Engineering Solutions for a Complex World
Welcome to the Department of Engineering Management and Systems Engineering (EMSE) at the George Washington University School of Engineering and Applied Science (GW Engineering). As the EMSE Department Chair, I am thrilled to introduce you to our community of faculty, students, and alumni who are at the forefront of addressing complex societal challenges through systems engineering and management.
In today’s world, addressing major issues such as climate change, public health, trustworthiness in artificial intelligence, critical infrastructure systems, innovation, privacy, and connectivity requires a holistic approach. At EMSE, we firmly believe that the success of any solution depends on embracing systems thinking. We understand that these challenges have deep-rooted connections to complex systems, and it is our mission to develop innovative solutions that can truly make an impact. Within our department, we pride ourselves on tackling a diverse range of intriguing and significant challenges. From efficiently responding to pandemics and ensuring the resilience of global supply chains amidst disruptions to devising technology and policy strategies to combat climate change, investigating online malicious content spread, and enhancing human-technology interaction, we engage in interdisciplinary, problem-driven research. We aim to comprehend the intricate interplay of various components within complex systems and uncover how they fit together. Working alongside policymakers and technology leaders, we are dedicated to creating and implementing complex adaptive solutions that improve decision-making and shape the world around us.
To succeed in this endeavor, professional engineers must not only understand the technologies being developed but also grasp the rapidly changing environments where these technologies will be applied. At GW Engineering’s EMSE Department, we equip our students with a comprehensive set of analytical tools and foster systems-level thinking. By combining engineering, management, business analytics, artificial intelligence, and technology, we empower today’s engineers, scientists, business professionals, and policymakers with the skills they need to enhance management and decision-making within their respective organizations. Our department cultivates an intellectual community that values collaboration, innovation, and societal impact. Together, we drive positive change and contribute to solving the challenging problems that span disciplines, countries, and cultures.
Ekundayo Shittu, Ph.D.
Professor and Chair
Department of Engineering Management and Systems Engineering
School of Engineering and Applied Science
The George Washington University
SZAJNFARBER’S NEW ROLE DRIVES DEEP SYSTEMS RESEARCH WITH REAL-WORLD IMPACT
Engineering systems are becoming increasingly complex, leading governmental organizations to collaborate with academic institutions like GW Engineering’s EMSE Department. In November 2023, the Systems Engineering Research Center (SERC) announced EMSE Prof. Zoe Szajnfarber as its third Chief Scientist, a formative role in driving SERC’s deep systems research with real-world impact.
SERC, the first University-Affiliated Research Center of the Department of Defense structured as a network of universities, has grown to 26 collaborating institutions applying systems thinking toward national security. As Chief Scientist, Szajnfarber joins a proud tradition of respected researchers to lead the SERC Research Council in shaping research and technical strategy, bringing expertise in R&D management, space policy, and organizational innovation.
Recently, Szajnfarber led efforts to define SERC’s core strategic research thrusts, including a research offsite with representatives of the systems and acquisition community. Alongside fellow EMSE faculty and students, she also engaged in SERC-hosted workshops, such as the international Archimedes Initiatives and AI4SE & SE4AI, to optimize AI’s benefits for systems engineering while managing risks.
Szajnfarber’s appointment underscores her aptitude for clarifying problems for decision- makers and assembling interdisciplinary teams while positioning EMSE at the forefront of tackling complex systems challenges. Through ongoing collaboration with SERC and Szajnfarber’s leadership, the department is set to lead advancements in systems engineering, reinforcing its position as a resource for addressing national systems challenges.
ENGINEERING EDUCATION FOR A BETTER WORLD
GW Engineering faculty regularly transform the Science & Engineering Hall into a collaboration hub, exemplified at the ASEE Middle Atlantic Section’s Spring 2024 Conference. As host, the EMSE Department provided a valuable platform for around 80 educators from 24 institutions to collaborate in adapting engineering education to address multifaceted challenges like climate change more effectively.
Recognizing GW’s leadership within this section and the 16-year gap since the last conference in D.C., Profs. Eric Dano and Joost Santos took the initiative to return it to our campus. They leveraged the Science & Engineering Hall’s open layout to facilitate networking, with frequent breaks and a reception hosted by Dean John Lach offering opportunities to connect.
