AIRC-DAU Quarterly Research Forum

Dr. Nicole Hutchison is a senior research scientist at the Systems Engineering Research Center (SERC). She personally collected most of the data and conducted substantial analyses into skills, career paths, and personal enabling characteristics of systems engineers which comprised the Helix project. The work focused on career paths formed the basis of her dissertation. She has over 19 years of analytic and systems engineering experience. At the SERC, she has developed competency models in system, mission, and digital engineering, and artificial intelligence, machine learning, and data analytics. Nicole is currently the Editor in Chief of the Systems Engineering Body of Knowledge (SEBoK). Prior to the SERC, she supported many branches of the federal government, including the Departments of Defense, Homeland Security, and Health and Human Services through her prior role at analytic services (ANSER) in Virginia. She is a Certified Systems Engineering Professional (CSEP) through INCOSE and has over three dozen publications on systems engineering. Nicole is proudly married to a US Army officer and they have two boys who keep them on their toes.

Dr. Zhongyuan Yu is a Teaching Associate Professor and Software Engineering Program Director at Stevens Institute of Technology. Dr. Yu possesses a remarkable 15-year proficiency in constructing intelligent and interactive data-driven decision-support software systems. Her extensive research spans diverse domains, encompassing applied statistics, optimization, data visualization, simulation, natural language processing, graph theory, and socio-economics analysis. In addition to the academic conferences, Dr. Yu has delivered numerous impactful presentations to executives and senior managers across both public sectors and private industries. Dr. Zhongyuan Yu earned her Ph.D. in System Engineering from the Stevens Institute of Technology and holds two M.S. degrees in Operations Research and Industrial Engineering, respectively, from the Georgia Institute of Technology.

Tom McDermott is a leader, educator, and innovator in multiple technology fields. He currently serves as Chief Technology Officer (CTO) of the Systems Engineering Research Center (SERC) at Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken, NJ, as well as a consultant specializing in strategic planning for uncertain environments. He studies systems engineering, systems thinking, organizational dynamics, and the nature of complex human socio-technical systems. He teaches system architecture concepts, systems thinking and decision making, and the composite skills required at the intersection of leadership and engineering. He has over 30 years of background and experience in technical and management disciplines, including over 15 years at the Georgia Institute of Technology and 18 years with Lockheed Martin.