The 2004 MORS Education and
Professional Development Colloquium
6-7 April 2004
United
States Military Academy
West Point, New York
Introduction
If you were as fortunate as I, you attended last year’s
MORS Education Colloquium. Mr Mike
Garrambone superbly organized this outstanding event.
If you missed it, I’m sure you heard about it. Mike had a packed crowd
(a MORS record for this event), a beautiful location (Naval Postgraduate School
in Monterey) and a student competition with judges.
His full schedule of 46 invited speakers enthralled the crowd with
tutorials, discussions on our service academies’ OR curricula, reports from
our student chapters, and career development guidance for our military OR types.
It truly was an exceptional event that MORS Past President Ted Smyth
claimed was an “unparalleled success!”
As I sat there on the second day, in true awe of Mike’s
accomplishment, I clearly recall thinking, ‘I sure pity the poor schmuck that
has to follow this class act!’… Well, not three hours later the President
Elect, LTC Willie McFadden, grabs me by the arm and asked me, “How would you
like to run the Education Colloquium next year?” I told him, of course, that I’d be thrilled.
Colloquium
Theme
The theme of the 2004 Education Colloquium is “Training and
Educating Combat Analysts.” In
the aftermath of IRAQI FREEDOM and in our continuing push to win the peace,
it is critical for us to remember why we are called the Military Operations
Research Society. Although force
structure, resources, and budget issues are critical to our services’ success
and our country’s defense, it is the military operation that is the DNA of our
profession. All of us need to be
combat analysts. Analysts that understand the art of war at a level far greater
than just being able to speak the warfighters’ vernacular.
This Colloquium will educate the attendees
on joint operations, joint analysis and on the unique service aspects of
warfighting and their associated analysis.
We will have briefings from our young analysts that were deployed to
support current operations. We will discuss skills necessary to become a combat
analyst and how our school houses are adapting their curricula to meet this
need. We will entertain Service
briefings on how their OR career field tracks are focusing on operational
analysts for both military and civilians. Tutorials on operationalizing
briefings to senior warfighters and on how to display large data results for
communication, are envisioned. And
of course, we are planning for the 2nd annual MORS Quick-Turn
Analysis Student Competition.
Specifics
The
2004 MORS Education Colloquium will be held at our US Military Academy at West
Point, on 6-7 April. It is
being hosted by our MORS President and Director of the Operations Research
Center at the Military Academy, LTC Willie McFadden.
Past Colloquia have focused on educational curricula at our various
service academies, the development of new analysts, presentations of graduate
theses, senior studies, and discussions on the direction and evolution of OR.
Over the years we have enjoyed tutorials, panel discussions from the
senior members of our Society, and hundreds of symposium-quality presentations
on examples of the art and science of our discipline. This year will be no
exception. For conference attendees, we’ve reserved
a block of rooms at The Thayer Hotel,
at West
Point (http://www.thethayerhotel.com).
The rate is $121.00 + 7.5% tax. The
cut-off date for reservations in the block is 8 March 2004.
Mission
The goal of MORS
is to enhance the quality and usefulness of Military Operations Research. This
Colloquia will support this goal by:
Our program this year will educate members, old and new, on
analysis techniques and approaches for operations, provide insightful peer
review on developing combat analysts, and inform us about analytic support for
recent operations. Our target audience are individuals from those agencies
employing and interested in developing young analysts (military, government
civilian and contractors), organizations providing doctrinal and analytical
support to the warfighter, and the mentors of tomorrow’s OR professionals.
Execution
The MORS Education and Professional Development Committee
consists of: Chair, Col Jerry Diaz – AFSAA, and committee members: Mr Jack
Keane – JHU/APL, Dr Kirk Yost – L-3 Com Analytics Corp, Mr Don Bates – OSD
PA&E, Mr John Ferguson – Northrop Grumman, Mr Greg Keethler – AF Space
Analysis Center, LTC Michael J. Kwinn, Jr. – USMA, and Lt Col Greg McIntyre
– OSD PA&E. This team is working to put together an exciting and
productive colloquium.
We are interested in your thoughts and inputs on how to make
this a great conference. Please give us your ideas. In addition to your ideas,
we are looking for presenters and for potential problems for our student
competition. Please contact Jerry
Diaz (see below) or any committee member (see the MORS website) with your
conference ideas. See you at the colloquium!
Administrivia
The Education and Professional Development Committee falls
under the direction and leadership of the Vice President for Professional
Affairs, Mr Patrick J McKenna – USSTRATCOM. For further information on the 2004 MORS Education and
Professional Development Colloquium please contact the MORS office 703-933-9070
or Col Jerry Diaz at 703-588-6910, jerry.diaz@pentagon.af.mil.
Look for more information on this exciting colloquium on the MORS
website: http://www.mors.org.
Presentations
Dear
Colleague Letter
Agenda
