. Marine Corps Capt. Thomas Schmitt, a computer science student at the Naval Postgraduate School (NPS), was honored as a recipient of the 2023 Copernicus Award during this year’s WEST 2023 Conference, Feb. 14. Schmitt was nominated for this award for work he completed at his previous command, 2nd Marine Division at Camp Lejeune, N.C., involving commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) radars and how to use those sensors more effectively in a littoral environment.  Read more. 

Upcoming Events

Seapower Conversation: Operation Plan Brief from the Naval Surface and Mine Warfighting Development Center (SMWDC)
21 February 2023, 1500-1700
NPS Glasgow Hall SCIF (TS/SCI clearance required)

• This conversation is a great opportunity to build an understanding of the future fight and will focus on the Surface Warfare community's role.
• Students or faculty with appropriate clearance can RSVP here.

Please contact LT Marissa Stewart for any questions.

NWSI Concepts Branch Facilitator Training in partnership with the NavalX Center for Adaptive Warfighting (CAW)
21-23 February 2023

We are pleased to partner with the NavalX Centers for Adaptive Warfighting (CAW) to deliver their Warfighter Centered Design “train the trainer” course on Wednesday 22 February and still have seats available – both on campus in Monterey and via ZoomGov. Even if you are not able to participate in the full day of training, we invite NWSI members to join us on the NPS Virtual Campus via ZoomGov for the first set of Innovation for Seapower (IFS) Talks exploring the realm of “What if…” in the afternoon of Tuesday 21 February and two IFS Discovery Panels on Thursday morning 23 February.

• More information and registration is posted on the event homepage.

Shipbuilding Acquisition Case Study Workshop: US Coast Guard Offshore Patrol Cutter
15 March 2023

Join facilitator Bob Mortlock for a webinar case study discussion on shipbuilding challenges faced by the U.S. Coast Guard. Dr. Mortlock's case studies are based on real-world defense acquisition programs and have been published in peer-reviewed journal articles and/or technical reports.  

This webinar is open to defense acquisition professionals at the unclassified level.

Register now.

JIFX 23-3
1 - 5 May 2023
NPS Field Laboratory at Camp Roberts

Focus Area: Autonomous Logistics Enabled by Artificial Intelligence & Machine Learning, including the following concentration areas:

• Logistics in a contested environment
• Autonomous resupply and cargo delivery
• Undersea vehicle maintenance, monitoring, and prediction systems
• Artificial Intelligence based UXO detection
• Runway detection methods and systems
• Fully autonomous unmanned cargo delivery and resupply missions of food, fuel and water

Submission Deadline: 08 March 2023

For more information about JIFX events and submissions requirements, visit our How to Participate page. 

20^th Annual Acquisition Research Symposium
10-11 May 2023
Monterey, California

The Annual Acquisition Research Symposium provides a forum for the presentation of scholarly acquisition research, as well as for dialogue between scholars and acquisition policy-makers and practitioners. Research papers and presentations are given on recently completed and on-going Departments of Defense and US Navy (DoD/DON)-sponsored projects conducted by researchers at a variety of research institutions. Senior DoD/DON acquisition officials serve as panelists or keynote speakers to present their critiques and comments on research papers and priorities.

This year features keynote speakers Nick Guertin, Director, Operational Test & Evaluation, (confirmed) and Bill LaPlante, Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition & Sustainment (invited).

See the full program and register. 

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Naval Warfare Studies Institute
Newsletter  -  31 January 2023

In this issue, we introduce Naval Postgraduate School’s new Office of Research and Innovation—the latest campus transformation that better aligns NPS research capabilities with the needs of the naval and joint forces and strengthens our connections with industry partners.

We also offer a peek behind the scenes at some of the people driving research, innovation, and impact across the NPS campus:

• The latest faculty recipients of the Menneken Award explain how their award-winning research makes a difference in the larger warfighting community.
• This quarter’s student members of the NWSI team share their educational and operational journeys.
• Students in last quarter’s course on “Maneuver Warfare for the Mind” connect their experience to the CNO’s Get Real, Get Better initiative in an article published by the Center for International and Maritime Security.

As this issue reminds us, people and relationships are the driving force behind innovation and impact. NWSI is a proud connector and enabler of changes that deliver new mission-focused capabilities.

New Office of Research and Innovation Expands NPS Impact Across the Naval Innovation Ecosystem

The Naval Postgraduate School (NPS) has launched the new Office of Research and Innovation (OR&I) to help accelerate warfighting solutions from concepts to capabilities. Why it matters:  Maintaining our intellectual and technological edge is fundamental to U.S. naval advantage at sea and in the littorals. NPS is the fusion of defense graduate education, research, and innovation, and the new OR&I cements NPS’ role as a leader and central connector for the naval innovation ecosystem.

