AFIT Generative AI Teaching Guidebook

AFIT is proud to highlight the Generative AI Teaching Guidebook, a resource designed to provide military educators with practical insights, strategies, and use cases for integrating Generative AI (Gen AI) into their teaching practices. Developed through a collaborative effort involving AFIT faculty across various departments within the Graduate School of Engineering and Management and the School of Systems and Logistics, this digital resource serves as a starting point for educators exploring how to leverage Gen AI in their classrooms. It offers accessible examples and best practices, ensuring utility for instructors of all technical backgrounds. The guidebook provides a comprehensive overview of how Gen AI can enhance education, offering actionable use cases, illustrative examples, and best practices tailored to diverse teaching environments. By addressing both opportunities and challenges—such as ethical considerations and data privacy—it empowers educators to design meaningful learning experiences while fostering discussions about AI\u27s potential and limitations. The release of this guidebook comes at a key moment as the adoption of Gen AI in education accelerates. It highlights how these tools can be integrated into both traditional academic settings and professional continuing education, such as utilizing Gen AI for educational simulations or modeling in systems engineering. By fostering critical thinking, innovation, and ethical awareness, the Generative AI Teaching Guidebook empowers educators to prepare students for an AI-driven world while advancing AFIT’s defense-focused educational mission

Temperature dependence of the nSpec fieldable neutron spectrometer

Excerpt: Fieldable instruments can encounter a variety of environments during their use. A recent fieldable fast neutron spectrometer, nSpec, has been exploring alternate materials for further ruggedizing the system. One of these materials, EJ276D, is a plastic scintillator which provides several benefits over the current liquid scintillators used in nSpec, including an operating temperature range that is more closely matched to the limits of the electronics in the system. In the following work, the temperature dependence of EJ276D is studied from -10 to 50 °C. The temperature dependence of the calibration and resolution of the detector were characterized using basic gamma-ray sources, while the characterization of the light output quenching for neutron interactions was done utilizing the Los Alamos Neutron Science Center (LANSCE)

Complete Solution of the Lady in the Lake Scenario

In the Lady in the Lake scenario, a mobile agent, L, is pitted against an agent, M, who is constrained to move along the perimeter of a circle. L is assumed to begin inside the circle and wishes to escape to the perimeter with some finite angular separation from M at the perimeter. This scenario has, in the past, been formulated as a zero-sum differential game wherein L seeks to maximize terminal separation and M seeks to minimize it. Its solution is well-known. However, there is a large portion of the state space for which the canonical solution does not yield a unique equilibrium strategy. This paper provides such a unique strategy by solving an auxiliary zero-sum differential game. In the auxiliary differential game, L seeks to reach a point opposite of M at a radius for which their maximum angular speeds are equal (i.e., the antipodal point). L wishes to minimize the time to reach this point while M wishes to maximize it. The solution of the auxiliary differential game is comprised of a Focal Line, a Universal Line, and their tributaries. The Focal Line tributaries\u27 equilibrium strategy for L is semi-analytic, while the Universal Line tributaries\u27 equilibrium strategy is obtained in closed form

Accelerated Multiobjective Calibration of Fused Deposition Modeling 3D Printers Using Multitask Bayesian Optimization and Computer Vision

Proper process parameter calibration is critical to the success of fused deposition modeling (FDM) three-dimensional (3D) printing, but is time-consuming and requires expertise. While existing systems for autonomous calibration have demonstrated success in calibrating for a single objective, users may need to balance multiple conflicting objectives. Herein, an easily deployable, camera-based system for autonomous calibration of FDM printers that optimizes for both part quality and completion time is presented. Autonomous calibration is achieved through a novel, multifaceted computer vision characterization and a multitask learning extension to Bayesian optimization. The system is demonstrated on four popular filament types using two distinct 3D printers. The results show that the system significantly outperforms manufacturer calibration across the machine and material configurations, achieving an average improvement of 32.2% in quality and a 31.2% decrease in completion time with respect to a popular benchmark

AFIT Generative AI Teaching Guidebook Synopsis

The main objective of this work was to bring together various perspectives on how to envision incorporating Gen AI capabilities into the learning environment and identify some best practices for their implementation. Any instructor who is interested in these capabilities but does not necessarily have a technical background can find pragmatic use of the examples provided. While the examples have a wide range of applicability, they are meant to serve as a starting point for educators to explore what would be beneficial to their educational environment, from traditional classroom settings to online continuing education courses

High-Speed Aircraft Stability and Control Metrics

This review paper identifies key stability and control screening parameters needed to design low-risk, general-purpose high-speed aircraft. These derive from MIL-STD-8785C, MIL-STD-1797, and older AGARD reports, and are suitable for assessing conceptual high-speed vehicles. We demonstrate their applicability using published ground test, computation, and flight test data from the Bell X-2, North American X-15, Martin X-24A, Northrop HL-10, Lockheed Blackbird (YF-12/SR-71), and North American XB-70 as well as the Rockwell Space Shuttle Orbiter. The relative success of the X-15 and Blackbird and the performance limitations of the others indicate the need to scrutinize lateral-directional stability at the preliminary design phase. Our work reveals the need for strong bare-airframe static directional stability to obtain favorable flying qualities

Effects of a Modified Heat Treatment on the Quasi-static and Dynamic Behavior of Additively Manufactured Lattice Structures

The flexibility of additive manufacturing techniques that produce parts from powders layer-by-layer directly from a digital model enabled the fabrication of complex lightweight lattice structures with precisely engineered mechanical properties. Herein, an investigation of the quasi-static and dynamic behavior of additively manufactured (AM) triply periodic minimal surface (TPMS) lattice structures before and after a novel post-process heat treatment step is conducted. The specimens were fabricated out of Inconel 718, a nickel–chromium-based superalloy, using a selective laser melting technique with three different topologies, namely, gyroid, primitive, and I-WP. The quasi-static tests were conducted at a strain rate of 0.002 s-1 and dynamic experiments were conducted using a split Hopkinson pressure bar at three different strain rates, 600 s-1, 800 s-1, and 1000 s-1. It was shown that while the strain rate does not significantly affect the mechanical responses of the lattice structures, the heat treatment step dramatically changes their behavior. Results demonstrated that after the heat treatment, the yield strength of the I-WP specimens increased by 65.2% under a quasi-static load. Also, flow stress after yielding in the dynamic tests was shown to increase around 9.6% for I-WP specimens and up to 12.8% for gyroid specimens. The specific energy absorption values were 10.5, 19.1, and 10.7 for I-WP, gyroid, and primitive, respectively, before the heat treatment, and changed to 19.6, 19.8, and 15.4 after the heat treatment. The results confirm that by precisely designing the architecture of a lattice structure and implementing a modified heat treatment process, it is possible to optimize the weight, strength, and energy absorption capability of this type of metamaterial