SERC Increases Presence at Annual CSER Gathering
The Systems Engineering Research Center (SERC) hosted two special events, and its researchers and leadership presented at the 23rd annual Conference on Systems Engineering Research (CSER), held at George Mason University on April 6-9 in Arlington, VA. On the first day of the conference, members of SERC leadership led Conducting Research with the Department of War (DoW), an interactive workshop for faculty interested in conducting research for the government. The SERC Doctoral Student Forum (SDSF), held on April 8, named two co-winners of the Dr. Barry Boehm Award for Doctoral Student Research Excellence.
The CSER 2026 theme, Intelligent Digital Twin-enabled Systems Engineering for 21st Century Sociotechnical Systems, reflected the importance of integrating digital twin technologies with systems engineering (SE) practices to simulate, monitor, and optimize performance across the lifecycle. This integration addresses the need for innovative approaches to design, analysis, and decision-making in sociotechnical environments—where complex systems principles converge with human, organizational, and technological factors.
SERC Executive Director Dinesh Verma (Stevens) and Azad Madni (representing the SERC Research Council and the USC Viterbi School of Engineering) served as honorary chairs. On the first day of the conference, Dr. Zoe Szajnfarber (The George Washington University), SERC Chief Scientist and Research Council Chair, presented the keynote talk featuring Dr. Saifur Rahman (Virginia Tech).
How to Work with the DoW
Conducting Research with the DoW is an interactive workshop SERC created to demystify how to work with the department so those in the university research community can take strategic steps toward funded collaboration with the federal government. Mr. Thomas McDermott, SERC Chief Technology Officer, led the workshop with Dr. Valerie Sitterle, SERC Deputy CTO, and Dr. Philip Antón, Chief Scientist of SERC’s Acquisition Innovation Research Center, as co-leads. Mr. Daniel Hettema, Director of Digital Engineering, Modeling and Simulation (Office of the Under Secretary of War for Research and Engineering) spoke during the workshop opening about the mission and scope of SERC/AIRC work and of government research.
“Research budgets at the National Science Foundation, National Institutes of Health, and NASA have been cut by 30-50%, while DoW research budgets have increased by more than 20%,” Mr. McDermott said. “The workshop aimed to help those in our university research community learn to pursue research funding from DoW sponsors, which is a different process than many university faculty are familiar with, such as NSF, NIH, and NASA.”
Workshop participants were introduced to the department’s mission-driven research model that emphasizes national security and rapid transition, and how to align research ideas with defense priorities and build sustained relationships with program managers. More than 20 participants from multiple SERC and other universities engaged in discussions and provided positive feedback about the workshop.
“An attendee contacted me afterward via email,” McDermott said, “and noted the workshop was quite useful and appreciated the time spent on developing and presenting.” Additionally, McDermott stated, “We defined two opportunities from separate universities to apply the concepts discussed to a recently released research opportunity.”
Doctoral Student Work Presented and Recognized
The SERC Doctoral Student Forum had been postponed since last fall as part of the SERC Annual Events series. The annual forum highlights SERC’s priority of cultivating an innovative brain trust able to address transdisciplinary challenges now and in the future.
SERC hosted the rescheduled forum on April 8, and five invited doctoral students presented in competition for the Dr. Barry Boehm Award for Doctoral Student Research Excellence. A panel of judges consisting of SERC leadership members selected Suparna Mukherjee (The George Washington University) and Cansu Yalim (Old Dominion University) as the forum co-winners and recipients of the Boehm Award and a monetary prize. SERC Chief Scientist Dr. Zoe Szajnfarber presented the award. She noted that each year, the breadth and quality of submissions to the SDSF illustrate the high caliber of systems work being executed by the next generation of SE leaders.
Strong SERC Presence at Conference
Each day’s schedule of the conference included several technical presentations to which SERC researchers had contributed. Researchers noted it was an opportunity to share the range of SERC work with the larger community and receive valuable feedback.
Dr. Nicole Hutchison (Virginia Tech) contributed to work focused on benchmarking digital transformation and on designing large language models that can support systems engineering teams. “CSER is a rare event,” Dr. Hutchison said. “It’s an academically and research focused conference in the systems community. Being able to share our research approaches and findings with that audience and getting detailed feedback on the methods and rigorous questioning of our results is invaluable.”
Dr. Bryan Mesmer (The University of Alabama in Huntsville) contributed to work focused on the potential benefit of aggregating multiple value estimates and on a framework to assess the characterization of validation fidelity. “CSER is the home for rigorous academic research that expands the systems engineering body of knowledge,” Dr. Mesmer said. “The presentations and discussions targeted the latest challenges in AI adoption, architecting, and the enablement of rapid responses to national needs. In addition, the conference focused on strengthening the network of systems engineering academics to improve the training of the nation’s workforce.”
The SERC’s anchor university, Stevens Institute of Technology, and a key SERC collaborator, the University of Southern California, created CSER more than 20 years ago as a platform for advancing systems engineering (SE) through rigorous research. Each year, CSER attracts thought leaders from academia, industry, and government to explore emerging topics and technologies shaping complex systems across domains.
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