How it works: OR&I replaces and expands upon the work of the NPS Office of Research and is being led by Dr. Kevin Smith, NPS’ Vice Provost for Research.

• “The NPS Office of Research traditionally had a single primary function which was to process research proposals and ensure that there were support agreements in place between NPS and other organizations that allowed the transfer of funds,” explained Smith.
• NPS research has expanded over the past decade to include support to larger endeavors that span departments, academic institutions, and involve fleet and industry partners.
• Smith and the OR&I team are developing the staffing and infrastructure to encourage, fund, and manage these larger interdisciplinary teams as they conquer relevant problems and focus on military innovation.
• New efforts will include connecting individuals to proposals, finding funding sources, and providing project managers to support the management of larger projects at an institutional level.

The NWSI impact: NWSI is working hand-in-hand with OR&I to strengthen NPS connections with Naval partners and to provide support for the research and innovation already taking place at NPS. Col. Randy Pugh, Director of NWSI, is constantly on the lookout for opportunities where students and faculty can connect directly with the fleet because he knows that these engagements generate excitement, innovation, and impact.

• “Whether we’re looking at wargames, the integration of artificial intelligence, or better ways of doing maintenance, innovation is ultimately about human intellect and creativity energized through a shared vision, collaboration, integration, and rapid experimentation,” said Pugh.
• “We have incredible talent here in our warrior-scholars and faculty; We just need to connect them to the challenges of the fleet and Fleet Marine Forces and the Sailors and Marines out ‘doing the job,’ and they will far exceed our highest expectations. The Office of Research and Innovation is critical to achieving this vision at scale.”

What’s next: OR&I will be supporting many interdisciplinary projects, both new and ongoing. Future newsletters will bring updates on progress in areas including artificial intelligence, autonomy, additive manufacturing, and industry partnerships.

Read the full story to learn more about how OR&I strengthens relationships throughout the Naval Research and Development Establishment and realizes the latest NPS strategic framework.

Menneken Award Winners Reflect on the Impact of Leading Mission-focused Research

Every year NPS awards two faculty members the Carl E. and Jessie W. Menneken Faculty Award for Excellence in Scientific Research. We sat down with this year’s winners as they reflected on their work that led to this achievement and their hopes moving forward.

Dr. Paul Lester, a specialist on leadership in the Department of Defense Management, received the Menneken Award for Highly Meritorious Research for 2022. Behind the genius: Before joining NPS in 2019, Lester began his career as a U.S. Army infantry officer, where he set his sights on becoming a professor at West Point. After serving as an infantry commander, West Point hired him and then sent him to the University of Nebraska at Lincoln to get his PhD, where he began his study of leadership.

• “When I arrived at West Point, I fell in love with leadership research in the military,” said Lester. “I also married a fellow leadership researcher.” He has published several works with his wife, Gretchen, who is tenured faculty at San Jose State.
• His new passions in both work and life reshaped Lester’s goals. He left the infantry and went on to become a research psychologist for the Army, serving at the Pentagon and later as the Founding Director of the Research Facilitation Laboratory, a DoD data science laboratory in Monterey.

A study of everything: While most researchers focus in-depth on a single topic, Lester has become well-versed in a variety of areas to meet the broad needs of the Army.

• “My expertise had to grow away from leadership and incorporate things like resilience, courage, and general psychological health. It also had to include negative outcomes common in military life, like anxiety, depression, PTSD, and substance abuse.”

Applying happiness research to military performance: Lester is particularly proud of a 2022 article, Happy Soldiers are Highest Performers, in part because of his pioneering co-authors.

• He worked closely with Dr. Martin ‘Marty’ Seligman, former president of the American Psychological Association and founder of positive psychology, and Dr. Ed Diener, aka “Dr. Happiness,” who is largely responsible for creating the research stream on happiness. Diener passed away just before the article was published, but he got to work with the team right up to the end.

Why it matters: Recognizing Lester’s work with the prestigious Menneken Award reflects the increasing importance of research on the human element of warfare and leadership.

• “NPS is primarily focused on the STEM fields, but there is an important place at NPS for behavioral science leadership type research,” said Lester. “Our school has made tremendous technological advances for the Department of Navy, Department of Defense and the end user. But behind all of that is a person. Understanding how people operate, how they need to be led, how they are motivated and the ethical decisions that they must make and ethical dilemmas that they face—that research matters a lot, so we have to make space for it at NPS.”
   

Dr. Timour Radko, a fluid dynamics specialist in the Department of Oceanography, received the Menneken Award for Significant and Sustained Contribution for 2022. What he does: Radko has worked at NPS since 2004 and is still enamored with his broad range of fluid dynamics-related projects and even more so with the team of students and faculty that work with him.

