Welcome to SzajnLab, a research group in the Department of Engineering Management and Systems Engineering at the George Washington University.

We study the design and development of complex systems, primarily in the aerospace and defense sectors. Our work considers both the organizational and technical system architectures to “design-in” an ability to achieve performance goals across extended and highly uncertain operational lifetimes. Recent projects have focused on the nature and function of scientific and technical expertise in the innovation process, particularly in the context of open innovation.

Our approach emphasizes a deep understanding of phenomena in their socio-technical context. We adopt a mixed-methods approach, with a strong reliance on qualitative techniques useful in understanding human behavior. We pride ourselves in collecting unique data sets that enable progress on stubborn policy-relevant problems.

TEAM

News

October 4th, 2021

Dr. Zach Pirtle finally received his doctoral hood, and got to share the moment with baby Gal!

October 1, 2021

New paper in JMD: Topcu, T. G., Mukherjee, S., Hennig, A., and Szajnfarber, Z. (October 1, 2021). "The Dark Side of Modularity: How Decomposing Problems Can Increase System Complexity." ASME. J. Mech. Des. March 2022; 144(3): 031403. [Link]

September 22, 2021

We are excited to get started on our new NSF NRT grant focused on co-design of trustworthy AI to support the future of work. Check out the GW Today story.