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George Mason University students won best paper in four of the five tracks at the 9th Annual Andrew P. Sage Memorial Design Competition (SMDC-26), hosted by the George Mason University’s Department of Systems Engineering and Operations Research (SEOR) on April 20, 2026.
Systems thinking, technical ingenuity, and real-world problem solving were center stage at the event, named for pioneering systems engineer and founding dean Andrew P. Sage. The annual competition is an internationally recognized forum for students tackling society’s most complex challenges through engineering design. Starting in 2018, the event brings together students in systems and industrial engineering and related disciplines to present capstone projects focused on issues ranging from sustainability and cybersecurity to national security and human-centered design.
The teams explored a broad range of topics using emerging technologies and advanced methodologies such as Model-Based Systems Engineering (MBSE), digital twins, and artificial intelligence and machine learning. Project areas included airline demand prediction using digital behavioral signals, AI-driven predictive maintenance for electrical transformers, healthcare tools aimed at reducing preventable doctor visits, and cybersecurity challenges tied to the rise of AI-enabled systems.
“The reward is seeing these amazing students address hard, real-world challenges with such creativity and technical precision,” said Songjun Luo, conference chair and SEOR professor.
Luo noted the technical rigor of the student work, combined with the ability to defend design decisions before industry experts, continues to distinguish SMDC from similar competitions. Many of the submitted papers, he said, met standards consistent with IEEE publication expectations.
Geore Mason hosted five universities, including the University of Pennsylvania, Virginia Tech, George Washington University, the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, and the Georgia Institute of Technology, with 37 teams participating. In addition, for the first time in the competition’s history, six high school teams participated.
“The high school inclusion highlights SEOR's growing commitment to K-12 STEM outreach, proving that systems thinking can—and should—begin long before a student reaches a university lecture hall,” said Abbas Zaidi, a SEOR professor.
Represented high schools included H-B Woodlawn Secondary Program, Arlington, VA; Rick Reedy High School, Frisco, TX; Manassas Park High School, Manassas, VA; Wakefield High School, Arlington, VA; Freedom High School, South Riding, VA; Fairfax High School, Fairfax, VA.
The competition served as a networking opportunity between students and industry leaders. Sponsors included representatives from organizations such as MITRE, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, and the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority. More than 30 judges from industry and government evaluated student work; reviewed papers, presentations, and posters; and critiqued responses during live question-and-answer sessions. The industry judges represented MITRE, Guidehouse, EasyDynamics, Chirality Capital Consulting, MZI Aviation, and INCOSE.
Zaidi said, “As SMDC grows, the event underscores George Mason’s role as a hub for innovation, collaboration, and hands-on engineering education, while offering a glimpse at the next generation of systems engineers already working to solve tomorrow’s challenges.”
Below are the placements of George Mason student teams.
Track 1 - Systems Design & Resilient Operations
Best Paper:
Converge: A Task and Parts Coordination Hub (TPCH) for Municipal Water Utilities by Adewale Adekambi, Joseph Sadiq and Nicholas Privitera
Track 2 - Intelligent Systems & Decision Support
Best Paper:
Design of the Area Controller Training System (ACTS) by Zachary Cacace, Nathanael Davis, Alana Khem and Noran Magatheh
Track 3 - Human-Centered Health & Training
Best Paper:
Design of a Tool to Reduce the Number of Preventable Doctor/Hospital Visits Experienced by Individuals with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (IDD) by Amy Mayeaux, Britney Orellana-Ochoa and Will Echols
Track 4 - Mobility, Logistics & Routing
Honorable Mention:
Design of an Automated Floating Station-Keeping Powerline (AFSPL) for Humanitarian Ship-to-Shore Aid Delivery by Hocine Filali, Alan Garcia, Amr Hamza, Nesma Khalafalla and Timothy Shipman
Track 5 - Cybersecurity Systems Engineering
Best Paper:
Containerized DevSecOps Solution for Application Security within the CISA Zero Trust Maturity Model by Eric Zipor, Christopher Ghanma, Megan Hoxha and Akshay Kasthurirangan
Honorable Mention:
AI-Based Role Authorization Prototype by Gabriel Brinza, Brandon Heiney, Mustapha Badaoui, John Cox, Dana Al-Qahtani, Christopher Smith