• Radko refuses to pick his favorite research topics from the year saying, “Everything is interesting. This is like asking which of your kids you like more.” Despite that, he has worked on numerous projects that exemplify his love for the subject area.
• One focus in his lab is to think outside of the box and discover methods of nontraditional detection. “Imagine you want to detect something in the ocean at a depth of 300 meters,” Radko explained. “You can’t see it, so you have to come up with some interesting solutions to detect it. Our team is looking at hydrodynamic detection. The idea is that if you missed the moving object itself, maybe you can still figure out that it was there just by looking at the trail of turbulence, like contrails in the sky from an airplane. When something travels through the water, for several hours in some cases, there’s a stream of turbulence behind.”

The Naval connection: Radko attributes a part of his passion and interest in his work to the relevance and necessity that comes from working to solve real-life Naval priorities.

• He recognizes the incredible potential at NPS that resides in the students and the interface between Navy applications and academics.
• “In a civilian university, I probably would be doing extremely boring work, proving convergence theorems and such. Here at NPS things are different. I see what our mission is, and why I am doing my part. I’m still doing a lot of theory. But I understand the end game. We need to have a forecast for our Navy Ships. That’s why I’m doing this theory. We need to catch enemy submarines. That’s why I’m studying waves or that’s why I’m studying turbulence—so I see where it starts and ends.”

The intersection of research and teaching: Radko’s success as a researcher informs his approach to the classroom, which is in turn bolstered by a collaborative community of coworkers and students.

• In addition to the Menneken Award, Radko received The Rear Admiral John Jay Schieffelin Award for Excellence in Teaching, and he is equally proud of both. He notes that the ability to be a good teacher and communicator is directly related to his success and joy in the research that he does.
• “Our department is excellent. I have friendly colleagues who are all willing to help, and the students are smart and pleasant and able to see the big picture. Assistant Research Professor Justin Brown was particularly a great help. The students love him, and he’s so selfless.”

Meet the Newest Members of the NWSI Staff

The core team at NWSI is often supported by active-duty military in the interim between assignments. This quarter, NWSI is joined by the three new staff featured below. These officers embody the fusion of NPS’ research, education, and innovation. By joining the NWSI team, they are immediately applying the knowledge and skills they acquired as students and “paying it forward” to the next generation of warrior-scholars.

LT Stewart with her father at her graduation from NPS

LT Marissa Stewart is a surface warfare officer working closely with Surface Warfare Chair CAPT Jeremy Gray this quarter. LT Stewart was a graduate of the Naval Academy class of 2016 and went on to complete two tours on amphibious ships while working in the engineering department. She graduated from NPS this past December with an MBA in financial management and will be continuing her education at Naval Station Newport for Department Head School.

• “I am excited to enjoy beautiful Monterey a little while longer while also being valued added, working with CAPT Gray in NWSI. NWSI is very rich in research and educational opportunities, and I hope I can contribute to their success while being a bridge between the fleet and NPS’s academic efforts.”

LT Matthew Duncan began his military career in 2012 as an enlisted Geospatial Analyst in the Air Force. After completing his bachelor’s degree in Intelligence Studies, he commissioned from OCS in 2016 as a Surface Warfare Officer. He served two back-to-back forward deployed tours in Japan and Spain before graduating NPS from the National Security Affairs Department with a Master in East Asian Security Studies. Duncan is currently awaiting the results of the Navy’s Lateral Transfer and Redesignation board where he hopes to be reunited with the Intelligence community.

• “NPS has had a huge impact on my life and has been hands down the best education I have received,” said Duncan. He is excited to be part of the NWSI team and support the strategic mission at NPS to link industry and operational problems to relevant student research.

LT Duncan at NPS with his children

LCDR Wall poses for a photo at MARCOM

LCDR Mellini Wall commissioned through the Navy Officer Candidate School in 2013 and was designated a naval flight officer in 2014. LCDR Wall accrued over 1000 hours in support of USSTRATCOM’s mission of nuclear deterrence in addition to earning her Combat Systems Officer, Mission Commander, and Instructor designations. From 2018-2021 she served as the Maritime Air Current Operations and Strike Section Head at NATO’s Allied Maritime Command (MARCOM) in Northwood, England. She graduated from NPS in December with a Master in Middle East Regional Security Studies and will be reporting to the Defense Language Institute in April to study Arabic.

•  “The learning experience I have had at NPS, as well as the people I have met here, have formed an experience that I know will be invaluable to me during my future assignments in defense cooperation. I am looking forward to adding more to that experience and helping NPS contribute even more to the fleet here with NWSI!”

