Naval Postgraduate School

Direct engagement with senior community leaders is a critical component of the NPS student experience. U.S. Navy Rear Adm. Dennis Collins, Reserve Deputy Chief of Naval Operations for Installations and Logistics, shared his perspective with Supply Corps officers attending the institution during a visit to campus, June 3.

“The Supply Corps is moving toward producing officers who can apply knowledge and think through problems rather than simply recite publications,” said U.S. Navy Lt. Mitchell Ernsten, an NPS operations research student. “That resonated with me because it reflects much of what we do at NPS — learning how to analyze problems, evaluate options, and make informed decisions in complex situations.”

During his visit, students took the opportunity to introduce Collins to their fleet-inspired thesis research, and get feedback from a senior service leader.

“I had the opportunity to briefly describe my thesis research on malware detection and network analysis,” said Ernsten. “Rear Adm. Collins was supportive of the work, and the interaction reinforced the importance of applying analytical and technical skills to operational problems facing the Navy.”

Collins visit was initiated by NPS operations research professor Geraldo Ferrer, NPS chair of Navy Supply Chain Management.

“Rear Adm. Collins came to NPS to talk about the future of Navy logistics education, which greatly affects the Supply Corps,” said Ferrer. “During the brief, many students had the opportunity to participate by presenting their thesis plans and getting feedback … and were pleased with the exchange and his thoughtful comments.”

While on campus, Collins also explored an NPS-developed wargame examining how meteorological conditions can constrain logistics decisions, in addition to an introduction to NPS’ Advanced Manufacturing lab.

• More about operations research at NPS: https://nps.edu/web/or
• About the NPS Department of Acquisition, Finance and Manpower: https://nps.edu/web/dafm

U.S. Navy | U.S. Marine Corps | Navy Reserve | Naval Supply Systems Command (NAVSUP)

LIVE NEXT WEEK: Artemis II Mission Pilot and NPS alumnus U.S. Navy Capt. Victor Glover returns to campus, June 16, for a special Secretary of the Navy Guest Lecture to talk about the crew’s history-making, 10-day flight around the Moon!

• When: Tuesday, June 16 at 3:00 p.m., “From Monterey to the Moon” with Capt. Victor Glover
• Where: NPS King Hall auditorium

While on base access to King Hall is limited to NPS students, faculty, staff and their families and guests, Glover’s presentation will also be available live on the NPS streaming channel, see link below.

The Spring Quarter graduation ceremony is also next week, making this event with one of NPS’ most notable alumni especially meaningful. Visiting family and escorted guests are encouraged to come in person.

From naval aviator to NASA Astronaut, Glover's journey demonstrates how advanced education, determination, and a passion for discovery combine to shape the future of our Navy, nation and human exploration beyond Earth.

• Watch Capt. Glover's presentation here, June 16: https://www.nps.edu/WatchLive
• Read more NPS news about the Artemis II team’s historic flight: https://nps.edu/-/naval-postgraduate-school-alumni-lead-nasa-s-artemis-ii-moon-mission
• Space Systems Academic Group at NPS: https://nps.edu/web/ssag

U.S. Navy | U.S. Marine Corps | NASA - National Aeronautics and Space Administration | United States Naval Academy | U.S. Naval War College | Acting Secretary of the Navy Hung Cao | The Office of the Chief of Naval Operations | Naval Postgraduate School Foundation & Alumni Association

Recent NPS graduate Brazilian Navy Lt. Fernando De Oliveira’s patent-pending thesis research represents a critical breakthrough in 5G network security that could provide operators with a novel scalable, mission-tuned approach for secure tactical communications.

“Lt. De Oliveira has developed a new technical architecture for secure and granular user authentication in 5G Standalone (SA) and emerging 6G-oriented mobile networks,” said NPS Department of Computer Science chair Gurminder Singh. “This architecture has been successfully implemented in the NPS 5G test environment and has demonstrated potential applicability in defense communications, tactical networks, secure corporate environments, and multinational mission scenarios.”

While commercial 5G networks allow devices to connect seamlessly once authenticated, De Oliveira identified a key vulnerability — the lack of continuous, user-specific verification. In high-stakes environments such as military operations, simply trusting a device is not enough. His thesis, titled “Slice-Aware User Authorization and Enforcement Manager for Fifth-Generation Networks: Testbed and Evaluation,” addresses this challenge.

