As outlined in a new technical report, during the 2023-2024 academic year, the Capstone Marketplace (CM) matched student teams from universities throughout the U.S. with national military units to explore innovative approaches to real-world challenges. The CM is an online tool developed by the Systems Engineering Research Center (SERC) in 2013 that enables such collaborations and helps develop the next generation of systems engineering (SE) talent for future Department of Defense (DoD) and defense industry needs. In the process, students gain hands-on experience forming multidisciplinary teams and addressing real-life, complex challenges. The resulting projects are complete and can be viewed on the Capstone Marketplace website.
In the 2023-2024 academic year, the CM management team of retired Navy SEAL and NASA astronaut William Shepherd and Michael DeLorme (both of Stevens Institute of Technology) was augmented by two additional individuals with extensive military, government, and industry experience, Kenneth Cameron and Edward Pernotto. In addition to supporting program management and operations, they also assist in future CM expansion.
In May 2023, the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering (OUSD(R&E)) provided core funding to continue the CM. Additional sponsorship was provided by the OUSD’s Acquisition and Sustainment, the Rapid Response Technology Office (RRTO), and U.S. Special Operations Command’s Science and Technology Directorate. In the summer of 2023, Capstone Managers met with various operational DoD units and Special Operations personnel, units, and staff to capture ideas, problems, and technical needs not being pursued in formal research and development efforts.
The collected ideas were refined by Capstone Managers and government customers and developed into more than 20 suitable Research Topics published on the Capstone Marketplace website as targets for undergraduate and graduate student design projects in a competitive, nation-wide forum. Interested university faculty members submitted proposals that were reviewed by Capstone Managers and government sponsors. Subcontracts were offered to 7 universities to support 17 student teams that included faculty advisors and Subject Matter Experts (SME) who served as “end user” customers for each project.
Student teams and Capstone Managers met at the start of the 2023 fall semester to kickoff project work and coordinate student activities. Throughout the academic year, Capstone Managers met frequently with students, provided insights on “best practices” from aerospace and defense industries, and mentored teams on SE principles. Student teams were required to track project cost, schedule, and technical performance, and each presented design reviews to Capstone Managers and DoD customers on prototype development and testing.
Three student teams augmented their CM projects with studies that considered the business operations necessary for new capability development. These “whole of business” projects served as pilots for the new Acquisition Innovation Research Center (AIRC) Innovation Capstones that aim to broaden the scope of traditional technical developments in areas important to national defense by augmenting teams’ abilities in organization, scheduling, and financing, and in the overall business and management skills needed to introduce products and capabilities into DoD systems.
Student teams delivered final presentations and demonstrations to government customers at the conclusion of the 2023-2024 academic year, providing unique results and novel insights, approaches, and solutions. In past years, some student teams outperformed traditional development organizations. Over the course of the CM program, many student prototypes have transitioned into operational end items, and a number of former students have accepted employment in government laboratories and system commands as a result of their Capstone work. Two Naval Officers are now in units working with operational equipment they designed as students in CM projects.
While CM projects focused on innovations for the Special Operations communities, student research can have applications that are DoD-wide. Capstone Managers are engaging with other service components and DoD military and civilian organizations for increased participation in the CM. Information on how to participate in this program is available on the Capstone Marketplace website.
Follow SERC on LinkedIn for regular updates on systems engineering.