NPS in the News

NPS Strategic Framework

This month NPS released a Strategic Framework that builds upon transformation efforts and provides us with a shared vision for the future which combines our graduate education, research and innovation to generate cognitive readiness and intellectual leadership for the future force. This Strategic Framework centers on four interconnected Strategic Priorities.  Read more. 
 

Artificial Intelligence Summit at NPS Accelerates Critical Capabilities
Rosemary Mena-Worth, Naval Postgraduate School

The fourth quarterly Naval Artificial Intelligence (AI) Summit took place December 5-9 at the Naval Postgraduate School (NPS). More than 160 participants from the eight Navy AI Task Forces, Warfare and Warfighting Development Centers, the fleet, Fleet Marine Force and DOD engaged in-person and virtually at the summit co-hosted by the U.S. Navy Chief AI Officer (NCAIO) Brett Vaughan and NPS’ Naval Warfare Studies Institute. Read more.
 

Learning To Get Real And Get Better: A Conversation With Learning Leaders Assembled and edited by Professor Mie Augier and Maj Gen (Ret.) William F. Mullen, USMC  |  Center for International Maritime Security

The CNO’s recent initiative of “Get Real, Get Better” (GRGB) touches on the importance of learning on several levels. Learning is difficult and often painful as it involves transformation and change, and is not just something that one can put on “like a new suit,” as Mortimer Adler wrote in his classic piece, “Invitation to the Pain of Learning.” The emphasis in GRGB on taking hard honest looks at our performance and to have the courage to take the steps to improve have resonated well with the recent iteration of our Naval Postgraduate School course, “Maneuver Warfare for the Mind: The Art and Science of Interdisciplinary Learning for Innovation and Warfighting Leaders.” We sat down with a handful of students/learning leaders to listen to their reflections on the topic and how learning about learning itself can help us get real and get better as warfighters and warfighting organizations.  Read more.

News of Note

Training and Education 2030
U.S. Marine Corps

Whiteboard visualization from Kayla Haas. https://www.linkedin.com/posts/kaylaolsen_yesterday-the-us-marine-corps-published-activity-7024024738788245504-f_5P

Last week the U.S. Marine Corps released the latest doctrine: Training and Education 2030.

On professional military education:  "As we prepare for the future fight, we need Marines who possess the intellectual ability to out-think their adversaries. We hone this ability through deep and active engagement with the brightest minds and the most challenging material, which forces Marines to contend with their assumptions, perceptions, and concepts. PME must be dynamic, relevant, portable, and fit within the time constraints of a Marine’s career. It must also reward intellectual curiosity and calculated risk-taking to maximize intellectual growth. To maintain our intellectual edge, we will increase the rigor and relevance of our PME, reinforce the culture of life-long learning, and modernize enlisted PME. Furthermore, we will deepen PME incentives and expand wargaming."  Read more. 

Upcoming Events

Joint Interagency Field Experimentation 23-2
6-10 February 2023
NPS Field Laboratory at Camp Roberts

Focus Area: Human Performance Monitoring & Situational Awareness, including the following concentration areas:

• Human Systems Integration
• Cyber Situational Awareness
• Situational Awareness for Emergency Management
• Manned / Unmanned Teaming (MUM-T)
• Decision-Support Systems and Tools
• Non-Radio Frequency Tagging, Tracking and Locating (TTL)
• Enhanced Color Night Vision

Learn more about JIFX 23-2.
 

WEST 2023
14-16 February 2023
San Diego, CA

NPS will be onsite at booth 1651 and participating in the following panel:

• Directed Energy Weapons and Hypersonics  Exhibit Hall E, Aisle 1000/900 14 February, 2:50pm - 3:50pm
• Hear from  Joe Blau, Research Associate Professor of Physics, and LCDR Brian Curran, USN, PhD Candidate, Applied Physics
   

Spring Naval AI Summit
13-16 March 2023  |  0800-1700 PST
Naval Postgraduate School campus
 

The Naval AI Summit facilitates crosscommunication, information-sharing, and promulgates lessons-learned from across government, academia, and industry. The Spring AI Summit features solution-oriented workshops to address the Naval AI Task Forces' key findings around data, infrastructure, and competency that currently limit the DoD from scaling AI. Registration open for in-person or virtual attendance with government email only.

Naval Warfare Studies Institute
Newsletter  -  6 January 2023

Happy New Year! This newsletter brings four stories from the end of 2022:

• An update on the latest Naval AI Summit, which is growing with each quarterly meeting and charting a path forward for how the Navy and Marine Corps can and should implement artificial intelligence, with a specific focus on the talent required to meet 21^st century missions.
• A recap of last quarter’s course on the Art and Science of Learning, with an emphasis on how it prepares warrior-scholars to embrace the learning mindset critical to the CNO’s Get Real, Get Better initiative.
• Perspective from a warrior-scholar enrolled in the Art and Science of Learning course on how these concepts and approaches can be applied throughout the Naval Education Enterprise.
• A year-in-review message from NPS President VADM (Ret.) Ann Rondeau, summarizing the many ways NPS has moved over the past year to even more closely align research and education with Fleet priorities.

