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In this special presentation, Lt. Gen. Tony Bauernfeind '91, USAFA's 22nd superintendent, shares an inside look into cadet development and answers graduate questions. Hosted by Lt. Col. (Ret.) Naviere Walkewicz '99, this episode dives into the Academy's mission and how it is preparing our nation's future warfighters.   FULL TRANSCRIPT SPEAKERS Guest:  Lt. Gen. Tony Bauernfeind '91  |  Host:  Lt. Col. (Ret.)Navire Walkewicz '99   Naviere Walkewicz This special edition of the Air Force Gradcast is a production of the Long Blue Line Podcast Network, presented by the U.S. Air Force Academy Association & Foundation. I'm your host, Lt. Col. (Ret.) Naviere Walkewicz, Class of '99. We're honored to feature the superintendent of the United States Air Force Academy, Lt. Gen. Tony Bauernfeind, Class of '91. In this presentation, Gen. Bauernfeind will share important updates on current initiatives and developments at our Air Force Academy. Following his remarks, he and I will sit down for a conversation, during which he'll respond to questions submitted by graduates in our alumni community. So now, without further ado, Gen. Bauernfeind. Thank you for being here, sir.   Gen. Bauernfeind Well, Naviere, thank you so much for allowing us to come and share our story of our wonderful Air Force Academy. And thank you as well to the Association of Graduates and the Foundation for all of the incredible support that we receive to develop our future leaders into the warrior leaders that we need on Day 1 in our Air Force and Space Force.   Naviere Walkewicz Yes, sir, we are grateful you're here, and we can't wait to hear what you're able to share with us today, sir, so we can jump ahead if you're ready.   Gen. Bauernfeind Wonderful. So I would like to share with you an updated mission brief of where we are going at the United States Air Force Academy. And during this time, I'd like to share not only our leadership team that's taking on the transformation that has been mandated, but also to update our alumni on our mission, our vision, our priorities and our mission sets, as well as talk about how we are creating warfighters, leaders of character and quality, and critical thinkers, and provide an update of how we are transforming this amazing institution to develop those warrior leaders that we need to keep our adversaries at bay. So as always, I'd like to start all briefings with a little video that highlights what our cadets are doing and our incredible public affairs team and video team put together the following video that shows what our cadets have been doing over the last six months... ...So you can see that our cadets have been absolutely busy over the last few months, and I can attest that this summer is they brought the problems up even more and are bringing even more energy to their training, their education, their development. But let me first talk about the amazing team at the senior leadership levels at the United States Air Force Academy, because we cannot do what we're doing without this incredible team. So first, we're welcoming reader Gen. Nicholas Evans as our new vice superintendent, coming out as the 18th Wing commander at Kadena Air Base, bringing a wonderful operational experience to bear, as well as academic bona fides to be our vice superintendent. Our command chief remains Command Chief John Alsvig and our commandant remains to be Brig. Gen. Marks and Col. Steve Hasstedt is our acting dean as we work to bring a new dean into bear. Ms. Gail Colvin is our stalwart chief of staff, with her wisdom from the Class of '80 that keeps us moving forward. Ms. Jen Block is our executive athletic director. Mr. Nate Pine is our director of athletics, and our brand new wing commander, the 10th Air Base Wing, Col. Ahave Brown. And we all know that nothing happens at USAFA without the 10th Air Base wing providing the foundational support. But also Col. Taylor from the 306 Flying Training Wing, and Col. Silva is our space detachment commander, and it's important that we have all those leaders that are helping us transform USAFA. And to that transformation, we talk about our updated mission statement that was approved last fall. And that updated mission statement is that “USAFA's mission is to forge leaders of character motivated to a lifetime of service and developed to lead our Air Force and Space Force as we fight and win our nation's wars.” And for the alumni, as we went through this mission statement development, we realized that there are many activities we take on at the United States Air Force Academy. There's education, there's training, there's motivation, inspiration, development. And we realized that we are taking the most amazing women and men from all four corners of this United States, and we're bringing them here as raw materials, and we are taking them through high-stress military, academic and athletic programs to forge them into something stronger than what they were when they showed up. And those are the leaders of character. We also wanted to make sure that we highlighted that it's about delivering a lifetime of service to our nation. It doesn't mean that every graduate needs to do 34-plus years in active duty like I'm currently doing, but continue to give back, whether that's in active duty, the Guard the Reserve, to your community in the defense industry, as an elected official or as a key supporter in our alumni networks — keep serving our nation. And then finally, an acknowledgement that we, alongside our teammates at West Point and Annapolis, have a very special mandate that we are developing those warrior leaders that will fight and win our nation's wars. While we hope that we will achieve peace through strength and deter our adversaries, we must always be ready when the nation calls and we will go forward and deliver victory for our nation. So it's important in our mission, but a mission will only take us so far. And the next step is acknowledging that we must have a vision. What is our North Star? And our North Star is we will remain and continue to be the nation's premier service academy. That we're bringing in rigorous, adversary-focused military training, military training that achieves a standard, that achieves a requirement, and not just training for training sake. But also maintain our level as a nationally recognized academic program with highly competitive athletics, and acknowledging that for us to deliver on those four, we must continue to sustain a world-class installation. But more importantly, continue to bring in professional and dedicated permanent party into our faculty. Our coaches, our headquarters, our installation support requires our outstanding permanent party. And so our vision moves us forward. And from our mission and our vision, we have established three key priorities, and those priorities will guide our decision making. But let me take your attention to the bottom first. The bottom is our foundational aspect, that we build all of our aspects upon our service core values of our Air Force and our Space Force of integrity first, service before self, excellence in all we do, courage, character, connection and commitment. And those we build upon further foundationally to acknowledge that we are in the military and all aspects of military operations activities require a strict adherence to standard. What is the task that we are executing? What are the conditions on which we will execute those tasks? And what standards do we expect, especially in high end warfare, where our standards are so tight. We also acknowledge that what is special about us is our Honor Code. It is foundational to our character, and we'll talk more about that as we build upon this. But realizing that the Class of '59 that established our Honor Code. It has been foundational to the development of our leaders of character and quality as a board, and then adding into the fact that leaders who built lethal warfighting teams — they do it from a position of respect and teamwork, that they take their team and they support them, they hold them accountable, but they push them to rise above what they could think they could personally achieve. And how do we build those future leaders that are going to take teammates from all four corners of this United States and make sure every single teammate is seen, heard and valued and can give everything possible to the mission at hand? And that leads us to our priorities. That our priorities are we are here to forge warfighters to win, to inspire leaders of character and quality, and finally, to motivate critical thinkers to adapt, because all three are important. And that takes us to our mission sets, because those three priorities span across everything we do in a cadet's journey at the United States Air Force Academy. And the first is acknowledging the military training aspect. That military training goes beyond just learning how to put a uniform on, just how to march correctly, but also understanding how to operate inside of Air Force and Space Force norms and take on those military training activities that our Air Force and Space Force are taking on right now with Ready Airmen Training and the ability to execute agile combat deployment. And that's activities like being able to shoot, move, communicate, medicate and automate, but also acknowledging that we also must have that world-class academic program that challenges our future leaders not what to think, but how to think, and to do that from a warfighting-focused curriculum that is very STEM focused, but also leans in hard to how we can leverage the incredible intellect that these cadets are bringing in today and unleash them on some of the hardest Air Force and Space Force problems through our research programs as we lean into it. And then finally, as we talk about our competitive athletics, that athletics is a key aspect of the cadet's journey, whether it be through our 30 incredible intercollegiate sports teams, our intramural programs, our physical education programs, or finally our physical fitness tests that demonstrate the warrior ethos that is being expected of a military service academy, and it's important that we look across those. But let me talk about a little further of our priorities from those three lenses. The first is the aspect of warfighters win, of how we're bringing in training such as shoot, move, communicate, medicate and automate. And I've heard some teammates are going, “Why are we doing this ground focused training?” And at the end of the day, it's not ground focused training, it's joint force training. This is where our Air Force is going. That we still need to be able to succeed in the air, space, cyber domains, but we must also deliver excellence in these domains. With shoot, I requested that all of our cadets now become qualified in their long gun, the M4, and their sidearm, the M18, every single year. So now they'll have the confidence of their weapons when they have to go forward into harm's way. The same with move and communicate. Can they understand the aspects of mission command, especially in future fights where we may not have the best connectivity with our highest headquarters? Will they understand commander's intent and still be able to generate the combat power we need to keep our adversaries on their heels? Finally, to medicate. Over the last few decades, we have benefited from the golden hour, where we had such dominance that when we had a teammate isolated or injured, we would have medical care a rescue capability to them inside the hour. Future battlefields will likely not give us that luxury. So we must teach our future leaders those advanced medical capabilities to take care of their injured teammates while they're continuing to generate combat power. And finally, as we have seen from the Iranian wars and the Ukrainian wars, automation is here and part of modern warfare. And so how are we going to bring automation capabilities to our future leaders so they can develop the new TTPs that we are working through. And again, thank you to the Association of Graduates and Foundation, because you all provided the seed funding for our first automation efforts this summer. So thank you so much. And let me dig in a little further on why warfighters win. And from our president and our secretary of defense, it has been very clear that they want us to establish peace through strength, that we must develop our ways in three areas: to restore the warrior ethos, to rebuild our military and to reestablish deterrence. And we have gotten that guidance very clear from our leadership, and we will prepare our future leaders in that mind. And we have added that over the last year by bringing in year round warfighting training. So not only during the summer periods, but also through the academic year, are we asking our future warrior leaders to take on the military mission, the academic mission and the athletic mission as we move forward. And as discussed, it is directly aligned to our Air Force with Ready Airman Training and our agile combat employment. And over the last year, we took our baby steps. We're not where we need to be, but I can tell you I'm proud of how far we've come, because we moved forward with energy and violence through the fall and spring culminating exercises. I'm proud of how far we've come, but now for this year, we're gonna enter into the walk phase, because we have more to go. And with that in mind, there's been conversations of recognition and promotion, and that is tied not only to our leadership development, but also to our warfighting training. And it's an acknowledgement that for every year you at the Air Force Academy, we are purposely developing you and increasing your capabilities. And so we are going to provide the expectations for your year, whether you're four-degree, three-degree, two-degree or first-degree — a firstie — and you must meet those training standards, and if you do not meet the training standards, then