(Post for 1 Jun 10) We got seven new summer mentors over the last two days. Things are really picking up. However, I did get a roommate (LTC Mark Moss). He's a CompSci instructor from Westpoint so I guess we can be Geek Buddies together. Masha'Allah. With the addition of Mark, and Dr. John James (an Electrical Engineer also from Westpoint), we can now divide up the work with the NMAA CompSci department and really maximize our effect. Up until now, I've been filling the role as general purpose NMAA SIGO since there hasn't been any US or Turkish IT people here for about a year. I've been working about two dozen projects in parallel in addition to mentoring the CompSci department. Never a dull moment.
Most of the day was spent re-introducing Dr. James to the senior folks here at NMAA. He was a NMAA mentor last summer as well, and he has come back to continue the projects he started then. One area they need help with is establishing a rigorous capstone project for their CompSci mentors. John is going to lead that effort. Mark is mainly a software engineering guy, so he's most likely going focus on the programming classes. I've already started some things with the java instructors, but I will gladly turn that over and am grateful for the added help. All this will allow me to dive into the networking and operating systems curriculum in more detail. It's good to have the help.
We met with the lead NMAA IT officer (LTC Khairullah) near the end of the day. One of our big efforts is helping the Afghans with their move to the new Afghan Defense University (ADU) located west of Kabul by Lake Quarga. It is a major ($200M USD) effort and will serve as the home for all ANA education, officer and enlisted. I've been helping ensure all the IT requirements for the site are properly captured, documented, and designed. Not a trivial undertaking. The main philosophy here among the mentors is just to help out where ever you can. The move to ADU is planned for March 2012, and all the building foundations for phase I have been laid. MGen Sharif assures me that the roses there will be even more numerous and beautiful than the ones at NMAA.
The next two days are a holiday of sorts for the Afghan instructors and cadets. The whole city is participating in a peace Jirga. More information can be found here. The end goal of the conference is to help determine a way to establish a dialog with the Taliban. The complications for us is that travel in and around Kabul is extremely limited until Saturday and we have missions to do. We'll find a way to work around it.
More news tomorrow.
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