As these latest achievements show, NPS and NWSI remain committed to developing a Naval workforce with the right mix of operational and educational experience to quickly adapt to, take advantage of, and drive the technological and organizational changes necessary to lead in the 21^st century.

Fourth Naval Artificial Intelligence Summit Explores Development of AI Expertise

The fourth quarterly Naval Artificial Intelligence (AI) Summit took place 5-9 December at Naval Postgraduate School. Attendees came together to advance the sea services’ thoughts on Naval AI training and education, AI/Machine Learning (ML) operations, development and deployment pipelines, and “AI fusion”, a concept for the operational deployment of AI as part of distributed maritime operations and a hybrid fleet. How it works: The summit was hosted by the US Navy Chief AI Officer (NCAIO) and the Naval Warfare Studies Institute.  Major Jack Long, PhD, a Marine Reservist at the Office of Naval Research and the Deputy Navy Chief AI Officer, introduced summit attendees to the current state of AI in the Navy and began the discussion of future trends to shape impactful Naval AI development and deployment. The Navy and its AI Task Forces and the US Marine Corps AI leadership were joined at the summit by partners from the US Army, US Coast Guard, the Defense Intelligence Agency, the Joint Staff J6, and the Chief Digital and AI Office (OSD). As NPS students and staff are exposed to the current AI needs of the fleet and AI capability development efforts in the Navy and Marine Corps, it becomes possible to match NPS’ problem solvers with these potential problems. Why it matters: AI is a tool that becomes ever more applicable as the world becomes more networked, generates more data, and increasingly finds ways to advance processing power.  “We think AI is widely applicable to warfare, so we want to make sure the Naval services and the DoD in general are able to efficiently harness this emergent and disruptive tool. It's important that we are ready to use it for our own purposes, whether in warfighting or corporate functions, and be ready to have it used against us,” said Long. One big question: Where is expertise needed for Naval AI going to come from? A significant part of the summit focused on the knowledge and skills the Navy and Marine Corps will need to channel this capability.  Past innovations like submarines and aviation have reshaped naval warfare, with each invention requiring new doctrine, equipment, and personnel to support it. As the required skills become more specialized, those personnel have required new career paths to allow them to become masters at their crafts. Will we need a naval workforce capable of coding, building models, and harnessing AI in similar fashion to how Sailors needed to learn about nuclear power? Will AI become part of basic seamanship?  Or will we rely on industry and contractors to bend AI to our purposes in much the same way we have them build our ships?  The summit started that conversation the services will need to have about how they define their core competency and what they choose to not do.  “Right now, there's a small cadre of people in the Navy that have thought about this extensively,” said Long. “Before the CNO or CMC sign off on strategic AI decisions, a much wider group must be engaged. Ultimately this is a conversation about the future identity of the Services in an age of digital warfare.” Gathering Great Minds in One Room: Conversations at the summit highlight areas that require support, research, or institutional changes that can address problems affecting the wider group. By being in one room, the attendees can discuss next steps and make collaborative decisions together quickly. NPS at the center and future of AI: NPS is increasingly being considered as a center of gravity for advanced AI education within the Naval Education Enterprise. “The vision of accelerated Naval AI training & education, anchored at NPS, closely resembles the role of Top Gun for Naval Aviators: NPS as a center for advanced AI training in much the same way pilots go to flight school and then later in their career go back for advanced training to keep current and learn how to employ the craft at the pace of industry and adversaries,” said Long. If the NCAIO and Long have their way, NPS’ role will grow extensively in the near term.  “It is envisioned to be that center of excellence to answer questions like: Where are we using AI as a tool? Where is it working, where is it useful? Where is it not working or useful?  Where can we use it for financial management?  HR?  Contracting?  Legal?  How can we apply common AI experiences and methods across multiple warfare domains?  That's the core role that we see NPS playing in the coming years: the central hub for the diffusion of AI knowledge across the Navy and Marine Corps.” What’s next: Some of these conversations will inspire projects and partnerships that will be realized through the nascent AI Naval Innovation Exchange (NIX) Team led by Prof. Mathias Kolsch at NPS. Kolsch works to tie the Summit, courses, and research together.  “I am figuring out the ideal workforce composition for AI/ML involved projects. And the AI summit also informs me how to do that. I meet and talk to these people. I see where there are successful projects and begin asking questions. How many are listed here for this? What do they know? Can they code? Can they just drive a truck? What are they able to do? What are the skills needed for this project? So this summit informs the NIX.” (More details about the NIX to come in a future newsletter.) Cooperative planning for the next Naval AI Summit in March 2023 has begun, and Kolsch plans to offer a Naval version of the “Lead AI” course for GO/FO/SESs the same week. Gaining popularity: Initially attended by less than a dozen practitioners, over 160 participants joined each day for the December summit in-person and online, a number that will surely grow as the Navy and Marine Corps further embrace the widespread applications of AI.   “There is a palpable sense of progress," said Long. “People continue to ask if they can come and bring their friends.”  The summit remains open to all those in DOD and government with an interest in AI.

