For the fifth time, researchers from the Systems Engineering Center (SERC) gathered with colleagues from academia, government and industry to discuss the convergence of systems engineering and artificial intelligence in the annual AI4SE & SE4AI Research and Application Workshop on September 17-18.
The SERC has co-organized the workshop every year with the Army DEVCOM Armaments Center Systems Engineering Directorate. More than 200 people attended the 2024 workshop held on the Arlington, Virginia, campus of George Mason University, a SERC collaborating university. The first two workshops in 2020 and 2021 were virtual, followed by in-person gatherings at Stevens Institute of Technology in 2022 and The George Washington University in 2023.
“It’s incredible what started as a 20- 30 person Zoom call, kind of on a whim during the pandemic, has grown to where we had to cap registration, and we are looking for a larger venue next year,” said SERC Chief Scientist Dr. Zoe Szajnfarber, who also serves on the faculty of The George Washington University.
The attendees were fairly evenly split across backgrounds, with 33% from academia, 28% from government, and 30% from industry, with another 9% from MITRE, a Federally Funded Research and Development Center (FFRDC). This was also the first year the workshop was open to non-U.S. citizens, an opportunity taken by a dozen individuals.
Three keynote speakers represented a range of perspectives. Dr. Missy Cummings represented academia as Director of the Mason Autonomy and Robotics Center (MARC) and George Mason University. Mr. Dan Mahanty gave a government voice as the Division Director for Learning at the Civilian Protection Center of Excellence within the Department of Defense. Mr. Matthew Rose added industry insight in his role as the Global Public Sector Industry Principal at Snowflake.
There were also two panels. Dr. Laura Freeman of Virginia Tech and the SERC Research Council moderated a discussion on “The Need for Socio-technical System Testbeds for AI Enabled Systems” with Mr. David Jin, Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Office; Dr. Jose Rodriguez, US Army DEVCOM AC Tactical Behavior Research Lab; Mr. Miles Thompson, MITRE AI Discovery Lab; and Dr. Szajnfarber.
Dr. Peter Beling, also of Virginia Tech and the SERC Research Council, moderated a discussion on “Opportunities and Risks for Leveraging Generative AI to Support SE Processes” with Ms. Allison Banzon, SAIC; Mr. Chris Schwalm, CVP; and Dr. Daniel Selva, Texas A&M University.
The core of the workshop is the diverse range of technical presentations. This year 40 were selected from a record 74 submitted abstracts, nearly double the 24 abstracts of 2023. The presentations were divided into two tracks, AI4SE and SE4AI, and subtracks, such SE Methodologies for AI, Safety Frameworks, AI at the Enterprise Level, Large Language Models for SE Artifacts, and others.
Mr. Reginald Holmes, who works as a senior systems engineer at Northrop Grumman and is pursuing a doctorate at The University of Alabama in Huntsville (a SERC collaborator), presented on “Navigating Uncertainty: Enhancing AI System Safety through the Integration of Systems Theory, Set Theory and R3+ Concepts.” He also presented in 2023. “This workshop continues to be a crucial platform for addressing the evolving challenges of integrating AI safely and effectively into dynamic systems,” Holmes said.
Mr. Jawahar Bhalla traveled from Australia to present. He is a principal systems engineer with the Shoal Group and a doctoral student at the University of Adelaide. Bhalla, who is also president of INCOSE’s Australia chapter, presented “An SE4AI Framework for the Systems Engineering of Autonomous Systems with a Focus on the Curation of Data across the Lifecycle.”
“The opportunity to present at the SERC AI4SE & SE4AI workshop 2024 was a personal career highlight, as it provided me with the opportunity to baseline my understanding of the state of the art in SE4AI research and to connect with thought-leaders in this rapidly evolving societally critical context.”
Presentations from the 2024 AI4SE & SE4AI Research and Application Workshop are available for download on the workshop webpage. There will also be a technical report published later this fall. On November 6-7, the SERC and INCOSE will host a virtual version of the AI4SE & SE4AI workshop.
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