20231205 Season 2 Launch

Dean: [00:00:00] Welcome to Season 2 of Inside West Point Ideas That Impact. I'm Brigadier General Shane Reeves, Dean at the United States Military Academy at West Point. Through a series of discussions, we will show you a different side of West Point, where we will make even our most complex initiatives accessible to broad audiences, and give you an inside view to our cross disciplinary work being applied throughout the world.

Renee: Hello everyone. I'm Major Renee San Juan, an executive producer on the show, an associate dean for communications. Today you're in for a treat. We're changing it up. Okay, sir. Today you're in the hot seat. All right. Excited. Since you need no [00:00:36] introduction as a show host, let's dive right in. And the first question is a doozy. Are you ready?

Dean: I think I'm ready. Let's go. Okay.

Renee: All right. What are your initial thoughts after completing the first season?

Dean: Initial thoughts are it was fantastic. Enjoyed it immensely. And I have to say thank you to all of our listeners who've tuned in over the past year. To hear directly from our experts and I really am blown away by the support the show has received in this first year. I'm also really amazed by how much ground we've covered. I've always believed that West Point has immense academic talent, but wow, it has been [00:01:12] rewarding to sit down with just a handful of our scholars and to learn directly from them and truthfully It has just been a blast to be able to do that

Renee: Awesome. And that's a great point. So reflecting on how rewarding this experience has been for you personally, do you have any advice for other education or industry leaders?

Dean: Oh yeah. I would say if you have the ability to do so, creating this type of opportunity is a no brainer. I've been able to build deeper connections with the scholars and our faculty throughout West Point.

And have learned about work from across a wide variety of disciplines [00:01:48] while simultaneously publicly showcasing their extreme talent. So it doesn't really get any better than that. If you're gonna be at an academic institution, I mean, what a better way to, to highlight your faculty and get to know them than to do something like a podcast. And honestly, it's really not as hard as it looks, else I wouldn't be able to do it, right? Think about it. These are conversations I would just love to have anyways, over a cup of coffee or in someone's office. But now everyone gets the benefit of listening in and hearing what the faculty are thinking about.

And so it's truly inside access to West Point.

Renee: Which is just great. And so, let's get a little bit more specific now. [00:02:24] Are there any moments from the first season's episodes that surprised you? Perhaps where you learned something new about work that people are doing or something that just sticks out in your mind?

Dean: Yeah, there's a lot of different conversations throughout this first year of the podcast that have stuck in my mind. And I guess I'll highlight a few. In the very first episode, which was with Colonel Suzanne Nielsen, who's the head of the social science department. She focused on the difference between an army officer being apolitical versus non partisan.

Taught me something. Truly taught me something. And it's a distinction that I reference on a [00:03:00] regular basis. One of which I helped inform our academic theme from last year, which was called to serve military leadership in a democratic republic. During episode six, had a chance to listen to a story from Professor Hitoshi Nasu, who is in the Department of Law and also in the Lieber Institute for Law and Land Warfare, and Colonel Chris Corpella, who worked in our robotics center, how they came together to work on joint research, which I truly believe is the future of education and research at West Point, these interdisciplinary joint teams.

But it's incredible to know that their partnership flourished through some of the simplest interactions. And you start to [00:03:36] find out that faculty or ideas can be generated through the simplest interactions. It might be having a cup of coffee, it might be sitting next to each other at a sporting event.

For Hitoshi and Chris, it happened to be that their trash cans got mixed up on a windy day. So it's incredible to know that West Point as a community is working together and it's really driven largely by our shared mission of developing future officers. That's the foundation. And then when they come together to talk about that shared mission and that shared vision, then they start to bring their independent or individual disciplinary expertise together and we start to find that there's great synergies and all types of potentials as released when they start to work [00:04:12] together.

Renee: As you mentioned, there are a wide range of topics that we covered in the last year.

Could you maybe connect some of these dots or show us how they might be more connected than we realized?

Dean: Yeah you're right. I mean, you're absolutely correct. We covered what seems like really eclectic topics maybe disconnected topics ranging from talent retention to high energy lasers. But they're all connected in this.

They're all about making us better. Everything we do at West Point, everything we do, everything we research, everything we do in terms of cadet development, everything we do in terms of [00:04:48] facilitating faculty development, it's all about fighting and winning our nation's wars. And really making our army more lethal.

More capable and more resilient. And sometimes people think education is just for educational institutions. And oftentimes education is thought of just in theory. But really education is just an approach. Pairing knowledge with creativity and application, which by the way is the real power of West Point.

The power of West Point is that you have this powerful educational institution that brings all the virtues that come with an educational institution. Deeply researched topics that are well thought out[00:05:24] and that oftentimes will create really interesting ideas in theory.

However, West Point also has a connection to the operational army. So you get practical solutions. And so you get these well thought out solutions that aren't just theoretical. They're also practical and application. So whether it's identifying ways to retain good talent or the necessary requirements for making the tactical fleet more resilient.

