6th AI4SE Workshop Takes Collaborative Approach to Assuring Transformation

For the sixth time, researchers from the Systems Engineering Research Center (SERC) gathered with colleagues from academia, government, and industry to discuss the convergence of systems engineering (SE) and artificial intelligence (AI) in the annual AI4SE & SE4AI Research and Application Workshop on September 17-18.

SERC has co-organized the workshop with the Army DEVCOM Armaments Center Systems Engineering Directorate since 2020. This year’s sold-out hybrid event was hosted by The George Washington University Trustworthy AI Initiative in Washington, DC, and was attended in-person and virtually by more than 250 people representing academia (39%), industry (38%), government and military (16%), and Federally Funded Research and Development Centers (FFRDC, 7%), according to what individuals selected while registering.

SERC Chief Scientist and Research Council Chair Dr. Zoe Szajnfarber, who also serves on the faculty of The George Washington University, opened Day 1 of this year’s workshop.

“Six years ago, the workshop began as a Zoom call. This year registration had to be closed because the event sold out,” Dr. Szajnfarber said in her welcome. “We received 27% more abstract proposals this year, after last year’s record number of submissions. As the topic evolves, so does the event, growing in number and format of sessions.”

Welcome remarks were provided by invited speakers: Dr. John Lach, Interim Provost and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs, The George Washington University; Dr. Paul Kaminski, Chair of the SERC Advisory Board and former Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Technology; and Mr. Daniel Hettema, Director, Digital Engineering Modeling and Simulation, Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering.

Dr. Lach noted that GW had hosted the event previously in 2023 and that “looking at this year’s range of speakers and topics reflects the holistic approach this group is applying to building a responsible and reliable framework and capabilities.”

This year’s keynote speakers are leaders within entities and organizations at the forefront of AI development and exploring the technology’s far-reaching impacts. On Day 1, Dr. Matthew Kuan Johnson, Chief of Responsible AI, Chief of U.S. Digital and Artificial Intelligence Office, gave a government perspective as lead of the team that supports operationalization and implementation of Responsible AI and AI Ethical Principles. Day 2 featured industry insight from Dr. Morgan Dwyer, Head of Policy Operations, Open AI, who leads the development and coordination of the company’s public policy positions. Both speakers noted the importance of keeping pace with AI technology and of collaboration across disciplines to increase accountability and safety.

The Army Perspective on Day 1 was provided by Mr. Edward Bauer, Director of the Systems Engineering Directorate, U.S. Army DEVCOM Armaments Center. Dr. Szajnfarber provided the SERC Perspective on Day 2, as she did in 2024, and again emphasized the important role of systems engineers in ensuring that AI systems function reliably and ethically.

“AI is a critical enabler,” Dr. Szajnfarber said, “from efficiencies to warfighting capabilities. Making sure the technology behaves the way we expect builds trust. Together, we need to explore questions at the system level and rethink workflow design to architecture better, more ‘trustworthy’ AI-enabled systems.”

The two-day workshop included two panels. On Day 1, SERC Executive Director Dr. Dinesh Verma moderated an Industry Perspective Panel with Ms. Irene Helley, Vice President, Applied AI, Lockheed Martin; Dr. Dimitrios Lymberopoulos, Head of Machine Learning, Palantir; and Mr. Jay Meil, Vice President of AI and Chief Data Scientist, SAIC. Discussion included the importance of collaborative and comprehensive approaches on issues such as integrating technology into legacy mission systems in ways that are meaningful to the warfighter.

On Day 2, SERC Researcher Dr. Bryan Mesmer, The University of Alabama in Huntsville, moderated a Plenary Panel on “Humans and AI Systems” with Mr. Eric Mortin, U.S. Army DEVCOM Analysis Center; Dr. Valerie Sitterle, SERC Deputy Chief Technology Officer; Dr. Harrison Hyung Min Kim, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign; and Dr. Matt Gaston, Carnegie Mellon Software Engineering Institute. Speakers shared insights including exploring how to build reliable human-machine teams to augment human capabilities and new workflows.