we are not going to recognize you for your past work, but if you meet our standards, then we are going to recognize you for the good work and promote you to the next grade. But the ultimate promotion being a Second Lieutenant in our Air Force and Space Force as it goes forward. Over the last year, there are teeth of this. We did have 153 cadets that were not recognized due to not meeting the standards, but we are now providing them the options over the summer and this fall to now meet the standards as we move forward. Also this year, focusing on warfighting, is acknowledging that we must arm the cadets to be the instructors. Last year, we did it very quickly. Now we're going to take advantage of our incredible cadets, just like our cadets do exceptional things — teaching each other how to fly, teaching other each other how to jump during our freefall program — but now we are working through the cadet warfighter instructor course, a beta course, where we will teach cadets to be those instructors inside of our squadrons in the academic year, to take on how to teach, how to shoot, to move, to communicate, automate and medicate. And we are one more week left in our inaugural cadet warfighter instructor course. I know we will learn much from this beta iteration, but I'm excited to see what we learned from this as we go into the academic year and unleash these cadets and train ourselves. We're also very appreciative from the Foundation for the establishment of the Institute for Future Conflict. And the Institute for Future Conflict has been around for a couple of years and has already forced us to focus and think differently. And I would offer to you the reason behind that is because they are focused on our adversaries. So I like to call them our adversary focused disruptors. They are going to bring ideas to bear that force us to change the way we develop our cadets for the future, because they're looking at what our adversaries are doing. And as such, we made the decision to elevate them into Headquarters USAFA, so they can have a wider impact, not only within the dean of faculty, but also within the Cadet Wing and the Athletic Department, so we can ensure that we are bringing those disruptive thoughts and putting them into in place so we prepare our leaders for a very uncertain world, to include bringing realism into the training that our cadets are taking on. We're also acknowledging academically, there's more that we have to do with our intellect. And over the last year, we have added three additional warfighting minors, one on quantum, one on aerospace materials, and we're in the final stages of establishing a warfighting minor on future conflict. Hopefully that we will be able to start providing that to our cadets over the next year, as we went into that so very excited to the growth in our academic options. And then finally, athletically, we're updating our PT standards, and we're adding additional PE courses for our future leaders. Our future leaders — we will increase water survival, especially when we look to the future and the regions where we expect to potentially have conflict, increased water survival is important — as well as increased combatives, and we're still in the final stages of planning of how we can bring a team focused final warfighting capstone physical education course that brings all of that physical education together for a team-focused event for our firsties, but still in the planning stages of that. And as discussed, updating our PT standards to align with our Air Force and our Space Force, with an acknowledgement that simply what we were doing is adding minimums to each of the caveats to ensure that you must pass each individual event while also meeting a score-based event as we move forward. Again, aligning with our Air Force and Space Force. Now, as we transform, it's not just about warfighters to win. It's also about leaders of character and quality. As I like to say, it's developing leaders who do the right thing the right way, even if it's unpopular, because we must have leaders that are willing to stand up and do the right thing for the formation. And we focused on that. We have focused on reinforcing standards and accountability. While initially it was permanent party coming in fairly strong to establish the standards and accountability, what we quickly saw from our amazing future generation was cadets going, “We've got this. We will establish it. We will uphold our standards. We will uphold our accountability.” And to me, that's very important to see that our next generation is taking ownership of that key leadership aspect, to even include honor. As many know, we had a pretty significant honor violation last year. The bad news is that occurred. The good news is it was the cadets themselves who came forward and said, “This happened, and this is our way forward.” As in all situations, though, anytime you point a finger at somebody, three fingers pointing back at yourself, we realized that institutionally, we had probably lowered the standards too far. We didn't expect enough, and we had parsed the Honor Code. And we made the decision to return to our roots and say, “No, the Honor Code is holistic. It will not be parsed.” But we do acknowledge that these amazing men and women that come from all four corners are coming to us in different stages of their character development, and so the sanctions that come from an honor violation for somebody with us for a few weeks or a couple months may be far different than the sanctions of somebody that are weeks or months out from commissioning and graduation. So ensuring that we have a tiered sanction system to deal with our honor violations. I'm very proud of the ownership that our cadets took with our honor system, and we are reinforcing their efforts as we move forward. We've also pivoted strongly to a four-class system. My observation was is through time at the Air Force Academy, we've ebbed and flowed from a four-class leadership development system to a fourth-class leadership development system. I would offer that we had gone to the point where the majority of training and focus was on the four-degrees, when we are blessed to have these our future leaders for 47 months, and we should be developing them the entire 47 months. And so we have developed the fourth-class leadership system, where for their four-degree year, we will focus them on being good teammates and followers. For the three-degree year, we will focus on them being good frontline engaged supervisors, two-degrees as team leaders and firsties as unit leaders, representing those roles in our Air Force from cadet squadron commander to DO, to executive officer, to A1 through A6 staff positions and flight commander and taking on those responsibilities. And again, just like we talked about work by training, there's assessment mechanisms for each of these that they must meet leadership assessments that will go into whether or not they are recognized and promoted to the next grade, as it moves forward. We executed the first year. Last year, I would offer that it was successful, but we've learned much from the process, and as we go into the second year, I think we're going to be able to go even further with our four-class leadership and development. We've also doubled down on discipline, that standards and accountability are important, and if you fail to meet our standards, then you must be held accountable, not only with punitive aspects, but also with rehabilitative aspects. It's a two-edged pincer movement as we went forward, and from my time at the Academy, I will offer to you, while I may not have enjoyed it at the time, I benefited greatly from both, because it forced me to reflect upon what got me in that situation and how I can take ownership of my own development as we move forward. So that is one of the aspects we return to. And then finally, for our National Character and Leadership Symposium: Let's focus on those character elements that we find through warfighting. And so last fall's was focused on, how are we going to develop warfighters to win? And then for next year, we're going to focus on the courage required to overcome adversity in a warfighting environment. And so I'm very excited as we get the speakers identified for both the fall, a shorter fall iteration, and the normal spring iteration, sharing those speakers with the wider alumni environment. And then finally, talking about those critical thinkers to adapt. I jokingly tell our cadets that, since I was in the '90s, we got to solve all the easy problems, and all that is left are all the wicked hard problems, but we need those critical thinkers to adapt, because they are going to bring the ingenuity, they're going to bring the innovation, and what I've challenged them is they also have to bring the courage to challenge the status quo. Too many times in our military, when we ask why we do something, if the answer is, “We've always done it that way,” then maybe we need to rethink and understand, are there better ways to do it? And I can tell you, our cadets bring that to bear. And so for this year, we're really focused on cadet empowerment and responsibility. Last year with the mandate, we moved very quickly, and we were more directive in nature. And what we heard loud and clear is that cadets hurdled over our expectations. What we heard loud and clear from them was, “We want to control the way forward.” And so how do we empower them more? And how do we make it clear that they are responsible not only for their mission, but their people? And adding to that of spending more time with them with these changes of why are we doing this change, and making sure that they understand the rest of the story. You may not always like the why, but if you have an appreciation of the why, its foundation will be able to execute mission command, because you now understand commander's intent, and you now can go, “I know the why. We can keep moving forward, because we can move forward with that.” We're also focusing on operationalizing all of the United States Air Force Academy, bringing that operational mindset to bear, from whether it would be establishing an A2 directorate in the headquarters and the cadet wing and in all cadet squadrons, and the DA2 director being our intelligence directorate, so that we can start to bring in classified intelligence briefings and give them not only to a permanent party, but to our future leaders. And we started that last January to great success, so that our future leaders can start to understand not only our and our allies capabilities, but our adversary capabilities and how we will conduct our joint warfighting aspects as we move forward. And it's important that we continue to bring in those operational matters so we prepare the cadets of today for the second lieutenants of tomorrow that can seamlessly nest in to how our Air Force and our Space Force operates. And that's a nicer way of saying is some of the USAFA unique things we've done— we probably need to think about how we're doing that in our Air Force and Space Force. We're also doubling down that cadet squadrons are the unit of action, just like it is in our Air Force, that the squadron is the unit of action. And it's tough at USAFA where you may prioritize your IC team, or your major, or your club, but at the end of the day, it's going to be the squadron that succeeds together as a team. And so we are focusing on making sure that we are reinforcing what the cadet squadrons are doing. They are going to go through their military training together. They're going to go through their culminating exercises together, same as recognition and promotion. And that's important as we focus on the four-class system of those teammates, followers, frontline engaged supervisors, team leaders, unit leaders, but also acknowledging that we must empower cadet leaders to own the responsibility of their units. And I recently sat down with cadet squadron commanders and their special staffs and said, “Congratulations, you're the cadet commanders. You are responsible for two things: your mission and your people. It's not just about marching at the front of a formation. It's about executing the mission you've been given, whether that mission be military, academics or athletics, and taking care of your people.” And as such, we have established special staffs inside of each cadet squadron, every wing in the Air Force, most groups and many squadrons have special staff to both support the unit, but more importantly, advise the commander, because the commander is the one who's ultimately responsible for their people. And so we are bringing cadet special staff — which they may not be the subject matter experts in equal opportunity, integrated prevention response, spiritual matters or medical matters. They are there to support the squadron, advise the commander and have that connectivity to our subject matter experts, whether it be our chaplaincy, whether that be our amazing medical group and cadet clinic, our amazing SAPR team and all the helping agencies across USAFA to make sure that we can support all of our cadets going through a high-demand developmental program at the United States Air Force Academy. And the twist on that is again, saying, “Commanders, you are the ones who are responsible.” And now let's give you the tools to be successful as the permanent party are there to advise and oversight, empower our cadets even more. And then the final one is a return to decorum training. We conducted a beta test last year to success, and now we're looking to see how we can bring forward that decorum training for the entirety of the Cadet Wing. I am not this is not a return to the days of wine pairings, you know, but it is an acknowledgement that as an officer in our Air Force and Space Force, when you go to events, you're not only representing yourself, you're representing your team, you're representing your unit. And what are those decorum skills you need to have at events so that you can develop networks with teammates that might be outside your normal operational circle, or how do you ensure how you engage with other teammates so you can learn more about the world you're in? And so it's important that we establish that decorum focus and looking forward to how we can squeeze that in into the complicated lives of all of our cadets as we move forward. And then, just to reinforce on the critical thinking, I've already talked about the three minors we added, but I'm proud to say that we're in close coordination right now with Gen. Tullos at Air University and about to sign the memorandum of understanding where we will start a beta test for offering master's degree classes at the United States Air Force Academy, with the long-term intent of offering master's degrees at United States Air Force Academy under the Air Force Institute of Technology certification. So we have much to learn, but the doorway is open, and I can tell you from looking at so many of our cadets that come in with 20, 30, 40 college credit hours already, I think we have cadets that are ready to take on that journey, and I look forward to giving an update on that after we get through some of our initial how does this work process. So just to summarize: Our mission, our vision, our priorities are delivering what we need. And it's those warrior leaders that are ready on Day 1 in our Air Force and Space Force. And thanks to our amazing team, whether it be in the senior leader team, but more importantly, those incredible permanent party that are working long hours, whether it's in Fairchild Hall, Sijan Hall, Vandenberg Hall, in the tunnels, in the heat plant, in the Child Development Center, down at Clune Arena, out in Jacks Valley — our permanent party are crushing it, and it's important because our nation deserves the best leaders that we can give the 330,000 airmen and guardians that are standing watch for our nation. Thank you.   