Want to learn more? 

NPS Art and Science of Learning Course Connects Students with Legendary Leader to Cultivate Learning Mindsets

NPS recently concluded the latest season of Maneuver Warfare for the Mind: The Art and Science of Interdisciplinary Learning for Innovation and Warfighting Leaders (“GB4012” in the NPS Catalog), a course that directly supports the development of a learning mindset so central to the CNO’s Get Real, Get Better (GRGB) initiative.

Why it matters: One of the latest strategic initiatives, the “Get Real, Get Better” campaign reminds the Fleet and Fleet Marine Forces of the important, though sometimes overlooked, links between education and the act of learning.

• GRGB acknowledges the need to counter decades of no-defect culture and instill instead a culture of courage and decisiveness and a willingness to make mistakes and learn from them.
• GRGB is also a mindset, which alludes to a subtle but important role for our educational institutions in cultivating and inculcating a focus on mindsets, not just skillsets.
• Improving our attitudes towards failure and embracing the critical need for continuous learning at both the individual and organizational level will help create more agile warfighters and more adaptable warfighting organizations.

How the NPS course works:

• A warrior-scholar teaching team. Prof Mie Augier & MajGen (ret) Bill Mullen work together to facilitate not just interdisciplinary thinking and learning but also discussions that are applied and extended in ways that are most relevant for warfighters.
• Active learning approaches. The course structure recognizes what former Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis and others have argued: PowerPoint is the scourge of critical and creative thinking.
• Interdisciplinary perspectives. The course attracted students from different curricula and programs, which has helped make the discussions more interdisciplinary with everyone bringing different ideas, perspectives, and experiences to the learning space.
  • Interdisciplinarity is also achieved through the readings and cases discussed, ranging from behavioral strategy, classic works on reading, various perspectives on individual and organizational learning, warfighter examples such as Mattis’ leadership of Task Force 58 during the early days of Operation Enduring Freedom, the centrality of experimentation and exploration in the context of building and leading learning organizations, and others.
• Special Guests. The course integrated guests to enrich student learning.
  • Dmitry Filipoff joined to discuss his paper “Learning to Win,” a recent report on the centrality of learning for the Navy, as well as the need for our organizations both to cultivate individual level learning and to build learning organizations.
  • Gen (Ret) Al Gray, the 29^th Commandant of the U.S. Marine Corps, made a surprise appearance at the season finale. He heard about students’ learning and discussed thinking, learning, bottom-up leadership, and caring for people with the students who had studied his work and legacy during the quarter.

Gen. Gray speaks to students on the art of learning.

Gen Gray’s leadership and transformation of the USMC was not just an episode important to Marine Corps institutional history. It also served as a cultural turning point that led to an organization that prioritized cultivating learning leaders as well as building learning organizations.

• Gray promoted a broad approach to reading (later realized by “The Commandants Reading List”), encouraged experimentation and thinking outside one’s swim lane, and embraced learning from failures (central to GRGB now too).
• He also founded The Marine Corps University with a specific focus on cultivating critical thinking and judgment using active learning approaches.

General Gray is the embodiment of a thinking, learning leader who emphasized people, ideas, thinking and learning. 

• Not surprisingly, he was the inspiration for the critical thinking and judgment efforts at NWSI, which evolved from a post-it note on Col Pugh’s office door.
• Read more about Gen Gray’s leadership and emphasis on thinking: People First: Inspiring an intellectual renaissance to reinvigorate strategic thinking in the Marine Corps.

What students are saying:

• Markus Delgaro: “Whether it was learning the different levels of reading Comprehension (Mortimer Adler), the military strategies of John Boyd, or how to be a successful leader (General Al Gray), this is the best course that I could have selected. The lessons learned in the course are great because even though it is warfare themed, we were taught various aspects of successful leadership, organizational management, and human psychology.   A major aspect of the course that was intriguing to me but also very relevant were the military strategies of leaders, more specifically General Al Gray. Such quotes as “Lead people, and manage assets”, to incorporate “We” when listing accomplishments and “I” when accepting accountability, these teachings will stay with me forever as well.”
• CDR Paul Nickell, USN: “There are few educational opportunities as robust and fruitful as this that ensure we develop world-class leaders to solve today’s and tomorrow’s adaptive, complex challenges that will accelerate premiere warfighting capabilities.” CDR Nickell shares more of his take on the course in the next article.

