Honors Program Theses

Award/Availability

Open Access Honors Program Thesis

First Advisor

Andrew Berns

Abstract

Tactical proficiency is a critical component of ROTC officer development, yet current study practices–primarily physical manuals, PowerPoint briefings, and in person instruction–offer limited opportunities for individualized learning, repetition, and long term retention. While digital learning platforms are widely adopted across higher education, they remain underutilized within ROTC programs despite their potential to enhance accessibility, engagement, and performance.

To address this gap, ROTCELERATE (rotcelerate.com) was developed to serve as a comprehensive digital repository designed to centralize and modernize ROTC training materials. The platform consolidates doctrinal references, tactical methodologies, and written study resources, and supplements them with interactive animated visualizations that illustrate key infantry movements and mission tasks. In addition, an integrated AI model functions as a Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG) system, providing question answering and generative inference capabilities based solely on documents within ROTCELERATE’s catalog to ensure accuracy.

The platform’s effectiveness was evaluated by comparing the performance of the 2025-2026 MSIII cohort, who utilized the system, against the 2024-2025 cohort, who trained without these digital resources. Performance outcomes were measured using standardized SOAR evaluations to quantify improvements in tactical decision-making and leadership execution. Through this comparative analysis and user data assessment, the research demonstrated how structured digital training can enhance cadet preparation over traditional study methods. Ultimately, this thesis provided a framework for integrating digital training tools into ROTC curriculum and identified key factors for future modernization efforts within ROTC training.

Year of Submission

2026

Department

Department of Computer Science

University Honors Designation

A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the designation University Honors

Date Original

2026

Object Description

1 PDF file (35 pages)

Language

en

File Format

application/pdf

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