Naviere Walkewicz Thank you for sharing the mission brief. I think many of us as graduates think we know what happens at the Academy, but you actually sharing what you accomplished in just a year is a bit mind blowing, sir.   Gen. Bauernfeind Thank you. And I, at times, am concerned at how fast we are moving, but I also know that we must move this fast. The adversaries are watching us, and they are choosing when is the right time to test our nation. And so in order to achieve peace through strength, we must display that deterrence, that warfighting ethos, that warfighting capability. So we keep our adversaries waking up every single morning going, “Today is not today to test the United States.”   Naviere Walkewicz Yes, sir, that is right on point. Yes, sir. Well, I would like to thank you in advance for taking on additional questions from our alumni and our graduate community. So if we might start, general, with some of the information across various channels that cuts about to our academics and the Department of Faculty, what would you be willing to share about the civilian workforce reductions and any next to the Academy's academic faculty?   Gen. Bauernfeind First and foremost, the reduction of civilians is not just civilian faculty. It's through all civilians at the United States Air Force Academy, and as we're tracking, throughout the entire Department of Defense. What makes it a little more challenging at the United States Air Force Academy is we have so many different civilian teammates, from firefighters to childcare workers to coaches to headquarters staff, personnel and faculty. And as we lean into the aspect, the conversations about all of our civilian teammates. The first challenge that we faced is historically, the United States Air Force Academy has been over our civilian paid budget, and we've received great support from the Department of Air Force to address our over execution. This year is a little different, and so that has to be a baseline consideration as we understand that— that we have to hire and maintain civilian teammates within the budget that the American public has given us as a lean forward. And to that point, thank you to the Association of Graduates and the Foundation, as well as other Academy-focused foundations that have provided volunteer and funded volunteer support to give us that additional margin of excellence that helps us mitigate this matter. With respect to fiscal year '25, our Air Force is going through a reduction of civilian personnel to the tune of 5,000 billets. Of those 5,000 billets, the portion of the United States Air Force Academy was a part of was a 140 billets. And as we have moved through that reduction of 140 billets, we identified 104 billets as we went through our prioritization that were unencumbered or empty, but lower priority. Unfortunately, there are 36 billets that were encumbered, so someone inside of that billet as we move forward. And the goal with that is to continually work over the coming months of how we can move teammates laterally into open billets, either at the United States Air Force Academy or other locations. So we keep their expertise inside of the greater Air Force, Space Force enterprise, and our A1 team continues to work that aspect. But it's also making sure that we're being very clear with our teammates that when those billets become unfunded, at some point without funding, we're having to pay for that billet via other means. And so it's important for us to have frank conversations with our teammates, to say, “Update your resume. Start looking. At some point this will move forward.” With respect to our faculty members, 16 took advantage of the government's deferred resignation program, which was a well-funded early retirement program which allowed them to leave in the spring under and basically on admin leave and retain their pay to later in the fall/winter timeframe as that moves forward. We also had three that already had planned retirements, so they were moving forward. Unfortunately, we see a hiring freeze so no backfill. But also three whose terms are many of our senior faculty, our term employees, at the end of their term came. And so we have backfilled them with active-duty and Reserve military faculty to keep our academic progress going forward. And thanks to our dean and their team, they are, you know, quickly adjusting, but they are making the changes they need to ensure that we continue to offer the majors that we promised through the Class of '26 and continue to offer the courses as we move forward. For the fall semester, in addition to the three minors we've added, we've also added four additional classes, and there are 10 classes of the 753 in our course of instruction, there are 10 that we will not offer in the fall semester, but we will continue to still move forward.   Naviere Walkewicz Yes, sir, thank you for that. You talked about backfills. Can you talk about some of the most important competencies for those instructors, as they were backfilling these positions right?   Gen. Bauernfeind As I testified to the Senate earlier this spring, the two most important things to me inside of our classroom is: One is subject matter expertise, and we value the subject matter expertise brought to us by our professors, associate professors, our assistant professors, our permanent professors, our senior military faculty, and the depth they provide, initially with a master's degree, but more importantly, those Ph.D.s that were an extreme depth of that subject matter expertise. But also as a military service academy— that operationally relevant experience, how do they apply what they're learning in the classroom into their futures in the Air Force and Space Force, whether that be in labs on operational units and future battlefields, and how they can connect that to the future. And we have many of our civilian faculty are also veterans, who are able to bring that strong connection to bear as it moves forward.   Naviere Walkewicz Yes, sir. Well, you mentioned you were adding a couple a few minors. Have there been any majors that have been removed from the program, and has this affected our accreditation in any way?   Gen. Bauernfeind No, ma'am, no majors have been impacted during this time. Every single year, we go through a curriculum review, and we have a curriculum review committee where we will adjust as we move forward based upon guidance we receive from the Air Force and Space Force, but also what demand signals we're seeing from our cadets. You know what they're signing up for. But that is just an annual aspect to make sure that we have the right instructor core to support the curriculum we need to develop and educate our future leaders what the Air Force and Space Force is expecting. But zero majors have been eliminated from the United States Air Force Academy.   Naviere Walkewicz Thank you, sir for clearing that up.   Gen. Bauernfeind Oh, and accreditation. We're in a good spot with accreditation. We maintain continual conversation with our accrediting bodies, whether it be the Higher Learning Commission or several of the engineering- or STEM-focused accrediting bodies such as ABET, we're still in a good spot. In fact, this year, we just approved our quality initiative, which is a key aspect to sustaining not only our accreditation, but showing that we're continuing to improve ourselves, and that quality initiative will focus strongly on data science, throughout all of our curriculum.   Naviere Walkewicz Yes, sir. I think that's wonderful. I know a lot of graduates were, you know, maybe didn't have all the information, so I think that's wonderful that you just shared that. Something interesting you talked about your brief was some master's, a beta testing for a master's program, working with AFIT. Can you expand a bit more about that? And then do you see the Academy becoming a five-year institution, or we will stay four years, 47 months?   Gen. Bauernfeind Right now, I believe that we will still stay a 47-month program because our academic program is 47 months; our athletic program is 47 months, and most importantly, our leadership development and military program is 47 months. For the AFIT program, the vision is — these amazing young Americans come in with so much academic credit. Many of them now are part of the Martinson Scholar Program. And thanks to Mr. Martinson's great support, we have a program that can focus on them going even further. What we can offer them now, the majority are taking multiple majors and multiple minors. What if, in the future, you didn't want to do multiple majors or minors, but you want to go and start on your master's degree, which many other institutes of higher learning are offering in a parallel aspect? And so in conversation with Gen. Tullos, how can we start allowing cadets as early as their junior year start taking master's programs and achieve what would be required? Initial assessment is we will have some that can probably achieve it in 47 months, but probably the greater group will need to stay the Academy for maybe six or 12 more months as a second lieutenant to finish up their AFIT courseware. So they would stop their 47-month USAFA program, but continue with their master's program in the classroom in Fairchild and finish out their master's here. Is the vision— and we're working through this. I want to be very clear that this is beta. We have a lot to learn in this. And from my perspective, as I work with the Air Force to get greater support for this, this is going to be a strong cost saver for the Air Force. When our Air Force officers go to get master's degree, as a general rule, they are out of their operational career field for two years as they go to execute their 18-month AFIT program, plus two associated PCSs. Now we show not only a time saving, but a cost savings. And now these second lieutenants are entering, a portion of them, are entering their air force or Space Force with a master's degree. And it is not uncommon for many of our second lieutenants right now to even start their initial training, depending on what training is available until the spring of the next year after they graduate. So I see a strong promise, but we've got a lot of work to do to make it a reality.   Naviere Walkewicz Yes, sir. Well, that's creative and innovative thinking right there. I think that we're very excited to hear more about that, especially as the beta testing moves forward. Sir, maybe we can move into the warfighting realm. Graduates have been very interested in the renewed focus on warfighting that you've taken over the past year. What recent programs or military training taking place at USAFA right now are really supporting this development of the warfighter. Ready to lead on Day 1?   Gen. Bauernfeind So I believe we've always had a strong foundation of warfighting training, whether it be our airmanship programs, our powered flight programs, our jump programs, our special warfare programs and basic cadet training and cadet survival. But we're building upon that, and we're adding to those as great examples. As discussed earlier, if we can fight for the ammunition, we will have every single cadet qualify on both weapons every single year. The Class of '29 for the M18, the pistol, they qualified at a rate at about 65%. For the M4, the long gun, at a rate of 93%. I'm very proud of those numbers, because many of those young men and women— that was the first time they touched a weapon in their lives. And now, if they do it three more times before they graduate, those qualification rates are going to skyrocket, and they're going to have the confidence, when they deploy into harm's way, of their weapons. Additionally, thanks to the great work by the Cadet Wing, we have received 4,000 sets of chemical gear. And so not only in basic training, are they learning how to establish a forward operating base, defend it, but we're going past the days of where we walked into a tent, took our mask off and then dealt with the wonderful fluids that came out of our bodies. But now, going forward, to how are you going to conduct ATSO operations, or the ability to survive and operate in deployed locations with chemical gear on? And we're very proud to partake in some of that training with the basic cadets, and they are really taking to understanding what is required. And then the final aspect is, as discussed, the cadet warfighter instructor course, is acknowledging that to be really good at those items, we need some subject matter expertise. But the subject matter expertise required to lead, train and certify 4,000 cadets every year, we have to rely on cadet leaders, and as discussed, they're in the field as we speak in the inaugural cadet warfighter instructor course. And I look forward to seeing the feedback of how they will come back and do the squadrons. And tying that back to the cadets wanting more ownership of their training — the intent is 12 cadets inside of each cadet squadron that will now take on the responsibility through the academic year of that warfighter training that we will assess in the fall CULEX, and the ultimate assessment in the spring CULEX.   