COL James Bluman, Ph.D. Associate Professor Director - D/Math Research Program Mathematical Sciences james.bluman [at] westpoint.edu About Education Research & Publications Colonel James E. Bluman, PhD, PE, serves as the Research Program Director for the Department of Mathematical Sciences at West Point. Colonel Bluman’s previous assignments and positions include serving as the Director for the Center for Innovation and Engineering and an associate professor in Civil and Mechanical Engineering. Prior to joining the USMA faculty, Colonel Bluman served in the operational Army as an Aviation Officer and as an Acquisition Corps officer, with a Level III DAWIA certification in Program Management. He served an Assistant Product Manager for the Armed Scout Helicopter Project Office, and various command, staff, and platoon leader positions as an Army Aviator. Colonel Bluman is a Senior Army Aviator and holds ratings in the OH-58D helicopter and the C-12 fixed wing aircraft as well as FAA commercial, instrument, and rotorcraft ratings. He earned a Professional Engineer license from the Commonwealth of Virginia, and he is a recipient of the American Society of Mechanical Engineering’s Donald N. Zwiep Award for Innovation in Education as well as USMA’s 2024 Dean’s Mid-Career Award for Scholarship Excellence. Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering - University of Alabama in HuntsvilleM.S. in Aerospace Engineering - Penn StateB.S. in Mechanical Engineering – U.S. Military Academy Research Interests Robotics, Military Applications of Small UAS, Flapping Wind Micro-Air Vehicles, Insect Flight Dynamics Current Research Drone Autonomy, Image Classification and Automated Target Recognition, Generative AI in Undergraduate Research Selected Publications Steckenrider, J.J., Miller, M.J., Blankenship, R., Trujillo, V., & Bluman, J.E. (2024). Lissajous curves as aerial search patterns. Scientific Reports. 14(11144) . https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-024-60803-2Asuncion, E.C., Bluman, J.E., & Steckenrider, J.J. (2024). Deterministic Flight Pattern Generation for Multi-Sector Aerial Search. Proceedings of the AIAA SciTech Forum, Orlando, FL. https://doi.org/10.2514/6.2024-0231Miller, M.J., Trujillo, V.E., Bluman, J.E., & Steckenrider, J.J. (2023). A Comparison of Lissajous Curves to Traditional Patterns in Aerial Search Simulations. Winter Simulation Conference, San Antonio, TX. https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/10408065/Blankenship, R., Bluman, J.E., & Steckenrider, J.J. (2022). “An Investigation of Search Algorithms for Aerial Reconnaissance of an Area Target.” Industrial and Systems Engineering Review, 10(2), http://iser.sisengr.org/index.php/iser/article/view/179Bluman, J.E., and Kang, C. (2018). Chordwise wing flexibility may passively stabilize hovering insects. Journal of the Royal Society Interface, 15. https://doi.org/10.1098/rsif.2018.0409