COL Thomas Babbitt

COL Tom Babbitt is the Director of the Core Program and an Associate Professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at the United States Military Academy (USMA). He has 13 years of experience as a West Point faculty member and has served since 2016 as a Functional Area 47, Academy Professor. His academic and research leadership spans computing education, academic program leadership, accreditation, cybersecurity, and artificial intelligence.

During his time at USMA, COL Babbitt served as Director of CY105, the Academy’s introductory computing course taught to all first-year cadets; Program Director for the Information Technology major, where he led the program through successful ABET reaccreditation in 2020; and Director of the Cyber Research Center. He was also selected for a one-year Operational Experience as Director of the Army Artificial Intelligence Integration Center (AI2C) in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. In his current role, he oversees multiple courses in West Point’s academic core, including human-machine teaming for first-year cadets and technology innovation in emerging warfare for juniors and seniors. His research focuses on interdisciplinary solutions to national defense challenges, with particular interests in artificial intelligence and machine learning, data engineering, computing in resource-constrained environments, and computing education. COL Babbitt holds a BS in computer science from USMA and an MS and PhD in computer science from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

COL Babbitt graduated from USMA in 1999 and was commissioned as an Infantry officer. He served in leadership and staff positions with the 25th Infantry Division in Hawaii and the 172nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team in Alaska, culminating in command of Charlie Company, 4th Battalion, 23rd Infantry Regiment. He deployed to Bosnia-Herzegovina in support of Operation Joint Forge in 2002 and to Iraq in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom from August 2005 to November 2006. In 2007, he transitioned to Functional Area 53, Information Systems Management, and later deployed to Kuwait as the Future Operations and Plans Officer in the Southwest Asia Cyber Center, Camp Arifjan.

COL Babbitt is married to Bridget Babbitt, and they are the proud parents of four children.