“When you connect your phone to a 5G network today, you don’t need additional authentication beyond the device itself,” he explained. “But in a defense scenario, how do you know it’s really the authorized user? What happens if a device is lost or stolen?”

By minimizing dependencies on standard 5G core functions, De Oliveira’s discovery allows enterprises to rapidly deploy customized security controls — flexibility that makes the system particularly valuable in dynamic operational environments, where security requirements can vary significantly across mission sets and users.

For his discovery, De Oliveira was awarded the 2026 Winter Quarter’s Outstanding Academic Achievement Award for an International Student.

“Lt. De Oliveira’s academic achievement is a testament to the high caliber of education NPS provides to our partners and allies,” said Dr. Mowafiq W. Alanazi, deputy director of NPS’ International Graduate Programs. “What sets NPS apart from other educational institutions is its ability to combine advanced scientific instruction with real-world operational application — preparing graduates to tackle complex challenges and develop practical solutions.”

• Read the full story: https://nps.edu/-/brazilian-navy-officer-s-award-winning-nps-research-advances-5g-network-security
• More about computer science at NPS: https://nps.edu/web/cs
• International graduate programs at NPS: https://nps.edu/web/igpo

U.S. Navy | U.S. Marine Corps | The Office of the Chief of Naval Operations | Marinha do Brasil | U.S. Southern Command (SOUTHCOM)

From the analysis of digital parts data to printing system components in austere environments, the Naval Postgraduate School (NPS) is working to advance the limits of expeditionary manufacturing at the world's largest international maritime exercise next month.

During the latest Joint Interagency Field Experimentation (JIFX) event at Camp Roberts, researchers with NPS’ Consortium for Advanced Manufacturing Research and Education (CAMRE) worked alongside industry partners to evaluate point-of-need additive manufacturing workflows, all in preparation for a series of rigorous experimentation efforts at the upcoming Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) exercise in July.

A Partnership Intermediary Agreement (PIA) with FLEETWERX enables collaboration with industry, enhancing NPS research and education in additive manufacturing. The NPS team took advantage of the austere field environment at JIFX to assess how printability reports, cost estimates and digital parts inventories can identify components suitable for production in the field. By successfully 3D-printing drone parts on site, CAMRE is advancing the limits of fielded manufacturing systems, pushing production closer to operational users — at the upcoming RIMPAC 2026, and well beyond.

JIFX provides a unique venue for hands-on evaluation of emerging technologies by a wide range of naval and defense agencies, as well as industry and academic partners. Testing these systems, processes and technologies in a field environment accelerates the innovation process, ensuring the joint force maintains the agility required for operational readiness.

• Learn more about JIFX: https://nps.edu/web/fx
• More about Research and Innovation at NPS: https://nps.edu/web/research
• About CAMRE at NPS: https://nps.edu/web/camre

U.S. Navy | U.S. Marine Corps | RIMPAC

Built through a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA), the years-long NPS-RTX relationship demonstrates how defense-focused graduate education and research with industry collaboration can accelerate innovation for warfighter and warfighting development.

"By combining highly skilled engineering teams with operational expertise and advanced technologies, this collaboration brings powerful insight to some of the nation’s most complex defense challenges," said Hsin-Fu “Sinker” Wu, RTX co-principal investigator of the RTX-NPS CRADA and lead for collaboration efforts. “Working together, we are creating an environment where innovative concepts can be rigorously developed and translated into operationally relevant capabilities.”

Initial research explored a range of needs including unmanned systems, contested maritime environments, undersea C2 concepts including classified projects. Today, the collaboration increasingly looks at future warfare areas including hypersonics, advanced metamaterials, directed-energy defense, and operational analysis. Many students involved are also in the NPS Meyer Scholar Program, which prepares officers to lead the development and employment of advanced naval warfare technologies.

“RTX routinely provides the Meyer Scholars with classified seminars on both well-established and emerging capabilities being employed by the fleet,” said John Hammerer, NPS Warfare Chair, Integrated Air and Missile Defense. “Meyer Scholars learn about systems such as the SPY-6 air and missile defense radar and the family of Standard Missiles used for air and missile defense and anti-surface missions to a degree not possible in other professional training programs. Scholars have also fulfilled thesis research and field trip requirements by collaborating with RTX engineers and visiting RTX production and research facilities.”

