First Runners-up for the Mad Scientist CALLING ALL CREATORS Multi-Media Contest

[Army Mad Scientist Editor’s Note:  Army Mad Scientist launched its CALLING ALL CREATORS Multi-Media Contest on 10 December 2025 with the following Army Transformation Challenge:

Contemporary conflicts around the globe have demonstrated the ever-increasing speeds at which warfighting innovations are being fielded — granting a combatant decisive battlefield advantage — until effective counter-measures are fielded by an adversary. These rapid cycles of innovation and counter-innovation currently provide only a few weeks (at best) of advantage.

How can the U.S. Army and Joint Force break this cycle and field robust and resilient capabilities that provide enduring battlefield advantage?

We received a total of 29 contest entries, running the gamut of multi-media — from haikus, illustrated poems, and riddles; images and posters; comics and graphic stories; a video, illustrated essays, Fictional Intelligence (FICINT) stories/scenarios, an interactive web experience, and even a strategic decision game!  To everyone who took the time to consider our challenge, then craft and submit an entry, please accept a hearty Mad Scientist “Thank you!”

Today’s post features two entries that tied as the contest’s first runner-up (“silver”) submissions, as scored by our panel of T2COM G-2 judges against the following rubric:

R1. Does the submission address the Army Transformation Challenge writing prompt (identified above)?

R2. Does the author make a clear, coherent, and compelling case for why the topic is important to the Army?

R3. Did the submission explore this topic in a creative, novel, and innovative way?

R4. Is this submission “edgy” (i.e., does it broaden and expand our understanding of the Operational Environment in a new way)?

R5. Should the submission be featured as a blog post (i.e., is it “blog-worthy”) or publishable?

R6. Is this submission a contender for being selected as the contest’s winner (i.e., “the best of the best of the best”)?

Taken together, these two submissions provide us with vital insights into the rapidly evolving Operational Environment and how we can build enduring battlefield advantage — by bringing machine speed to the cognitive domain, augmenting human capabilities through Human-Artificial Intelligence (AI) Teaming, and integrating resilient, layered, and distributed defenses against swarming Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) — Enjoy!]”

Find the First Runners-up in the Army War College’s Mad Scientist Blog!

The post First Runners-up for the Mad Scientist CALLING ALL CREATORS Multi-Media Contest appeared first on Small Wars Journal by Arizona State University.