All our scholars are pairing technical expertise with the ability to identify real world problems that could benefit from their work. And then they're applying it, and that's the extra part. They're [00:06:00] applying it, and that is where cadet education really starts to happen in this application.

And perhaps most importantly, learning from each other is how we connect the dots back to that point we made about Professor Nasu and Colonel Corpella. They learn from each other by engaging and connecting together. And West Point is a, oh my gosh, it's a dynamic environment.

It is that has a lot of intellectual energy and a lot of these synergies are happening every day. And we're starting to show that you may be talking about high energy lasers. But you also need to think about the ethical or the [00:06:36] legal implications of bringing high energy lasers onto the battlefield.

And so, what I'm getting at is it's all about breaking down silos. And what I found through doing the podcast is I'm seeing those silos are starting to crumble as really talented faculty are starting to cross pollinate and talk to each other about their various disciplines, resulting in these really creative and innovative solutions but practical in implementation.

So you might be an engineering expert, but you can benefit from being intellectually curious and questioning assumptions.

Or gain unique perspectives through studying history, which Dr. Elizabeth Samet and Lieutenant Colonel Rory McGovern[00:07:12] taught us in Episodes 3 and 5. Or, if you're a historian, you can recognize how to become a better member of the quote, data workforce. As Colonel Nick Clark teaches us in Episode 7.

Renee: You always talk about how our purpose here is to educate and inspire our next generation of officers and for those that are listening that aren't sure how exactly the work of our guests connects to that.

Could you paint us a picture?

Dean: Yeah, so, I have to credit our Vice Dean for Engagement and Research, Dr. Craig Sheets, with this. But it all comes down to something he has succinctly summarized. Teaching through applied work is just the natural evolution of education. Now in our [00:07:48] case, in West Point's case, it's actually vital to our national security.

And that's why we push our cadets in the classroom, provide them opportunities to identify how to apply their knowledge to real world problems, make them put their knowledge to the test, and we want them to think outside the box when things don't go as planned. And they do all of that, and they integrate all of that into their educational experience.

So, examples. We heard from Colonel John Harkey where he talked about putting cadets in front of stakeholders throughout the laser acquisition process in Episode 2. I mean, think about the faith we have to have in cadets to put them in front of stakeholders and talk [00:08:24] about acquisition of lasers.

But we do, because We've got them to the point where we expect them to do that.

Renee: And the confidence that they're showing to be able to do that in the first place.

Dean: And the secondary and tertiary benefits to them in terms of presenting in front of an audience, the confidence that requires, all those things you just stated.

In Episode 4, Colonel Will Wright discussed opportunities that research has provided for cadets to travel around the country to places like Alaska where they collect data firsthand.

Like, they're in the field collecting the data. Think about that. Think about how motivating it is to, to a cadet to do that. You're no longer dealing with a general spreadsheet someone hands you [00:09:00] in class. You're not just talking about it in theory. But you're working with data that you personally, or your friends, collected while trudging through the fields of Alaska.

I mean, that's pretty awesome. Yeah. So what's important to highlight is that this isn't just happening overnight, of course. There's a ton of work going on behind the scenes by our senior and our junior faculty, often supported by external partners and supporters to make all of these opportunities for the cadets possible.

And they're so impactful that we also see cadets inspired to pursue their own lines of research. And now that's what's [00:09:36] truly inspiring. Watching the light bulb go on in a cadet's head and really start to follow their intellectual passion. And we know that generates critical thinking skills, and that's what we're looking for in our graduates.

Renee: And that's just inspiring to think about. And you often talk about this educational ecosystem, and I appreciate you laying it all out there, right? Here's some examples of how it develops and how many people are involved in this. Just like you provided many of your guests 30 seconds to plug their department or their academic major

Why don't you take a moment to plug the podcast?

Dean: I'm going to take more than 30 seconds, I think. We'll see,

It's important for the nation to know what kind [00:10:12] of academic excellence resides here at West Point. There is absolutely a sense that the world is changing quickly and strategically and perhaps that national security deterrence is waning. West Point has developed Army officers since our country's founding, and West Point is at a time in its history when it continues to prepare to fight the next war.

And that preparation is going to come through in this type of work, the type of work that we talk about on the podcast. So I would ask you to join us and follow along. We've already slated a number of interesting topics this season, like how to teach character development, the science and application of renewable [00:10:48] batteries.

And the impact of a robust international exchange program. So be a part of history and learn about some fascinating topics along the way.

And as we close season one and we move into season two, which I'm immensely excited for, I do have to take a moment.

And thank you and the entire team and all of our guests who put so much effort and energy into making the podcast both the success and the enjoyable experience that it is.

Renee: Thank you, sir. It's been great.

Dean: And to our listeners, be sure to tune into the Inside West Point Ideas That Impact podcast next month.

Remember, you can find this podcast and all of the other podcasts hosted or [00:11:24] published by the West Point Press at westpointpress. com. Until next time.