- Read the full story: https://nps.edu/-/from-classroom-to-combat-advantage-nps-and-rtx-partner-to-advance-education-research-and-mission-impact
- More about Meyer Scholars at NPS: https://nps.edu/web/meyer-scholars

U.S. Navy | U.S. Marine Corps | The Office of the Chief of Naval Operations | Office of Naval Research

Great collaboration with Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center:

Thank you for 25 years of honorable service! U.S. Navy Cmdr. Carl Liptak recently celebrated his retirement and the culmination of his impactful career as a naval aviator and more recently as the Naval Postgraduate School’s Deputy Dean of Students.

During a May 15 ceremony, NPS President retired Vice Adm. Ann Rondeau presented Liptak with the Meritorious Service Medal. From April 2024 to June 2026, his dedication to operational readiness and academic success directly supported more than 3,000 military, civilian, and international students. Liptak successfully orchestrated multiple graduations, incoming/outgoing classes, command-wide events, and significant administrative efforts to improve student services and the certifications of the school’s Twin Otter research aircraft.

Reflecting on his career and time at NPS, Liptak offered parting advice to the students he guided: “In the age of AI inference, those who have the disciplined curiosity to formulate great questions will be valuable. The world is full of doom and hype, so build a set of internal principles to evaluate the world and yourself against. Be uncompromising in assessment of performance, but compassionate with yourself and your teammates.”

Congratulations to Cmdr. Liptak and his family on a distinguished Navy career and we wish them "fair winds and following seas."

- Learn more about the NPS Dean of Students office: https://nps.edu/web/students

U.S. Navy | U.S. Marine Corps | Naval Aviation Enterprise

The Dudley Knox Library at NPS plays a critical role in the school’s mission, tailored to defense education with unique security collections, classified materials, and a comprehensive research repository. The Library of Congress recently announced the winners of its national awards for federal librarianship, and the NPS Library team received the inaugural Project of the Year Award.

The award recognizes the success of the Institutional Repository Revitalization Project. By modernizing the Calhoun database—which archives more than 70,000 theses, dissertations and defense-focused research reports—the library team has enhanced the discovery and usability of critical information for researchers and students.

The modernization effort utilized automated content acquisition tools and workflow redesigns, reducing ticket resolution time by more than 66% and expanding the library’s ability to preserve digital scholarly materials.

"This project is not just a technical enhancement; it is an important investment in the future of NPS," said NPS Librarian Edward Corrado. "It stands as an innovative model within the federal library community, setting a benchmark for creativity, adaptability and mission-driven excellence."

Congratulations to the Digital Strategies and Technology team on this national achievement. The team is scheduled to be recognized at an awards ceremony at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., this July.

- Read the full story: https://nps.edu/-/library-of-congress-recognizes-nps-library-for-project-of-the-year
- More about the NPS Dudley Knox Library: https://library.nps.edu/about-us

U.S. Navy | U.S. Marine Corps | Acting Secretary of the Navy Hung Cao | The Office of the Chief of Naval Operations | The Library of Congress United States Naval Academy U.S. Naval War College | Office of Naval Research

Bravo Zulu! Earlier this month, the Monterey Bay Chapter of the Surface Navy Association (SNA) proudly presented the Stephen Decatur Jr. Award to Navy Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps (NJROTC) Cadet Senior Chief Pratik Manandhar and Cadet Petty Officer 1st Class Anthony Marino at Monterey High School.

The Monterey Bay Chapter of SNA is led entirely by Naval Postgraduate School (NPS) students, and serves as the Wardroom for Surface Warfare Officers and Sailors assigned to NPS and in the Monterey area. They are committed to building strong ties with the local community, including other local commands, schools, and area organizations.

The Stephen Decatur, Jr. Award recognizes cadets who demonstrate exceptional leadership, academic excellence, and a strong commitment to the values of the Surface Warfare community. Congratulations to the awardees and the entire Monterey High School NJROTC unit on this outstanding achievement! The unit is led by their instructor and retired U.S. Navy Lt. Cmdr. Robert Kerchner.

Pictured are the three U.S. Navy lieutenants from NPS: Yev Mizin, Kailah O’Brien, Steven Cleaves and awardees. Well done!

U.S. Navy | U.S. Marine Corps | Monterey Bay Surface Navy Association | Surface Warriors