What’s next: The next iteration of this course will be offered in fall 2023. But soon, we’ll be publishing an article featuring the thinking of a handful of the student warrior-scholars on the intersection between this course and GRGB.  We will share link in the next newsletter.

Read more: NWSI offers a few short readings on the importance of active learning / building learning minds and identities (with examples from Gen Gray’s leadership):

• Learning for Seapower, Cognitive Skills for the Post-Industrial Era
• Lifelong Student-Centered Learning: A PME Paradigm for Honing our Intellectual Edge
• Educating for Seapower: Developing intellectual agility through active learning
• Maneuver Warfare for the Mind, Educating for thinking and judgment

For more information about the course, email Prof Augier. 

NPS Student and GRGB Ambassador Embraces Learning Mindset Through Agile and Adaptive MBA Studies To Accelerate Navy’s Competitive Advantage

Commander Paul Nickell, USN, a full-time student at the Naval War College and Distance Learner candidate in NPS’ professional Master of Business Administration program, recently detached from the Navy’s Leadership and Ethics Center (NLEC) in Newport, RI as the Director of Training.

• In this role, he had been charged since January 2022 to incorporate principles of Get Real, Get Better (GRGB) into the Command Triad Courses.
• NLEC provides CNO-directed education for leaders E-1 to O-6 with partnerships across the Navy and other services.

Nickell recently completed the elective courses GB3400 (Critical Thinking) and GB4012 (Maneuver Warfare for the Mind).

• This experience has opened his eyes to a new perspective on GRGB and how it can be applied across the Naval Education Enterprise.

CDR Paul Nickell at a JPME II working group event.

The CNO’s all-hands on deck, GRGB, charges Sailors to preserve the Navy’s competitive warfighting advantage, resolving performance variance and an outdated approach to institutional learning.

• GRGB asks every Sailor to embrace continuous learning, share perspectives, and adjust towards excellence through these interactions.

Excerpt from GRGB One Pager describes GRGB behaviors and how to achieve them.

Prior to the Thinking and Learning classes, I considered GRGB a standardized process for performance improvement.

• My perspective has evolved, and I understand there are multiple solutions through which sailors can Get Real, Get Better. They are all achieved through intentional learning.
• Today, the task is how to foment GRGB scholarship into a Navy Learning Organization in meaningful, enduring ways across the Fleet and Navy Education Enterprise.

NPS courses offer integral and interdisciplinary solutions to GRGB.

• Inclusive orientations and multiple perspectives on a challenge offer diverse solutions. When learning prevails in complex organizations like the Navy, solutions may be applicable to many units or unique to just one. Nonetheless, when shared and embraced, they reduce poor performance variance.
• Theoretical expertise from academia opens doors to perspectives uncommon in military learning, moving learning beyond procedural or skills-based tasks.
• Process, education, and experience follow from Herbert Simon’s work that provides insights on problem solving. While the Navy is skilled at process, all three work together, and leaders must create these opportunities for their Sailors.
• Mortimer Adler describes the necessary Pain of Learning to transform both character and cognition – a grueling process that results in novel solutions, broader understanding of current challenges, and when applied within groups, it promises a shared vision.

One of the biggest challenges: Embracing the Red. With the right metrics and data, identifying the red is easy; embracing the red is an altogether different task confronted with biased orientations that prevent discovering the best decisions to achieve world-class performance.

• Complex, Adaptive Challenges are non-linear and present no easily determined path to get from problem sets to solutions sets.
• Ambiguous, Unpredictable Variables are at play when dealing with the cognitive aspects of learning and thinking, such as diverse attitudes, values, and beliefs.
• Multiple Stakeholders in and out of multiple commands all hold different and competing goals, such as mission completion rates as related to logistics availability.

Transformation: It has taken us years to get here, but our waning commodity of time will be less forgiving to our competitive advantage if we cannot accelerate a culture of learning today.

• A Learning Trident for Problem-Solving is made up of Training (Knowns), Learning (Unknowns), and Application (Practitioner mindset).
• Planned Education involves learning and training, and the two must be equally embraced throughout the Navy’s Officer and Enlisted force.
• A Practitioner’s Mindset for Learning is best described by James March where “Action is seen as choice, and choice is seen as driven by anticipations, incentives, and desires.”
• Transformation’s Enemy is the combined factors from John Boyd’s OODA Loop, specifically the Orientation process made up of Heritage, Tradition, and Experiences. Leaders are beholden to the institutional practices they have benefited from.

