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George Mason University’s Department of Systems Engineering and Operations Research (SEOR) held its sixth annual Andrew P. Sage Memorial Capstone Design Competition on April 17, 2023. This student-focused competition is an international assembly for the design of complex systems and a leading showcase for undergraduate design projects. These projects are from capstone design courses or from baccalaureate, honors, or design-oriented graduate theses. The event honors Andrew P. Sage, the founding dean of the Volgenau School of Engineering, a pioneer and leader in systems engineering, a prolific author, and a dedicated educator.
Mason teams competed with groups from UPenn, Virginia Tech, and other domestic and foreign universities. Since its inception in 2018, the competition has grown to include more teams from foreign countries. This year there were 12 international teams from four universities.
Categories included design, network security, healthcare, software security, decision support systems, device security, and transportation and logistics. Teams from the Bachelor of Science in systems engineering and cyber security engineering represented Mason at the competition.
Independent judges commented on the outstanding quality of the presentations and the skill of the student presenters and described the methodologies as top-notch.
“I’d like to thank all of the people who contributed to the success of the event,” said Luo. “It was really an effort of many people.”
- The judges for reading through all the papers (~60), asking tough questions, and giving honest and constructive feedback and evaluations.
- The track chairs for working through all the technical issues and ensuring the smooth running of all sessions.
- Justin Amoyal, CEO and Co-Founder of Impruvon, for a very inspirational keynote speech
- George Donohue for hosting a wonderful (and humorous) award ceremony.
- John Shortle and Lance Sherry for their advice and guidance.
- SEOR and CYSE faculty for attending the conference.
- Rania and Mike (our admins.) for the around-the-clock support in the last few days, and all 260+ students for their hard work!
Mason winners from Cyber Security Engineering Tracks"The projects consider all aspects of the systems engineering design process. It is very impressive what the students accomplish in a year,” said John Shortle, SEOR department chair.