AFCEC, Air Force Academy, AFIT forge research partnership

  • Published
  • By Carole Chiles Fuller
  • AFCEC Public Affairs
JOINT BASE SAN ANTONIO-LACKLAND, Texas --  Representatives of the Air Force Civil Engineer Center, the Air Force Institute of Technology and the U.S. Air Force Academy formally established a research partnership last year that is expected to prove beneficial for all concerned.

Under the partnership, members of AFCEC, AFIT and USAFA will work together to identify and validate topics for students and faculty that are meaningful to the Air Force and its operational missions.

Under the agreement, senior AFCEC subject matter experts would propose their "wicked problems" as research topics for students and faculty members. AFCEC staff members will be available to interface with researchers, and researchers will present their findings to AFCEC annually. "Wicked problem" is a reference to a theory of complicated issues that are difficult or impossible to solve because of incomplete or contradictory knowledge, the number of people and opinions involved, a large economic burden or the connections between the problem with other problems, said Dr. Marilyn Croach, former deputy director of AFCEC.

"AFCEC personnel are too busy doing everyday problem-solving to have time for long-term research," said Lt. Col. Patrick Suermann, former USAFA associate professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering who recently arrived at Joint Base San Antonio to join the Air Force Installation and Mission Support Center.  "The partnership marries up the researchers who can now solve real-world problems that people are working every day. They close the loop by reporting their findings back to AFCEC."

The research would be conducted by candidates for master's degrees at AFIT, or by Academy senior cadets undertaking independent studies. All would be led by high-ranking faculty members who are usually national or international leaders in their engineering fields.

"Every year, AFIT students look for master's thesis topics, and every year USAFA seniors are looking for 499 -- independent studies -- topics," Suermann said, explaining that the USAFA cadets who have room in their schedules for independent studies are "the best of the best."

AFIT has 15-25 students pursuing master's degrees every 18 months.

"It's nice because now you have someone on the AFCEC side who has proposed this problem, and USAFA and AFIT have people who have master's or doctoral degrees who are leading experts in the field," said Capt. Monica Pickenpaugh,  AFCEC member and former USAFA assistant professor who has been working on establishing the partnership. "It connects the people."

AFCEC leaders have already proposed a range of problems to solve.
"We go all the way from big-process ideas from planning and integration all the way down to more technical problems, such as developing fire protection criteria for rooftop mounting of photovoltaic [solar] arrays," said Pickenpaugh.

The collaboration was championed by Croach, who is retired from the Senior Executive Service in December.

"It was really her brainchild. To see it come to fruition is really exciting," said Pickenpaugh.

Croach said she hopes long-term partnerships will be established.

"Imagine having the opportunity to reach real-time intellectual partners who can take a multidisciplinary view and work on your enterprise as you work in it," said Croach. "They have this opportunity to partner. All of a sudden, we have created what I call community. We add value to our decision-making and compress the time it takes. We are one team."

After research is completed, the agreement calls for students and faculty to travel to AFCEC to present their findings to AFCEC staff members. All research papers and presentations will be eligible for an annual award from the AFCEC director.