Tackling systems challenges demands abstract thinking, a skill Dano and Santos promoted by selecting 30 diverse presentations on teaching innovations, decision analysis, ethics, AI, and inclusivity. The theme, “Engineering Education for a Better World,” mirrored GW Engineering’s mission of cultivating engineers committed to societal well-being, emphasized in Prof. Jonathan Deason’s keynote that urged attendees to contemplate their vital roles as educators.
This ASEE conference underscored engineering’s role in tackling societal challenges, with a GW-led panel on LLMs in education showcasing our commitment to thought leadership. As EMSE faculty continue pushing the boundaries of engineering education, they ensure students graduate equipped to address emerging challenges and their implications.
Revolutionizing Healthcare Technology Management
Before earning his master’s degree in engineering management from the EMSE Department, Connor Roberts, B.S. ‘16, M.S. ‘17, teamed up with Prof. Ekundayo Shittu to build a sensor for monitoring medical devices. This marked Roberts’ first exposure to healthcare technology management (HTM) and sparked a passion for the field, leading him to pursue his graduate studies. Roberts later founded Opal HTM, leveraging support from the EMSE Department and GW’s broader innovation ecosystem to grow the company from customer discovery to securing multiple patents.
Opal HTM’s flagship technology is a module that attaches to medical devices’ power ports, using machine learning (ML) algorithms to track usage, analyze reliability, and quantify factors like age and location—all essential for optimizing inventory and maintenance strategies. This innovation stemmed from market research supported by the NSF I-Corps program, which revealed a critical lack of usage data, prompting Roberts and Shittu to pivot from monitoring environmental conditions to device runtime. Roberts honed his entrepreneurial skills through GW’s New Venture Competition, learning to communicate the importance of his solution to key stakeholders.
Drawing on his undergraduate studies in electrical engineering and his graduate training in engineering management, Roberts was able to build the physical device and link power consumption with usage and economics. Today, he applies this knowledge in several funded efforts to refine the algorithms that predict device performance, track degradation over time, and optimize maintenance. Roberts and Shittu’s partnership with GW’s School of Nursing provides access to medical devices in simulated environments, where nursing students, who are being trained to connect instrumentation to the devices, generate data for GW Engineering student Mobolaji Shobanke and Sanchit Vijay, who are working to improve the ML models.
Roberts credits the EMSE Department’s support and GW’s entrepreneurial resources, like the Technology Commercialization Office, for helping him launch his company and make HTM smarter, safer, and more efficient. He highlights the critical role of intellectual property in market exploration and growth. Roberts’ journey exemplifies how GW Engineering empowers students to turn innovative ideas into successful ventures, and he encourages current students to utilize the available resources as they pursue their entrepreneurial paths.
How Broniatowski Integrates AI Research, Education, and Workforce Development
Barely a day goes by without hearing about artificial intelligence (AI), either as an exciting new frontier or a serious ethical conundrum. EMSE faculty are taking a holistic approach to AI research and education, as demonstrated by Prof. David Broniatowski. Through rigorous research and workforce development initiatives, Broniatowski is transforming AI development to enhance trust, fairness, and accountability.
Broniatowski leads GW’s contributions to the NIST-NSF Institute for Trustworthy AI in Law & Society (TRAILS), focusing on developing AI systems that earn public trust through broad participation, particularly from underrepresented communities. With seed funding support, his research spans collaborations with TRAILS’ faculty across GW, the University of Maryland, and Cornell University. These efforts are not just interdisciplinary but also aim to generate tangible outcomes, from using generative chatbots in digital smoking cessation programs to creating a website prototype for policymakers to leverage academic research on trustworthy AI.
Broniatowski’s additional TRAILS projects explore the societal impacts of AI technologies by analyzing the public perception of AI-generated misinformation and evaluating the reliability of AI-moderated social media during crises. At the Institute for Data, Democracy, and Politics, Broniatowski applies his commitment to combating misinformation through a different lens, focusing on its impact on public health and democracy. He forges relationships with policymakers and journalists to ensure his findings inform public policy and media practices and are communicated widely.
To train students in responsible AI development, Broniatowski leads the GW Professional Research Experience Program (GW-PREP) and participates in the Co-Design of Trustworthy AI in Systems program, which emphasizes human-centered, interdisciplinary design. Through GW-PREP, he cultivates a diverse, highly-skilled STEM workforce in the U.S. by recruiting and retaining historically marginalized groups and equipping them to advance critical technologies like AI. By aligning with NIST’s focus on trustworthy AI systems, GW-PREP ensures the next generation of researchers create AI technologies that are technically sound and socially responsible.