Naviere Walkewicz Sir, it really shows how you're building that expertise within the squadron to support the squadron commander so they really are taking care of their people. I think that's outstanding.   Gen. Bauernfeind And very excited about it.  And I just want to say thank you again, because it was due to the generosity of the Foundation that got us the seed to start the automation, with 29 Group 2, the smaller UAVs, as we see automation and all monitor warfighting, unleashing the cadets on how they're going to use those UAVs to defend their forward operating bases, to understand what's across the ridgeline as they move forward. And very excited to see where the cadets will take us in this, because I'm sure they're gonna be far more innovative than my generation.   Naviere Walkewicz Our generation, sir, yes, sir. Well, you talked about the four-class system and I think that was really relevant for our graduates to hear. How are cadets feeling motivated through this process? And have you seen them evolve over the past year since you started implementing that?   Gen. Bauernfeind I think the first aspect was— it took them time to truly understand what we were laying out as it went forward. And every year we do this, we will get a little more advanced at the end of the day. I think our four-degrees understood it. That was good. It was that they understood what it meant to be a teammate. What it meant to be a teammate, follower, and that was an easier aspect to develop them through. The team leaders at the senior NCO level for the two-degrees and the firsties as unit leaders, they started understanding that. The biggest challenge we saw was with the three-degrees. What does it mean to be a frontline, engaged supervisor? And we have to troop lead them through, “This is what it means to be a frontline, engaged supervisor.” That they are your subordinate. But to take best care of your people, you should know where they're from. You should know about their parents. You should know their dog's name. You should know where their birthday is. You should know when their next chemistry test is, when their next PT test is. And while you may not be able to tutor them on chemistry, you can gather and motivate them for, “Hey, if the PT test is three weeks out, let's go run together. Let's go get on the pull up bar together. Let's, you know, be engaged.” And the more you know your teammates, what I offer to you, whether it be in morning formation, noon meal formation, at the tables at Mitchell Hall, in the halls of your squadron, inside of 30 seconds you're gonna see your teammates, your subordinate, and you're gonna know if they're gonna have a good day or bad day, because you're close enough to know, just quickly, OK, they're gonna have a great day or something's going on. “Let's go take a walk. Let's figure out what's driving you down. And how can I, as a frontline engaged supervisor, start taking barriers out of your way?”   Naviere Walkewicz I mean, I can only imagine that giving them more pride, even now that they understand, “This is how I can be a frontline supervisor,” when you give us very specific examples. Well, if we might shift gears a little bit to admissions and graduation. Since we just had a class join us, and we had a class recently graduate, maybe you can tell us how the Class of '29 how they're faring so far.   Gen. Bauernfeind The Class of '29 are doing great. I am impressed by their professionalism. I'm impressed by their energy. And as you saw, as we just did the recent march back, they were loud and proud. That was really good as it went forward. And for the Class of '29, I'm proud to report that they are faring very well. Just so everybody knows, we had over 9,000 completed applications. We offered 1,411 offers of admission, and 1,112 took the oath on I-Day as it moved forward. We had cadets from every single state and territories of Guam and Puerto Rico, as well as 12 international cadets that joined us. Of those, 117 from Prep School came up the Hill. And then 76 are, you know, part of a prior Long Blue Line as it's coming forward as it goes. Of the Class of '29, 55% were in the top 10% of their class, and 96 were all invited on varsity sports. Right now we are, as coming out of basic training, of 1,095 and during that time, they're still going strong. We did have some teammates that didn't have a full appreciation of what military life was, or may not have been as impassioned about the Academy as their parents, and so we've parted ways with a few small numbers. But during basic training, I can proudly say— we talked about the qualifications on the weapons, but also say they took their very first PFT test, and looking back over the last five years, they, on average, scored 15 points higher than the last five years. And that's a testament to two teams, I would offer to you, well, not only the cadets themselves, who had to do it, but all of our admissions team that's out there saying, “Hey, congratulations, you've been admitted. Start preparing now.” But also our athletic director, athletic department team that was out there giving them good, focused training to prepare them for those physical fitness tests. And they just took PFT No. 2 a couple days ago, and we're accessing the data but all indications are it's trending up.   Naviere Walkewicz No, yes, sir. Those are outstanding numbers. As a country, we're seeing admission rates and the challenge of getting the best of the best into the door, the fact that we had such wonderful numbers coming in, and we're attriting very low, I think it's something we should be proud of.   Gen. Bauernfeind I'm very proud of it, but acknowledge it's a tough— it's a knife fight to get the best of the brightest, and so thanks to Air Education and Training Command and Accessions Command, we are going to try a new marketing contract this year to further make sure that the amazing young Americans throughout all four corners truly understand the opportunity in front of them with the Air Force Academy, and make sure they're aware of it. So I'm excited to see how that marketing campaign goes to even up our numbers, even a little bit more.   Naviere Walkewicz Awesome. Yes, sir. Well, sir, in the realm of athletics, last year, you shared an emphasis for cadet support and participation at more of our athletic events. What have you seen come from that? And what can you share about athletics, intramurals most currently?   Gen. Bauernfeind It's one of our three mission sets: athletics. And it's not just for our IC athletes. I jokingly tell some of the teammates to say, “Tell me about a cadets life.” It's like, well, they have three full time jobs, a military job, an academic job and an athletic job, and they really get a bachelor of science in time management. And that's as we go forward. But I've asked the athletic department, you know, during COVID, our intramural program atrophied, and now we have to see, how can we really enhance our intramurals as it goes forward. But I'm especially also proud of our intercollegiate athletes, 30 intercollegiate programs. When we talk about the blood, sweat, tears, the hard work that our IC athletes representing 25% of the Cadet Wing — they are really jumping in hard. And my expectations as the superintendent is all 30 of those programs earn home field advantage. And so we've recently published an operation order to the team as we look into the fall sports. And the basic synthesis of it is, protect this house. We will come strong to all home events, and we're working through that aspect. And so as a whole, not only will we figure out how to be strong at all of our home events, whether it be, you know, this fall with women's soccer, men's soccer, cross country, water polo, volleyball and, importantly, football. And proud to report here at our AOG that the entire Cadet Wing will be marching onto the football field and protecting this house and our amazing stadium at home games.   Naviere Walkewicz Yes, sir, thank you for that. That's fantastic. Sir, you know, you can't come out of this Air Force Academy, this 18,000 acres of amazing Academy, without seeing some of the changes, whether it's facilities or capabilities. You know, of course, there are two questions we hear often about the chapel in the box. When will the chapel be done? And then also, you know, what about the visitor center? When can we actually get into it?   Gen. Bauernfeind No, those are two great questions, Naviere. First of all, I think that the box has become so routine there that we received a formal request from cadet. So how can we have a — no kidding — drive in movie theater screen? And the request came in at $300,000 so we thought the prudent action was, let's get the chapel done so we can take the box down instead of putting up a new theater. But right now, for our chapel, again, it is an amazing piece of architecture, and to maintain the historical relevance and the hard work that went behind it, it's going to take time. Right now, we're on schedule for 2028 and we are focused on making sure all the involved teams take every single day out and we can find out as soon as possible when we have any sort of deviation, so we can swarm it. And so as such, we hold monthly meetings with IMSC — the Installation Management Sustainment Command — Air Force Civil Engineering Command, the Corps of Engineers, to go through all of our military construction projects so that if something comes up, we are aware of it within days of the issue, and we swarm it together instead of letting issues boil for a long period of time. And so excited to get the chapel back open as such a spiritual icon of the United States Air Force Academy. And spirituality is so important to the holistic leader's readiness— not just physical, mental, social, family, but also spiritual. And I think it will be important for that development. And then to the visitor center. We're on track to open up in May of '26 before the graduation, and excited to finally open that visitor center and share with a much wider audience what all of our alumni and we know of the amazing story behind the Air Force Academy, all the amazing exemplars who have come from our Academy. And I will share with you, I'm excited to get a whole ton of young Americans inside the visitor center so they can start getting excited about being part of the Class of 2032, 2038 and beyond.   Naviere Walkewicz Yes, sir. Well, they say things are worth the wait, good things are worth the wait, and I think the interactive displays that are gonna come with this are really gonna help people understand truly what our cadets go through.     Gen. Bauernfeind Absolutely. And thank you again to the AOG and Foundation. As money got tight, the Foundation came forward and we now have that beautiful glider, you know, in position that shows what all of our cadets are working through.   Naviere Walkewicz Yes, sir. Well, our sole existence is to support the Academy, serve our grads and prserve the heritage. Well, sir, I'm cognizant of your time. We're so grateful you're here today. Mind if I ask you one final question?   Gen. Bauernfeind Please do.   Naviere Walkewicz What's on your mind that you want to leave with our graduates to be thinking about when you think about our Academy and your vision and mission. What can you leave us with?   Gen. Bauernfeind I just want to thank the Long Blue Line. We are 55,000-plus strong. There have been so many of our alumni, every single one of us that have gone through this journey. And we're proud of this institution. And I just say, continue to support this amazing institution. Spread the good word of what our Air Force Academy is, because we want amazing young women, amazing young men that are in your communities, in your churches, at your work centers, to say, “Hey, have you heard about the Air Force Academy? That's the place for you, because our nation deserves the best.” And just a final thanks to the alumni, and as a superintendent, I'm proud to be in this position with my amazing teammates. And any alumni that wants to ask me, “What's the rest of the story?” I am always available. Please hit me up in the hallways, on the Terrazzo, on the field, and I look forward to your conversations.   Naviere Walkewicz This has been a special edition of the Air Force Gradcast. On behalf of the Long Blue Line Podcast Network and the U.S. Air Force Academy Association & Foundation, thank you for joining us. It's been a privilege to hear directly from Lt. Gen. Bauernfeind and to share updates and perspectives relevant to graduates across our Academy community. Thank you for your continued connection, commitment and support of our United States Air Force Academy. I'm Lt. Col. (Ret.) Naviere Walkewicz, Class of '99. Until next time.       The Long Blue Line Podcast Network is presented by the U.S. Air Force Academy Association & Foundation  

