Hello from the Department of Systems Engineering (DSE) at West Point!

   The 2023 General Donald R. Keith Memorial Capstone Conference (GDRKMCC-23) provided a forum for undergraduate students of systems engineering and related disciplines to present their capstone work to professionals, scholars, clients, and fellow students from other colleges and universities. The conference included 63 presentations from Cadets from the United States Military Academy and United States Air Force Academy, Midshipmen from the United States Naval Academy, and students from George Mason University and SUNY Binghamton University. This year’s conference showed that we have, and are developing, some of the most consequential thinkers in the Army, and in the world.  DSE is continually involved in solving difficult problems, and the capstone conference provided an opportunity for our faculty and cadets to showcase their important research in support of that effort. 

   This conference served as a Regional Conference of the Society for Industrial and Systems Engineering (SISE) who published the conference proceedings containing 57 conference papers (Proceedings of the 2023 GDRKMCC). This is the 9th year SISE members have served as judges at the capstone conference and published conference proceedings.

    Every team that participated did a tremendous job in preparing their presentations and engaging during the question and answer sessions. We are proud to share the winners of each track presentations, track papers, and the SISE best paper awards with you below.

2024 Capstone Conference

    The 2024 General Donald R. Keith Memorial Capstone Conference will be held in person at the United States Military Academy on 2 May 2024. This is a regional conference of the Society for Industrial and Systems Engineering (SISE), which published the Proceedings of the 2023 General Donald R. Keith Memorial Capstone Conference. Top papers will be published in the Society's scholarly journal, the Industrial and Systems Engineering Review. Details for the 2024 Capstone Conference will be posted in the 2024 Fall academic semester.

Projected 2024 Conference Deadlines

• Papers due:                                     22 March 2024
• Reviews back to authors:        5 April 2024
• Registration deadline:               19 April 2024
• Final papers due:                          19 April 2024
• Capstone Conference:                2 May 2024

    We welcome papers that describe the authors' work in a senior capstone project in the fields of systems or industrial engineering, engineering management, systems and decision sciences, data science, or operations research, with special emphasis on novel approaches, new discoveries, and innovative applications. Authors with accepted papers will present in one of the following tracks: Decision Analysis, Modeling and Simulation, Modeling and Simulation for Defense Applications, Process Modeling and Analysis, Project and Engineering Management, Systems Design, Systems Design for Defense Applications, General Engineering, and Honors (designated for individual student honors thesis research). Each conference track will include a panel of professional judges to select the best-in-track papers and presentations.

Conference tracks (subject area). 

Decision Analysis (DA): 

• Projects that evaluate complex non-repetitive decision opportunities by examining values, uncertain variables, preferences, and alternatives

Modeling and Simulation (MS): 

• Modeling methods and applications for representing static or dynamic characteristics of systems in order to support effective systems design or improvement.

Modeling and Simulation for Defense Applications (MSDA): 

• Modeling methods and applications for representing static or dynamic characteristics of systems in order to support effective systems design or improvement, specifically for military applications.

Process Modeling and Analysis (PMA): 

• Projects that use methods and applications addressing the modeling of partially ordered activities to achieve a goal for systems existing in the real world (process analysis) or not (processing engineering), to support effective design or systems improvement.

Project and Engineering Management (PEM): 

• Applications of engineering principles to operations, project management, and business practice. Presentations include engineering surrounding product development, manufacturing, construction design engineering, industrial engineering, technology, production, or any other field that employs personnel who perform an engineering function.

Systems Design (SD): 

• Projects from engineering and problem solving that feature significant levels of systems design. This includes notable examples of requirements specification, functional analysis, systems architecture, model-based systems engineering, or the use of modeling and simulation in the design process.

Systems Design for Defense Applications (SDDA): 

• Defense-related projects that feature significant levels of systems design. This includes notable examples of requirements specification, functional analysis, systems architecture, model-based systems engineering, or the use of modeling and simulation in the design process.

General Engineering (GE): 

• Projects that apply general engineering principles and processes to meeting operational needs and solving problems. Emphasis is on correctly defining requirements and then applying engineering principles to solve them.

Honors (H): 

• Research performed in the pursuit of an honors degree at the United States Military Academy. This includes a presentation by a single cadet as well as review of an honors thesis.

Hollis Award: 

• Presenters in this track will compete for the coveted Hollis Award for excellence in Operations Research. All submitted papers will be evaluated for the opportunity to compete for the Hollis Award.