New to this year’s agenda were two in-person interactive sessions, which were offered in addition to the traditional abstract presentations and further supported the high level of engagement the workshop generates annually. On Day 1, Mr. Sebastian Völkl, Dalus, led “Practical Approaches to AI-Driven Model Generation in SysMLv2 Environments,” which included use cases of AI with SysMLv2 and a hands-on session for the in-person participants. On Day 2, Dr. Deri Draper-Amason, Old Dominion University Center for Mission Engineering, led “Operationalizing Mission Engineering with AI: Leveraging the IDMP User Story Framework for Digital Decision Superiority.”

“The experience was highly rewarding,” Dr. Draper-Amason said of leading one of the workshop’s first-ever interactive sessions. “The format allowed us to ‘get under the hood’ of a new framework [and] gave participants the opportunity to work through practical problems. The energy and the quality of the discussion demonstrated the value of interactive formats. People want to roll up their sleeves and iterate on frameworks together.”

The core of the annual workshop is the variety and range of technical presentations. This year, 60 traditional presentation proposals were selected. This year, the presentations were divided into three tracks, SE4AI, AI4SE, and Virtual (AI4SE and SE4AI), each of which was further organized into subtracks, such as Test and Evaluation (SE4AI), Improving SE (AI4SE), and Cognitive Assistants (Virtual AI4SE).

Mr. Tom McDermott, SERC Chief Technology Officer, presented “Generative AI, Visualization, and the Future of Managing Megaprojects” (AI4SE: Improving SE), which explores best practices across defense industry megaprojects and the potential for better management of these with generative AI. “We look at how emerging technology can help with leader intuition,” Mr. McDermott said. “How can AI home in on uncertainties to help humans make better informed decisions that ultimately benefit the warfighter?”

Dr. Ting Liao, assistant professor in the Department of Systems Engineering at Stevens Institute of Technology, presented “Shaping Trust Through System Design: Human Perceptions of AI in Design Ideation” (Virtual AI4SE: Cognitive Assistants). “AI is moving beyond being a simple tool to serving as a collaborator,” Dr. Liao noted, and presented research that explores the attributes that build trust and how to apply these to engineer AI as a better system and collaborator.

Ms. Jessica Lee, a PhD candidate in Human Systems Engineering at Arizona State University, presented “Validating a Contextual Trust Assessment Instrument for AI-Enabled Systems Using the MASTOPIA Testbed.”

“From my presentation, I connected with researchers asking similar questions from different angles and expanded my network for future collaborations,” Ms. Lee said. “I met a researcher based across the country whose methodology could be applied to my measurement tool, which would create an exciting, interdisciplinary study based around the highly evolving AI and LLM technologies.”

Ms. Lee went on to add, “I found it insightful to see how non-systems engineering backgrounds shape the way attendees apply SE to their research methods and perspectives. This interdisciplinary exchange will drive powerful innovations and meaningful growth in the field.”

Speakers throughout both days noted the workshop’s growth in size and the parallel consistent growth in interest across domains. The inaugural and the second workshops, held in 2020 and 2021 respectively, were virtual, followed by in-person gatherings at Stevens Institute of Technology in 2022, The George Washington University in 2023, and George Mason University in 2024.

“Attending the conference overall was extremely valuable,” Dr. Draper-Amason said. “I connected with a wide cross-section of attendees, and those conversations produced concrete follow-ons: offers to share datasets and requests for follow-up demos. The technical program itself was rich and relevant. The mix of case studies, tool demos, and methodological panels gave a broad, holistic survey of how AI is being applied to systems engineering problems today and where the pressing gaps remain.”

Presentations from the 2025 AI4SE & SE4AI Research and Application Workshop are available for download on the workshop webpage. A technical report will be published later this year.

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