Welcome to the 2025 GEN Keith Memorial Capstone Conference Registration Site

The GEN Donald R. Keith Memorial Capstone Conference is 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 invites and attracts undergraduates to compete for conference presentation awards along with cadets from the Department of Systems Engineering at the United States Military Academy (USMA). This is a regional conference of the Society for Industrial and Systems Engineering (SISE), which publishes the conference proceedings. 

The conference will be held in person on April 24, 2025, at USMA. We welcome papers that describe the authors' work in a senior capstone project in systems or industrial engineering, engineering management, systems and decision sciences, data science, or operations research, with special emphasis on novel approaches, discoveries, and innovative applications. Top papers will be published in the SISE's scholarly journal, the Industrial and Systems Engineering Review. 

Conference Program

The conference program and schedule are now available. We look forward to seeing everyone at the conference!

2025 Conference Deadlines

• Papers due: 14 March 2025
• Reviews back to authors: 31 March 2025
• Registration deadline: 11 April 2025
• Final papers due: 11 April 2025
• Presentation slides due: 22 April 2025
• Capstone Conference: 24 April 2025

Registration

• Complete your registration survey.

Paper Submissions

• Papers should be submitted according to the format in the Microsoft Word or Latex template.
• The paper Submission Portal is available here. https://cmt3.research.microsoft.com/GDRKMCC2025/Submission/Index
• The Microsoft CMT service is used to manage the peer-reviewing process for this conference. This service was provided for free by Microsoft and bore all expenses, including costs for Azure cloud services and software development and support.

Authors with accepted papers will present in one of the following tracks, and each conference track will include a panel of professional judges to select the best-in-track papers and presentations:

• Decision Analysis (DA) - Projects that evaluate complex non-repetitive decision opportunities by examining values, uncertain variables, preferences, and alternatives
• 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 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 modeling and simulation in the design process.
• Model-Based Systems Engineering (MBSE) - Projects that apply digital models to support the specification, design, analysis, verification, and validation of complex systems. Emphasis is on the use of modeling languages (e.g., SysML) and architecture frameworks to improve system understanding, traceability, and integration across the system lifecycle.
• 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.
• Modeling and Simulation for Defense Applications (MSDA) - Modeling methods and applications for representing static or dynamic characteristics of systems to support effective systems design or improvement, specifically for military applications.
• 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 this award.
• 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.
• Modeling and Simulation (MS) - Modeling methods and applications for representing static or dynamic characteristics of systems to support effective systems design or improvement.

2025 GEN Donald R. Keith Memorial Capstone Conference Awardees

1. Decision Analysis Track

Best Presentation

Finding the GOAT (Grit Observed in Army Training)

• Sion Yu, Christopher Freire, Dennis McMahon, Olivia Riggsbee, and Isabella Sanders
• United States Military Academy

Best Paper

Leveraging Autonomous Aerial Vehicles for Intra-Theater Logistical Support

• Charlotte Brailsford, Michael Cullen, Margaret Geiger, Lysander Rehnstrom, and Daphne Skipper
• United States Naval Academy

2. Project and Engineering Management Track

Best Presentation

Applying the Systems Decision Process to Design a Low-Cost, Hypersonic Rocket

• Nathanael Martin, Arnav Pai, Evan Fitch, and Richard Dulce II
• United States Military Academy

Best Paper

An Earned Value-Centered Assessment of Project Health and Artificial Intelligence Intervention Efficacy for the Department of Veterans Affairs

• Harrison Brownlee, Gavin Butler, Griffin Lamb, Samuel Lee, Joseph Valchar, James Schreiner, and Matthew Wolfe
• United States Military Academy

3. Systems Design for Defense Applications Track

Best Presentation

Exploring Leading Indicators of Satellite Maneuvers

• Elliot Lim, Adam Garton, Tim Larson, Luke Johnston, Kate Johnston, and Philip Schmedeman
• United States Military Academy

Best Paper

System Dynamics Modeling of Cold Region Installation Resilience

• Kyle Atherton, Luke South, José Casal, Kevin Luke, Luke Rucker, and Brandon Thompson
• United States Military Academy

4. Model-Based Systems Engineering Track

Best Presentation and Paper

Gaining the Edge: Visualizing Information Advantage through Machine Learning-Driven Dashboards

• Ameir El Ouadi, William Knowlton, Adrian Pimentel, and David Beskow
• United States Military Academy

5. Process Modeling and Analysis Track

Best Presentation

Strength in Numbers: Using Simulation to Improve the Utilization of Training Facilities and Coaching at HP Forge

• Mike Cerniauskas, Bryson Daily, Maaika Dones, Lily Holtmeier, and Tom Lainis
• United States Military Academy

Best Paper

Less Drag, More Drive: Automating the Special Warfare Pipeline

• Lauren Arnold, Caroline Guiler, Lauren Pettit, Ben Kallemyn, and Brian Lemay
• United States Air Force Academy

6. Modeling and Simulation for Defense Applications Track

Best Presentation and Paper

A Dose of Optimization: Radiologist Scheduling at Brooke Army Medical Center

• Matthew Burke, Aiden Drake, Cy Hwang, Mackenzie Russ, Robert Smalley, and Brian Lemay
• United States Air Force Academy

7. Hollis Award Track

Best Presentation

DRAPER Counter Drone System MBSE

• Jacob Schuck, Robert Kite, Devan Pathak, Hunter Howell, Calliott Scheuermann, and Vikram Mittal
• United States Military Academy

Best Paper

Simulating Infantry Platoon Counter Unmanned Aerial Systems to Increase Combat Effectiveness

• Nick Brown, David Garcia, John Goetz, Connor Kling, Wesley Rockefeller, and Stephen Gillespie
• United States Military Academy

8. General Engineering Track

Best Presentation

Process Evaluation for Graphite Recycling from Spent Lithium-ion Batteries

• Abel Alex, Erin Block, Lily Casey, Azan Iftikhar, Emelia Lemza, Kaitlyn O’Dell, Yihao Shen, Xiaotu Ma, Yong Wang, and Yuxin Wang
• Binghamton University

Best Paper

Design of a Supply Chain and Manufacturing Process for Synthetic Lumber

• Ethan Ford, Michael Smith, Mikhail Ivanov, Stephano Barra, and Trevor Geissler
• George Mason University

9. Modeling and Simulation Track

Best Presentation

Design of a Proficiency-Driven Drone Pilot Training System

• Emaan Abbasi, Andrew Kuo, Shakira Mangrio, Hannah Nguyen, and Corbin Phillips
• George Mason University

Best Paper

Design of a Proficiency-Driven Drone Pilot Training System

• Emaan Abbasi, Andrew Kuo, Shakira Mangrio, Hannah Nguyen, and Corbin Phillips
• George Mason University

SISE Best Paper

Applying the Systems Decision Process to Design a Low-Cost, Hypersonic Rocket

• Nathanael Martin, Arnav Pai, Evan Fitch, and Richard Dulce II
• United States Military Academy

SISE Second Best Paper

Leveraging Autonomous Aerial Vehicles for Intra-Theater Logistical Support

• Charlotte Brailsford, Michael Cullen, Margaret Geiger, Lysander Rehnstrom, and Daphne Skipper
• United States Naval Academy

SISE Third Best Paper

Analyzing the Impact of Improved Situational Awareness on Command and Control System Performance for Decision-Making

• Adam Rocca, Damilola Ayanwale, Isaac Bond, Emily Grooms, Matthew Corbett, Emily Nack, Patrick Davis, Aryn Pyke, and Nathaniel Bastian
• United States Military Academy