The System Engineering Senior Design students competed in the General Donald R. Keith Memorial Capstone Conference, at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, NY, April 30, 2015
Four out of the eight Mason Systems Engineering and Operations Research teams competing won awards:
The 2nd Place Conference Overall Paper and Best Poster was awarded to a team: Saqib Qureshi, Raymond Fontaine, Samuel Saleeb, and Joel Stein for the project "Design of a Sediment Removal and Processing System to Reduce Sediment Scouring Potential from the Lower Susquehanna River Dams"
The project evaluated best way to minimize the nutrient run-off (Phosphorous and Nitrogen) from the Susquehanna River into the Chesapeake bay. The students simulation model of the river identified the best location to dregde the sediment built up behind the five dam walls to minimize the excess nutrient flow after major storms. This project was sponsored by the West/Rhode River Riverkeeper.
Best Presentation in Decision Analysis was awarded to Ashruf Ali, Nathan Ballou, Brad McDougall, and Jorge Luis Valle for their project: "Decision Support Tool (DST) for Designing Niche Small Package Delivery Aerial Vehicles (NSPDAV)"
This project developed the equations and simulation to design small Unmanned Air Vehicles to deliver small packages. Applications included: delivery of blood from one hospital to another, delivery of spare parts to maintenance personnel in the field, repositioning of assets in a warehouse, and delivery of fast food (e.g. subs and pizza). This project was supported by UPS, Aurora Flight Sciences, and NEXA Capital.
Best Presentation Engineering Management was awarded to students Justin Amoyal, Roman Garber, Marwan Karama, Meba E. Kassahun and Anoosha Koohi for their project "Analysis of the Impact of Enhanced FOD Inspection on the Aircraft Assembly Process"
This project evaluated the benefits of a new x-ray and differential imaging tool to locate Foreign Object Debris (FOD) that is accidently dropped in the aircraft during aircraft assembly. Implementation of the students ideas has the potential to save sponsor Lockheed Martin, millions of dollars per year.
Best Presentation Process Improvement was awarded to students Heather Johnson, Houda Kerkoub, Shaida Latifi, Mumtahina Mahmud, and Alexis Nittoli for their project "Design of a Procedure Analysis Tool (PAT) for the FAA Human Factors Certification Process".
This project has the potential to save manufacturers thousands of dollars during the process of certification of flight control computers for use in airlines and business jet aircraft. This project was sponsored by Raytheon and the Center for Air Transportation Systems Research (CATSR) at GMU.
This class is co-taught by Professor Emeritus George Donohue and Associate Professor Lance Sherry. "We are very proud of our students. Their creativity, initiative and perseverance working on these complex problems was outstanding," said Dr. Donohue. Added, Dr. Sherry, "These awards are a testament to the great students and the faculty in the System Engineering degree program. Our planet is in safe hands if these students can duplicate their success on these projects in jobs in the real-world."
Links to papers available here.