Our intercalation series is back with another episode! Join Hannah as she talks to Cam McIntosh about what it's like to intercalate in Medical Education at Nottingham! This episode delves deep into Cam's very own experience with transitioning from Medicine at Bristol to Medical Education at Nottingham. Learn more about the course, the application process and top tips to make the most out of an intercalation. Whether you are thinking about intercalating as part of a medicine degree, already on your intercalation journey or just interested in what this pathway into a medical career holds. This episode is definitely worth a listen!

Welcome back to our intercalation series! Join Afrida as she talks to Cathy Dominic, a finalist at Barts & the London and an incoming AFP doctor about what it's like to externally intercalate at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine. Learn more about the application process for an intercalated masters degree in Infectious Diseases here! Find out about dissertation topics, publishing research and lab work as well as top tips from any aspiring applicants.

Join Afrida as she talks to Sid about his experience intercalating at Barts in laparoscopic surgery. This is a great episode if you're interested in any kind of surgical intercalation as Sid talks about his experience with the course as Barts including managing theory and practical work including training in some surgical skills. He also talks about his experience applying for similar courses at different universities and how he found learning to work independently with some dissertation tips.

Our very first intercalated masters episode! Tune in to hear Wahaj, a fourth-year medical student at Barts talk all about his iMSc (distinction) in Critical Care and share some great tips on how to make the most of a year away from medical school. Wahaj is interested in cardiothoracic surgery, and has published a book chapter as well as over 10 peer-reviewed articles in various cardiovascular journals. He has also presented his work at multiple national conferences. Wahaj is the regional lead for London, for the British Undergraduate Cardiovascular Association.

In this episode, we take a deep dive with Major Chip Litchfield about the policy update with MICAP Prime and how YOU can dent the universe. For over three years, our MICAP Prime pathfinder has been tested, championed, and supported by many change agents throughout the logistics enterprise. Major Chip Litchfield, a Logistics Readiness Officer and the thought leader who first conceptualized MICAP Prime, hypothesized “What if we could guarantee next-day delivery on EVERY in-stock, aircraft-grounding MICAP in the continental united states by borrowing a page from the #Amazon Prime playbook?” With Tesseract's partnership, Major Litchfield had an opportunity to collaborate with mission partners at the Supply Chain Operations Wing, IMSC, and DLA, ultimately earning the chance to brief the Logistics Board and gain approval to start Tesseract's first pathfinder named MICAP Prime. During the initial testing at only a handful of bases, we fulfilled over 500 lateral 1A MICAPs with a 20% faster response time on C-5, KC-135, and F-16 weapon systems. Tesseract partnered with Headquarters Air Force/A4LR Cargo Distribution Policy Owners, AFIMSC, and Supply Chain Operations Wing Airmen to implement a policy change to AFI 24-602 Volume II and to inbound cargo procedures. Notably, “to the maximum extent possible N1A MICAPs should be moved by next day air or the fastest most reliable method” and “N1A MICAPS will be processed before all other shipments”. In other words, Airmen are empowered to make decisions by evaluating the effectiveness – rather than just efficiency in cost – when shipping aircraft grounding MICAPs.