Integrating research, education, and workforce development creates a robust ecosystem in the department for advancing trustworthy AI, with Broniatowski playing a pivotal role in establishing GW Engineering as a leader in this space.
Informing Public Policy Through Rigorous Research
Prof. John Helveston’s research goal is to inform public policy aimed at accelerating green technology adoption, and the study “Not all subsidies are equal: Measuring preferences for electric vehicle financial incentives” is a prime example. Conducted with former student Dr. Laura Roberson, Ph.D. ‘24, this work explored consumer preferences for government incentives to boost electric vehicle (EV) adoption and found overwhelming evidence that the public prefers a point-of-sale rebate over tax credits. This finding informed key provisions of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), demonstrating the practical influence of academic research on national policy.
The historical EV purchase tax credit had a limited impact as many potential buyers were ineligible and still faced high upfront costs. Recognizing the real-world relevance of exploring alternative incentives, particularly for low-income buyers, the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation supported the study. Helveston and Roberson hypothesized that upfront discounts would be more effective, which they confirmed by surveying thousands of individuals with varying incentives.
FINDING:
$1,500 in additional value from an upfront incentive
RESULTING IN:
Potential for $2 billion in estimated government savings over the last ten years
Published just before the IRA’s passage in 2022, the study’s outcomes backed the policy switch from tax credits to instant rebates. The research gained extensive media attention, including coverage from Politico, The Washington Post, and Forbes, with mentions surging further after these provisions were enacted in January 2024. The study also caught the attention of automotive industry outlets like The Drive. Helveston credits Roberson for grounding this research in practical insights gained from her roles as an employee at Volkswagen and Hyundai.
Helveston and Roberson’s work illustrates the profound impact that scholarly research can have on policy-making. The inclusion of their findings in the IRA underscores the vital role of data-driven decisions in advancing sustainable development by increasing EV adoption, which not only supports national sustainability targets but also expands access to EVs. As he continues exploring the nexus of technology and policy, Helveston—along with the EMSE Department—are poised to to continue shaping state and federal EV policies toward a more sustainable and equitable future.
Student Leah Kaplan Champions Ethics in Engineering & Innovation
Today, engineers are pivotal in driving global innovation, making ethical awareness essential. Advised by Prof. John Helveston, Dr. Leah Kaplan’s, Ph.D. ‘24, doctoral research focused on the societal impacts of emerging artificial intelligence (AI) technologies, particularly autonomous vehicles (AVs), aiming to ensure they’re leveraged for the benefit of society. Her commitment to ethical engineering grew further through opportunities fostered by the EMSE Department, including serving as a mentor for Engineering Ethics Case Competitions and participating in the Fellowships at Auschwitz for the Study of Professional Ethics (FASPE) and Co-Design of Trustworthy AI in Systems (DTAIS) programs.
Alongside Prof. Caitlin Grady, Kaplan guided undergraduate students through complex engineering ethics cases, stressing ethical responsibility as she notes academics can oftentimes feel detached from a system’s end consequences. FASPE amplified this for Kaplan by framing professional ethics within the Holocaust context and challenging her to evaluate how her work might unintentionally contribute to injustice. Kaplan’s interactions with computer scientists in DTAIS broadened her view of ethical considerations in technology design, exposing her to diverse perspectives and underscoring the need to address potential harms early.
In DTAIS, Kaplan distinguished trust from trustworthiness, stating that while trust relates to adoption, she feels trustworthiness emphasizes values such as transparency, fairness, and accountability. Her dissertation addresses trustworthiness by exploring the complex interplay between automation and human labor, discovering that automation often transforms rather than eliminates human labor. Kaplan’s early insights into the societal impacts of AVs create the opportunity to shape future outcomes to serve the greater good, which has earned her accolades like the People’s Choice Award at the Three-Minute Thesis regional finals.
Kaplan remains optimistic about the future of AVs as discussions on ethical design increase, highlighting that companies in the transportation industry are following the lead of other domains in creating risk management positions to promote trustworthiness and improve AV function. By balancing technical expertise with a profound commitment to ethical standards, Kaplan’s experience exemplifies how the EMSE Department encourages critical thinking about the societal impacts of innovations, a crucial focus in today’s AI-driven world.