Why it Matters: Core Naval priorities demand cultural changes that can be realized through an intentional learning culture. These include increased diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility (DEIA); enhanced force generation; and improved military acquisition.

• Thinking critically enables learning, and true learning enables thinking. It is our moral obligation as Naval Leaders to form an evolving learning mindset as a function of education and training.
• SECNAV Del Toro stressed the constantly evolving threat environment during his commencement speech at NPS last month.
• Acolytes of Critical Thinking for Strategic Leadership and Maneuver Warfare for the Mind recognize learning is not a staff function, but a thought process that requires getting people involved, thinking critically, and being comfortable with uncertainty and crisis.

What’s Next: Nickell’s NPS journey isn’t complete yet, and in keeping with the emphasis on student-centered learning, he has been able to tailor his educational pursuits with his current roles inside the Navy.

• “NPS’ PMBA – 865 advisors and program have afforded me with a flexible and adaptable regimen of study. As with a GRGB mindset, this path allows for self-assessment of learning needs that can be applied to real-world, self-correcting problem sets.”
• In November 2023, Nickell will join the faculty of the College of Leadership and Ethics at the Naval War College where he will continue to shape GRGB initiatives at the Senior and Flag Officer levels.

Read more about GRGB:

• The Navy offers many Resources, from recent Training Materials to CNO’s Fleet remarks.

A Year of Moving Forward - NPS President’s End of Year Message and 2022 in Review

This is my fourth year as your NPS President and I can say with confidence that it was a turning point for our institution. We worked hard to increase our curricula and research alignment to higher guidance, while restructuring NPS to be more responsive to Fleet requirements. We sharpened our financial planning, launched our campus modernization, and expanded our strategic partnerships with industry and academia – all of which strengthened our institution and set the stage for our envisioned future. Read more.

NPS in the News

SECNAV Congratulates NPS Fall Quarter Graduates, Announces New Naval Education Vision
MC2 Leonard Weston, Naval Postgraduate School

Secretary of the Navy Carlos Del Toro recognized 337 graduates, including 40 international students from 24 countries as the commencement speaker for the Naval Postgraduate School (NPS) during the school’s Fall Quarter graduation ceremony, Dec. 16. Del Toro, a former Navy surface warfare officer and an alumnus of NPS’ space systems engineering program, also shared with the graduating class news about the future of Navy education. Read more.   

NPS Joins Forces with Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability to Address Sustainability, Climate and Energy Challenges
Lt. Cmdr. Ed Early, Naval Postgraduate School

The Naval Postgraduate School (NPS) is joining forces with the Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability to explore and address the increasing challenges of global climate change, energy security and sustainability – all significant issues facing the U.S. Navy and the nation as a whole. NPS President Vice Adm. (ret.) Ann E. Rondeau and Dr. Arun Majumdar, inaugural Dean of the Doerr School of Sustainability, signed an Education Partnership Agreement (EPA) between the two schools during a brief ceremony on Dec. 15 at NPS. The ceremony was presided over by Secretary of the Navy Carlos Del Toro.  Read more. 

Naval Postgraduate School Joins Consortium for Applied Hypersonics Research
MC2 Lenny Weston, Naval Postgraduate School

The Navy’s Navigation Plan (NAVPLAN) 2022 features six force design imperatives that include investments in hypersonics that will play an important role in delivering capabilities at greater distance. In support of the development of the critical technology, the Naval Postgraduate School (NPS) has recently been accepted into the University Consortium for Applied Hypersonics (UCAH), a collaborative network of academia, industry and laboratories that serves the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) through research and development in the field of hypersonics.  Read more. 

Upcoming Events

Joint Interagency Field Experimentation 23-2
6-10 February 2023
NPS Field Laboratory at Camp Roberts

Focus Area: Human Performance Monitoring & Situational Awareness, including the following concentration areas:

• Human Systems Integration
• Cyber Situational Awareness
• Situational Awareness for Emergency Management
• Manned / Unmanned Teaming (MUM-T)
• Decision-Support Systems and Tools
• Non-Radio Frequency Tagging, Tracking and Locating (TTL)
• Enhanced Color Night Vision

Submission Deadlines

• ​Experiments with aerial vehicles: 08 December 2022
• All other experiments:  15 December 2022​​​​​​

Learn more about JIFX 23-2.

WEST 2023
14-16 February 2023
San Diego, CA

NPS will be onsite at booth 1651 and participating in the following panel:

• Directed Energy Weapons and Hypersonics 
  Exhibit Hall E, Aisle 1000/900
  14 February, 2:50pm - 3:50pm
• Hear from Dr. Joe Blau, Research Associate Professor of Physics, and LCDR Brian Curran, USN, PhD Candidate, Applied Physics