Iran seized a South Korean-flagged oil tanker in the Strait of Hormuz hours before announcing it would increase its nuclear activities, as tensions in the region mount in the final days of Donald Trump’s U.S. presidency. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said it detained the Hankuk Chemi vessel at 10 a.m. local time on Monday “due to repeated violations of marine environmental laws.” It’s the latest in a series of shipping incidents in the Persian Gulf, where several vessels have been attacked or seized in recent years. The events have unfolded against a broader backdrop of rising anxiety in the Middle East as the Trump administration extended its offensive to weaken Iran and force it into deeper nuclear and military concessions. Concerns of more conflict have mounted in the final weeks before Joe Biden takes over in Washington, especially around the recent assassination of a top Iranian nuclear scientist and this week’s first anniversary of the killing of the country’s leading general. Iran’s army also announced large-scale drone exercises starting Tuesday following a weekend of defiant speeches accusing the U.S. of aggression. “By creating conditions of insecurity, Iran seeks to destabilize existing rules of law and order, challenging the Saudi and American coalitions which militarily control much of the Middle East,” Dryad Global, a maritime security firm, wrote. Iran’s announcement Monday that it would start processing uranium to 20% purity marks a further breach of a nuclear deal that Trump, who leaves office on Jan. 20, abandoned in 2018. That announcement came shortly after Washington decided to keep the USS Nimitz in the Persian Gulf because of “recent threats” from Iran’s leaders against Trump. The aircraft carrier had been set to leave the region. South Korea has sent an anti-piracy unit to the strait, the Seoul-based Yonhap News Agency reported, citing the country’s defense ministry. The Hankuk Chemi’s operator denied it had broken any environmental rules. The vessel was carrying 7,200 tons of petrochemicals from Jubail in Saudi Arabia when it was intercepted, the IRGC said. The guard corps took it to Bandar Abbas port in Iran, the semi-official Fars News Agency said. Crew members from Korea, Indonesia, Vietnam and Myanmar were arrested, according to Iran’s Tasnim News Agency. Iran’s Foreign Ministry later appeared to play down the incident, saying the seizure was related to a “technical issue.” Relations between Tehran and Seoul have been strained since the U.S. reimposed tough sanctions on Iran and banned countries, including major Asian customers, from buying its petroleum. Iran says it has at least $7 billion from oil sales trapped in South Korea and the funds are needed to purchase humanitarian goods, including coronavirus vaccines. South Korea is not a member of the International Maritime Security Construct, a maritime force created in 2019 in response to Iranian attacks and to protect sea lanes in the Middle East. Seoul has previously indicated a willingness to work with IMSC, though it has not requested assistance from the alliance so far, said an IMSC spokesman. The Hankuk Chemi was sailing to the United Arab Emirates port of Fujairah after loading at Jubail on Jan. 2, according to ship-tracking data compiled by Bloomberg. It veered off course in the Strait of Hormuz, a narrow stretch of water between the tip of Oman and Iran, and headed toward Bandar Abbas. U.K. Maritime Trade Operations, which serves as a link between the Royal Navy and commercial vessels operating in high-risk areas, said there had been “an interaction” between a merchant vessel and the Iranian authorities in the Strait of Hormuz between 6:15 a.m. and 7:33 a.m. London time. The U.S. Fifth Fleet, which is based in the region, is “monitoring the situation,” spokeswoman Commander Rebecca Rebarich said. On Dec. 31, a mine was discovered attached to the hull of an oil tanker off Iraq, near the Iranian border. A ship at the Saudi Red Sea port of Jeddah was hit by an explosion earlier in the month, which Riyadh labeled an act of terror.

Do ‘birds that fly instinctively swim’? Are self-evident truths easy to prove? When is ‘want to’ not ‘wanna’? Is verification easier than proof? Are proofs explanations? Is that why proofs are supposed to be elegant? Is reasoning algorithmic? Is there one Method to all reasoning? Are all ungrammatical sentences also unacceptable? When do sentences have ambiguous meanings? Can statements with long proofs be obvious? Does economy play a significant role in language constructions? Can human beings extract insights from verbose arguments? Are young kids born with some innate inductive principles? Is obviousness purely syntax dependent? Is the measure of (theory) simplicity language-dependent? What constitutes a valid proof system? Are all mathematical proof systems automatable? Why are certain mistakes never made? ‘Can’ we hit upon scientific Truth by chance? Has Language evolved? Can ‘explanation’ be given without ‘understanding’, but not vice versa? Why is proving absence (=falseness) often harder than proving presence (=truth)? &, how might intuition, syntax, and proof systems change in the future? SynTalk thinks about these & more questions using concepts from linguistics (Dr. Tanmoy Bhattacharya, University of Delhi, New Delhi), theoretical computer science (Prof. Meena Mahajan, IMSc, HBNI, Chennai), & philosophy (Dr. Kit Patrick, Azim Premji University, Bangalore). Listen in...

Hosted by Will, Eiddwen and Rob || 3CR is proud to acknowledge the Kulin Nations as true owners and custodians of the lands from which we broadcast. We pay respect to their elders past and present and acknowledge that their sovereignty was never ceded and a treaty has yet to be signed ||[15:58] Dr Mat Hardy, Senior Lecturer in Middle East Studies at Deakin University joins us in discussion and analysis on the Morrison Government’s decision to send a war ship to join the U.S led International Maritime Security Construct (IMSC) in support of freedom of navigation in the Strait of Hormuz. [29:45] Bevan from the Independent and Peaceful Australia Network (IPAN) also comes on to talk to us about the reasons behind the Morrison Government joining the U.S led IMSC mission, as well as to find out more about the context around why exactly Morrison wants Australia to get involved.[50:40] We listen to Tim Kennedy from the National Union of Workers talk about the importance of unions taking action to deal with climate action to work in favour of giving jobs to workers.  [60:00] Dr Kate Dooley who’s a research fellow at the Australian German Climate and Energy College at the University of Melbourne talks to us about her research between science and policy in order to address climate change. We also speak to Dr Dooley about pro-forestation and the importance of boosting the resilience of existing forests, rather than planning new forests. [74:40] Tania Brugeura comes onto the show to talk about public art’s role in our communities. On the 30thand 31stAugust, Monash University Museum of Art and Monash Art Projects will be presenting a two day event called ‘Let’s Go Outside Making Art Public – The good The Bad and The Transformational of Public Art’. On today’s show the event is discussed with Tania, who is one of the key note speakers of the event. Head to http://www.monash.edu/muma/events/2019/Lets-Go-Outside-Making-Art-Public to find out more.  Music:Lianne La Havas – GhostBrendan Maclean – Ghost  Norman Greenbaum - Spirit In The sky  

