Broad Coalition from Academia, Defense Industry, and Government to Meet
Senior government officials and defense industry leaders will gather with a national network of academics from the Systems Engineering Research Center (SERC) and the Acquisition Innovation Research Center (AIRC) for the 2022 Annual Research Review. This event will take place November 15-17 at the National Press Club in Washington, DC in a hybrid format.
This year’s event will begin with the AIRC Research Review on November 15. A highlight of the AIRC Research Review is the gathering of notable speakers and panelists, including Ms. Tanya Skeen, SES, Assistant Secretary of Defense for Acquisition (Acting), OUSD(A&S); Dr. Dennis McBride, AIRC Director, OUSD(A&S); Mr. Mark Krzysko, SES, Principal Deputy Director, Enterprise Information, Acquisition Data and Analytics, OUSD(A&S); HON. Dr. Paul Kaminski, Chairman, SERC & AIRC Advisory Board, Chairman and CEO of Technovation, Inc.; Dr. Steven Walker, VP & Chief Technology Officer, Lockheed Martin; Brig. Gen. (Ret.) R. Scott Stapp, VP and Corporate Chief Technology Officer, Northrop Grumman; Dr. Don Schlomer, Acquisition Program Manager SOF AT&L and Policy Manager, U.S. Special Operations Command; and Mr. David Drabkin, Esq., AIRC Fellow and Chairman of the Section 809 Panel.
AIRC researchers will present their expertise on topics such as “Responsive Appropriations” by Dr. Philip S. Antón (Stevens), “T&E Strategic Efforts” by Dr. Laura Freeman (Virginia Tech), “Gamification of Training in Emerging Acquisition Methods” by Lt. Col. Daniel Finkenstadt (Naval Postgraduate School) and Dr. Robert Handfield (North Carolina State University), “Factors and Decision-Making for Additive Manufacturing in Sustainment” by Drs. Jitesh Panchal and Waterloo Tsutsui (Purdue), “Cognitive Assistants for Training Cost Estimators” by Dr. Daniel Selva (Texas A&M), “Agile Hardware Development” by Dr. Gregg Vesonder (Stevens), and more.
November 16 is the SERC Research Review. There will be two keynote speakers, each bringing a unique perspective on research and advances in defense. The morning session will welcome Dr. Charles Clancy, Senior Vice President and General Manager of MITRE Labs, and Chief Futurist, who also serves on the SERC Advisory Board. Ms. Kristen J. Baldwin, Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Science, Technology and Engineering (SAF/AQR), will give the afternoon address.
The Annual Research Review is a unique opportunity to learn about the latest research being conducted by the SERC, offering a broad showcase of expertise spanning each area of research outlined in the SERC’s research roadmaps. A few highlights from more than 20 presentations include:
SERC CTO Tom McDermott (Stevens) will discuss systems engineering modernization, featuring the design of a new lifecycle model that centers on the flow of data to improve the defense acquisition process.
Dr. Nicole Hutchison (Stevens) will present on a STEDE (Simulation Training Environment for Digital Engineering) that she and SERC colleagues are developing to support workforce training through the Defense Acquisition University.
Dr. Michael Orosz (University of Southern California) will discuss research on mission engineering methods, analysis, and metrics for transitioning from a traditional software-only acquisition environment to an Agile/DevSecOps environment.
Dr. Peter Beling (Virginia Tech) will present on cyber resilience, building on SERC research that uses a Sentinel-based architecture to define a methodology for defining cyberattack resilience requirements.
Dr. Cesare Guariniello (Purdue) will speak on research he conducted with SERC Chief Scientist Dr. Dan DeLaurentis (Purdue) on applying digital engineering to help the Joint Program Executive Office (JPEO) for Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear Defense. The researchers recently evaluated the JPEO technology portfolio at the enterprise level.
Dr. William Rouse (Georgetown University), Dr. John Lombardi (University of Massachusetts Amherst) and Dr. Dan DeLaurentis, (Purdue University) will present on policy innovations to enhance the STEM talent pipeline. This work is focused on modeling economic incentives within the STEM education ecosystem and the impact of policy innovations on the STEM pipeline, as well as evidence-based assessments of STEM engagement on the part of students. The project created dynamic models to discern why the STEM pipeline is running dry.
Retired Navy Captain William Shepherd, who serves on the SERC Advisory Board, will present on the Capstone Marketplace, a SERC program to match multidisciplinary undergraduate student teams with challenging engineering projects, to develop the next generation of systems engineering talent for future DoD and defense industry needs.
The 2022 annual event will close with the tenth annual SERC Doctoral Student Forum on November 17 (virtual only). The presenters this year represent George Washington University, the Naval Postgraduate School, Penn State University, Purdue, Stevens, University of Southern California and Virginia Tech. All the selected presentations will be considered for an award. Two of the presenters, Ms. Stephanie Chiesi and Ms. Marilee Wheaton, are SERC Doctoral Fellows.
In addition to a formal agenda, the Annual Research Review enables government and industry leaders to interact with academic experts and continue conversations to develop future research and innovation.
Read more about the SERC and AIRC research portfolios.
Visit the Annual Research Review event page to register, and follow the SERC and AIRC LinkedIn pages for updated information on this exceptional gathering of the defense community.
