Photo By Leo Jenkins | U.S. Army Central service members and students from the University of South Carolina...... read more read more
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COLUMBIA, S.C.— As part of an ongoing relationship, U.S. Army Central (USARCENT) partners with the University of South Carolina (USC) to further collaboration and the USARCENT Task Force 39 (TF-39) innovation efforts. This partnership allowed USARCENT to work with students majoring in Integrated Information Technology from the College of Engineering and Computing at USC, for a Capstone Senior Project Expo at the Bert Innovation Center on April 19.
U.S. Army Central presented students with the opportunity to solve military-related problems and served as an industry client, which helped students to gain real-world experience. One of USARCENT’s top priorities is innovation. In November 2022, USARCENT established TF-39 to foster an innovative culture. On December 4, 2022, Lt. Gen. Patrick Frank, USARCENT commanding general, directed TF-39 to collaborate with USC as part of USARCENT’s initiative to partner with academia and regional universities.
“We essentially work with U.S. Army Central on any type of innovative project because they have Task Force 39, which is all about innovation,” said Dr. Keiona Middleton, clinical assistant professor, at USC College of Engineering and Computing. TF-39 allows students to play a role in building projects supporting the Army’s mission. In addition, students could complete their capstone project within a supervised classroom setting.
Curtis Bales, a USC student, worked with his team to solve a problem that USARCENT presented. His team proposed to provide secure cell phone charging stations for personnel who work in secure Department of Defense facilities. “My experience working with U.S. Army Central was great. Our client was very transparent. We were able to power through any roadblocks that came up,” said Bales. Bales expressed that one of his team’s most significant challenges was setting schedules and selecting meeting times to complete each task before deadlines.
Middleton continued to emphasize that taking what is learned inside the classroom and applying it to a real-world situation is an invaluable experience. In addition, she wants her students to gain exposure to working with different organizations they may only have an opportunity to work with in a mandated internship.
“There is a long-term benefit to exposing young students to working with and supporting the Army,” said Col. Adontis Atkins, USARCENT director of Cyber Electronic Warfare. “I think it would be interesting to fast forward 10-15 years and see how many of these individual investments decide to work for the federal government or the United States Army.”
Nghi Nguyen, a USC student, worked with her team to develop a Protection Housing Assessments application designed to provide a solution to reduce waste and increase efficiency. The application is designed to provide a user-friendly platform for Soldiers to input and retrieve necessary documentation for housing.
“I got a lot of front-end practice and experience working with applications such as CSS, HTML, and JavaScript, which made the website look good and responsive,” said Nguyen, “I hope to apply these skills and work as a front-end developer for a company that cares about making the user experience easier.” Nguyen hopes to help the next group of students continue this project and provide a foundation for students that come after her.
“The partnership between USARCENT and USC allows innovations to come into fruition through collaboration with enthusiastic seniors who are eager to engage in real-world problem solving by utilizing their subject matter expertise,” said Bobby Lambert, USARCENT Mission Assurance Assessments lead. Lambert was a primary point of contact for the students to communicate with throughout their capstone project development process. The overall goal of USARCENT’s partnership with USC is to forge a long-term relationship that benefits all stakeholders.
“Talented young students are helping us to solve problems that we are currently facing by using skillsets that we do not have on staff inherently,” said Atkins, “They have skills that we need, especially with the growth of artificial intelligence, machine learning, and data analysis… we need to tap into that talent pool early on.” Atkins said that he is excited for what is to come as USARCENT continues to partner with USC and he believes they are also excited.
TF-39 is leading USARCENT’s efforts to innovate, experiment, and integrate new technologies through a long-term focused approach, which includes maintaining solid partnerships with academia, and the University of South Carolina.
| Date Taken: | 04.19.2023 |
| Date Posted: | 04.24.2023 16:41 |
| Story ID: | 443270 |
| Location: | SHAW AIR FORCE BASE, SOUTH CAROLINA, US |
| Web Views: | 288 |
| Downloads: | 3 |
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