Howdy all! And welcome to Year 4 of this website and podcast! It was 3 years ago on Jan 4, 2015, when the first post and podcast went up.s Oh, how things have changed! This website was originally just a place to put the podcast. But since then, I've add playlists from Spotify, YouTube, SoundCloud, and BandCamp, and soon ReverbNation, to our repertoire! And also, on the occasional post about Other Sources, you can hear and find Iowa music, like compilation albums, other podcasts, other websites, among other places. And now, starting since last month, we have added a new interview podcast, Your Own Private Iowa, featuring one- to two-hour interviews from Richard Sutton with Iowa musicians. And once a week, we present a video of a live performance from an Iowa jazz or classical act on Jazzman Joe Videos. And once a month, we present a video of an alternative act on our Fester Rage Videos. And soon, we will be reprinting Culture Myth articles from former Cityview music writer, Chad Taylor! So overall, a pretty good year here at IMSC! But as for this podcast, we present the songs that were YOUR favorites, plus one of mine. This was determined by what posts and podcasts got the most views and/or listens. Then the song to represent that podcast was picked by which song's post on the Iowa Music Showcase Songs websites got the most views. TRACK LISTING: For more information, click on the link below the track. Opening - Iowa Music Showcase Theme by Dylan Boyle (http://iowamusicshowcasesongs.blogspot.com/2015/01/intro-and-closing-dylan-boyle.html) Song 1 - "Nets" by Clay Carnivore (the most viewed post this year on the Iowa Music Showcase Songs website) (http://iowamusicshowcasesongs.blogspot.com/2017/07/ep-49-song-1-nets-by-clay-carnivore.html) Song 2 - "Weihnachten (Frohlocket, Ihf Volker, No. 1 of Sechs Spruche, Op. 79)" by The Wartburg Choir (from the most viewed post on this website, "EPISODE 48: Iowa Classical Music") (http://iowamusicshowcasesongs.blogspot.com/2017/06/ep-48-song-2-weihnachten-frohlocket-ihr.html) Song 3 - "Say It with Me" by JC//jp (from the most viewed podcast episode on our Archive.org page, "EPISODE 42: The Acts of Iowa Music Showcase Live") (http://iowamusicshowcasesongs.blogspot.com/2017/01/ep-42-song-9-say-it-with-me-by-jcjp.html) Song 4 - ""Happy" by Far From Innocent (from our most listened to podcast episode on our SoundCloud page, "EPISODE 45 - Iowa Blues and Blues Rock") (http://iowamusicshowcasesongs.blogspot.com/2017/02/ep-43-song-5-happy-by-far-from-innocent.html) Song 5 - "Amidala" by Lame (from our most viewed video on our Facebook page, "EPISODE 46 - Iowa Star Wars Music, Part 4 of 9: May the Fortieth Be With You") (http://iowamusicshowcasesongs.blogspot.com/2017/04/ep-46-song-5-amidala-by-lame.html) Song 6 - "30 Days" by Men of Science and Faith (from the most viewed podcast episode on our YouTube channel, "EPISODE 44: Iowa Indie and Alternative Music") (http://iowamusicshowcasesongs.blogspot.com/2017/03/ep-44-song-7-30-days-by-men-of-science.html) Song 7 - "One Man's Ceiling Is Another Man's Floor" by Philbo King (from the most listened to podcast episode on our BandCamp page, "EPISODE 45 - Iowa Blues and Blues Rock") (http://iowamusicshowcasesongs.blogspot.com/2017/02/ep-43-song-5-happy-by-far-from-innocent.html) Song 8 - "Set to Stun" by Echo 3 (MY favorite of the past year) (http://iowamusicshowcasesongs.blogspot.com/2017/05/ep-47-song-7-and-theme-set-for-stun-by.html) Closing - Iowa Music Showcase Christmas Theme by Dylan Boyle and Dan OlderMusicGeek (http://iowamusicshowcasesongs.blogspot.com/2015/12/iowa-music-showcase-theme-christmas.html) All songs, artwork, and photography are copyrighted by the performers, composers, artists, and photographers, and used by their kind permission.

Ho ho ho! We bring the last of this year's Holidays episodes. And as in previous years, this episode features some situations and language that some of you may not want to hear. So you have been warned. The rest of you I hope enjoy this last collection of festive musical frivolities. And be back next week as we present a whole bunch of playlists featuring Iowa's own songs of the season! IMSC posts featuring the holidays: http://iowamusicshowcase.blogspot.com/search/label/holidays Art by John Leech https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Leech_(caricaturist) TRACK LISTING: For more information, click on the link below the track. Opening - Iowa Music Showcase Christmas Theme by Dylan Boyle and Dan OlderMusicGeek (http://iowamusicshowcasesongs.blogspot.com/2015/12/iowa-music-showcase-theme-christmas.html) Song 1 - "A Collage of Impressions" by The Poison Control Center s (https://iowamusicshowcasesongs.blogspot.com/2017/12/ep-58-song-1-collage-of-impressions-by.html) Song 2 - "Eggnog and Beer" by Less Poetry and Pizza Babe (https://iowamusicshowcasesongs.blogspot.com/2017/12/ep-58-song-2-eggnog-and-beer-by-less.html) Song 3 - "High on Christmas" by Dan Bee (https://iowamusicshowcasesongs.blogspot.com/2017/12/ep-58-song-3-high-on-christmas-by-dan.html) Song 4 - "Distracted When You Kiss" by Gloom Balloon (https://iowamusicshowcasesongs.blogspot.com/2017/12/ep-58-song-4-distracted-when-you-kiss.html) Song 5 - "Happy Holidays" by Bryan Baker (https://iowamusicshowcasesongs.blogspot.com/2017/12/ep-58-song-5-happy-holidays-by-bryan.html) Song 6 - "Christmas Makes Pants Happy" by Keepers of the Carpet (https://iowamusicshowcasesongs.blogspot.com/2017/12/ep-58-song-6-christmas-makes-pants.html) Song 7 - "When No One Calls on Christmas" by Tuff Jerks (https://iowamusicshowcasesongs.blogspot.com/2017/12/ep-58-song-7-when-no-one-calls-on.html) Song 8 - "Party of the Party" by Karen Meat (https://iowamusicshowcasesongs.blogspot.com/2017/12/ep-58-song-8-party-of-party-by-karen.html) Song 9 - "Merry Christmas, Bats" by Personal Vendetta (https://iowamusicshowcasesongs.blogspot.com/2017/12/ep-58-song-9-merry-christmas-bats-by.html) Closing - Iowa Music Showcase Christmas Theme by Dylan Boyle and Dan OlderMusicGeek (http://iowamusicshowcasesongs.blogspot.com/2015/12/iowa-music-showcase-theme-christmas.html) All songs, artwork, and photography are copyrighted by the performers, composers, artists, and photographers, and used by their kind permission. Next week: We present with playlists from various websites featuring holiday music from our own state's musicians! Next episode: The favorites of 2017! PREVIOUSLY ON IOWA MUSIC SHOWCASE: Three weeks ago... PLAYLISTS: Thanksgiving - Iowa Style - http://iowamusicshowcase.blogspot.com/2017/11/playlists-thanksgiving-iowa-style.html One month ago... Just what the heck is on this website! - http://iowamusicshowcase.blogspot.com/2017/11/just-what-heck-is-on-this-website.html Three months ago... OTHER SOURCES: An Iowa Noise Music Compilation - http://iowamusicshowcase.blogspot.com/2017/09/other-sources-iowa-noise-music.html Six months ago... PLAYLISTS: Random Iowa Music BandCamp Playlist 1 - http://iowamusicshowcase.blogspot.com/2017/06/other-sources-random-iowa-music.html One year ago... Episode 39: Happy Hawkeye Holidays 2016, Part 2 of 2 - The Cola Edition - http://iowamusicshowcase.blogspot.com/2016/12/episode-39-happy-hawkeye-holidays-2016_11.html Two years ago... Episode 21: Happy Hawkeye Holidays 2015, the Flurries Edition - http://iowamusicshowcase.blogspot.com/2015/12/episode-21-happy-hawkeye-holidays-2015.html Iowa Music Showcase can be listened to and/or downloaded on the following sites: Home page: http://iowamusicshowcase.blogspot.com/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Iowa-Music-Showcase/364796883703114

Welcome to Episode 14!!! This episode is brought to you by generous donations from listeners like you. Maybe… maybe not. In this episode we are looking forward to bringing you some technical information in as short a time frame as possible. There is no way to cover all the technical information that comprises your motorcycle in one hour. We’re going to start out with some simple things that are overlooked more often than they are checked. In an effort to progress down a logical path (for once!) we’ll start with your chain and end up with your death. WHOA! What the!? Yeah… you’ll see Beginning with your chain, we explain what those numbers on the package are saying about your chain. When you are looking to buy a replacement chain there is a series of numbers that appear that describe the qualities of the chain. The number sequence is usually two triplets like this : 520-130 The first number is the pitch. We’ll explain what that means. The second number is the number of links in the chain. I don’t think we tell you that. For more info and a visual reference we looked up some online stuff for you: Chain pitch/size video Metric chain sizes too We also talk about how your chain can be incorrectly aligned or symptomatic of poor tire alignment. If you rely on your adjusters to do the job, you may be selling yourself short. Adjusters can be way off, especially on a used or aging bike. If you’ve never heard of “stringing” to get proper alignment, here is a visual guide: http://www.motorcyclistonline.com/how-to/how-to-check-front-and-rear-motorcycle-wheel-alignment-mc-garage-tech-tips Tire alignment segues right into tire wear, because if not properly aligned, your tires will wear all weird and shit. It could also lead to scalloping and/or cupping, flat-spotting or tracking problems. Learn how to check your tires and find out your tires birthday, and where the tread wear indicator is. Poor chain and tire maintenance can cause you to crash. Learn all you need to know about that misfortune below: Visit this page for the following reports: http://www.smarter-usa.org/research/crash-studies/ Hurt Report and IMSC’90 Summary California Lane Splitting Study NHTSA Crash Causation Pilot Study Lane Splitting 2015 MAIDS report British IDS Thanks for hanging out with us! Please send us your recorded story about what part motorcycling plays in your life to: creativeridingpodcast@gmail.com with “SSS” is the subject line. also find us on: www.Facebook.com/CreativeRidingPodcast Twitter @Creative_Rider www.creative-riding.tumblr.com www.creative-riding.com leave us a review on iTunes, send a smoke signal, or scream, “Creative-Riding” at everyone you pass.

Traffic congestion impedes our mobility, pollutes the air, wastes fuel, and hampers economic growth. While physical bottlenecks, overpopulation, weather, and construction can all lead to congestion, a key contributor to traffic congestion is road accidents - events that disrupt the normal flow of traffic. Reducing the impact of traffic accidents has been one of the primary objectives for transportation policy makers. In this talk, we present a novel machine learning framework to forecast how travel-time delays - caused by accidents - occur and progress in the transportation network. This research is conducted by correlating 4 years of historical traffic sensor and accident data archived under ADMS project developed - by METRANS and IMSC centers of USC - for Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (Metro). Speakers: Ugur Demiyurek Associate Director, Integrated Media Systems Center USC Viterbi Dingxiong Deng Ph. D student, Computer Science Department University of Southern California Ugur Demiryurek is Associate Director of Research at IMSC, and has M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Computer Science from USC. His research is focused on fundamental and applied data management with special interest in Geospatial Databases, Cloud Computing, and Machine Learning. He has been supported by grants from both government agencies (NSF, Caltrans, Metro) and industry partners (Microsoft Research, Oracle Labs, Intel, HP Labs). Demiryurek authored two book chapters and more than forty research articles since 2010 and holds three US patents. Prior to IMSC, Demiryurek worked for fortune 500 companies in database technology development and data scientist positions. He regularly serves on the program committee of various major database conferences including ACM SIGMOD, ACM SIGSPATIAL, IEEE ICDM, DASFAA, SSTD, and MDM, and is a member of IEEE and ACM.

Pinterest0 Facebook 0 Twitter 0 LinkedIn WhatsApp 0Shares “The Money is in the List” is something that you hear the moment you jump into internet marketing and it follows you whenever and wherever you go. And the fact that every experienced internet marketer tells you that the money is indeed in the list, goes to establish the fact that your list is your biggest asset and that it is the most important thing in your business. When I started my business, I never really cared about a list. Traffic generation was simple and Google Adwords and other ads networks were also very cheap. I built a lot of micro niche websites and I was able to generate huge amounts of traffic to these sites. I made and these sites did extremely well. But the biggest mistake that I did was – not build and email list. I never really cared about the “Money is in the list” thing because I was making money and that was all I cared. The next couple of years saw a lot of things change on the internet. The traffic to my sites dropped because they were not optimized and some of them did not even follow the guidelines from Google. Some got penalized and yet others dropped of the rankings. As traffic dropped, the money went down. And finally one day, by the time I could realize what was happening, pretty much all my sites were down. I am sure you don’t want to be in that situation. With the changing internet marketing world and the difficulty in generating traffic and visitors to your content and offers, the efforts that you are putting into generating every single visitor is huge. At the same time, the value of every single visitor coming to your website has increased. If you are not able to capture this visitor in the form of an email address, then you are losing a lot of money. If you haven’t yet started building your list, then start right away. Don’t waste time on planning and designing. Just launch it. Keep in mind that you will need some good and reliable tools in your list building efforts. I recommend using Aweber for your auto-responder. If you are looking for a self-hosted solution, you can use IMSC rapid mailer and use Amazon SES services to send your email. For building beautiful and high converting optin pages and landing pages, I recommend, Thrive Content Builder and Thrive leads. They are cost-effective and has a lot of features as well. Now, you have built your list. What next? Email Marketing Best Practices Building your list is important. It is equally important to manage it as well. One of the biggest mistakes that most people do is to ignore the list after you have built it. You don’t want a dead list where your subscribers don’t respond at all. Neither do you want to be building a list where your subscribers are unsubscribing faster than the rate at which they are subscribing. These 4 email marketing best practices that we are going to discuss today will help you build and manage an email list that is responsive and at the same time profitable. The Confirmation pages – I see a lot of people using the default subscription confirmation pages, which we also call the “thank-you” page, for the optin forms. These pages are hosted by the auto-responder services and have nothing but a message to the subscribers to confirm their email. This is sheer waste of a chance to better interact with you new subscribers. Build a custom thank-you page and give it your branding. You might want to personalize it while telling them who you are are. You might want to add a photograph of yours so that they know who you are. I prefer using this same photograph in almost all of my emails. People digest things better if presented visually. Rather than remembering my name, it will be easier for them to relate to my photograph. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/dkspeaks/message

SynTalk thinks about information, while constantly wondering about its physical nature and computability. Is there information in the universe irrespective of human beings or life? Does all the meaning come from a protocol, and what if there is no shared language? Does a protocol or a context need to pre exist? The concepts are derived off / from Laplace, Carnot, Boltzmann, Shannon, Ronald Fisher, Kolmogorov, T S Eliot, Warren Weaver, & Nørretranders, among others. We retrace the journey of the notion of information within (say) thermodynamics, electrical engineering, neurolinguistics, mathematics, and computational systems, & notice how the core departure was to think of it as measurable? Does the universe speak in one language? Does ignorance go down when information is received, and is ignorance analogous to disorder? Is entropy an anthropomorphic principle, as it assumes an underlying notion of order? How, in language, the norm (order) can be identified directly from a close study of the deviation from the norm (disorder). How the brain or any system may learn how to learn and negotiate meaning via ‘bootstrapping’? Is the nature of ‘input’ processing different from information processing as the neural networks are formed in a child’s brain? What makes data information for the receiver? Why does an internal combustion engine ‘have’ to dump out the disorder via the exhaust to direct order to the wheels? Can one think of information content as an objective ‘event cone’ with past and future imprinted in it? Is all time eternally present? Is there a fundamental unit (say, bit or qubit) of information, & is it discrete or continuous or both? How & why are the first and second language signals stored differently in the brain? What is the role played by shared context (exformation) and commonality in communication? Are there different mathematical theories of communication, information content and complexity? The links between wax, steam engines, Voyager, heads or tails, ‘motive power of fire’, critical period hypothesis, It from Bit, falling stones, the case of Chelsea’s misdiagnosis, Four Quartets, ‘I do’, heat death, & Schrodinger’s cat. Can we forget something if we explicitly want to? Does nature forget (information)? Will we drown in the crazy amount of information in the future, or will we develop new tools to handle complexity? Do we need to understand human mind & cognition better? Can we communicate with animals and (may be) aliens in the future? ‘If a lion could speak, we could not understand him’. The SynTalkrs are: Prof. Vaishna Narang (biolinguistics, JNU, New Delhi), Prof. Rajaram Nityananda (astrophysics, Azim Premji University, ex NCRA-TIFR, Bangalore), & Prof. R. Ramanujam (computer science, IMSc, Chennai).

SynTalk thinks about the interrelationships between wholes and parts in natural and conceptual systems, and wonders whether the part is inferred from the whole. Does a part (somehow) imply or expect the whole? The concepts are derived off / from Abhinavagupta, Newton, Kepler, Boltzmann, Boyle, Saussure, Turing, Manfred Eigen, P. W. Anderson, Chomsky, & Morris Halle, among others. In interactions between words, fundamental particles, molecules, cells, & phonemes, why are most combinations void? How do a finite number of parts create a dizzying array of wholes, and links with concepts such as historical contingency, surplus, entropy, sequencing, emergentism, & auto-catalysis? Why are transitions in biological, physical, ecological, social, and linguistic systems so tentative and statistical? Has the physics of the material world achieved a special kind of climax in the biological unit of life, & how the cell is not simply a bagful of chemicals. How the cell is both a part and a whole, & the context of cell division. Which is the most fundamental living part? How entropy comes about ‘only’ in systems of ‘many’ interacting particles. At what point can we start defining concepts such as pressure, volume, & temperature? Why certain molecular complexes self-emerge into functioning self sustaining evolving systems? Why literature does not simply describe the world, and how the non-existent also often make sense? In our daily linguistic behaviour, do we (fundamentally) use phonemes or words or sentences? How a word is a meaningful sequence of phonemes, and the similarities with gene sequencing; the difference between: ‘John killed the tiger’, & ‘the tiger killed John’. The sound patterns of language, & how any sound cannot come after one sound. Can one syllable be a whole in itself (bijakshara)? How a large chunk of the genome performs mundane functions, & discrimination results only from a handful of genes. Are carbon atoms in graphite and diamond identical in every single way, or do the atoms become something different? The links between rabbit’s horn, bureaucracy, multiverses, Lego toys, universal physical constants, Mesopotamian civilization, zebra, sky flower, existence, and time. The implications of an animal (whole) repeatedly developing into an animal (whole). How non linearity (in both deterministic and stochastic systems) is crucial for any emergent phenomena. Is the long term future of existence non local (a la ‘the ant colony as an organism’) and (potentially) altruistic? The intriguing prospect of new emergence as a result of the unprecedented ongoing meta-interactions, where parts (human beings) increasingly understand the emergent design of the whole? The SynTalkrs are: Dr. Rajnish K. Mishra (linguistics, philosophy, JNU, Delhi), Prof. B.J. Rao (biology, TIFR, Mumbai), & Prof. Sitabhra Sinha (physics, IMSc, Chennai).