The COVID-19 pandemic brought many supply chain weaknesses to the forefront. This has led the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), to select Dr. Isabella Sanders, associate director of the Systems Design and Analysis Center and assistant professor in the Department of Systems Engineering, and Col. Julia Coxen, department head and academy professor in the Department of Systems Engineering, to work as part of the government team to conduct and facilitate research with all performers on the Resilient Supply and Demand Networks (RSDN) program in support of the agency’s mission to address systemic risk in procurement and acquisition.
DARPA awarded the researchers approximately $2 million spread over four years for their interdisciplinary proposal, Mitigating Risk Exposure in Supply-and-Demand Systems by Linking All Performers (MRE’S SLAP).
Besides Sanders, primary principal investigator, and Col. Coxen, co-principal investigator, a total of over a dozen cadets majoring in Systems Engineering, Engineering Management, Systems and Decision Sciences, and Operations Research will explore how to make current supply chains more efficient.
The researchers will try to find and mitigate potential weaknesses in supply networks to counter disruptions, either intentional (including adversarial), or unintentional, by using mathematical modeling of medical, food and metal supply networks.
The research will not only benefit the Army by enhancing the systems providing the necessary medicine, food and weaponry needed to keep Soldiers mission capable, but it will also help the nation as a whole by helping to build more robust networks that supply Americans with medicine and food, according to Sanders.
“I am grateful we have the opportunity to expand our research in the area of supply chain resiliency, collaborate with other performers, and continue to involve cadets in meaningful research,” Sanders said. “I am especially excited to model food networks and to increase food security across the United States.”
Cadets will also benefit from the project through capstones, independent research and summer internship or work-study experiences. Two Class of 2023 Cadets, Ryan Jackovic, an Engineering Management major, and Gregg Puttkammer, an Operations Research major, will continue this line of research through their graduate school fellowships.
To learn more about the Department of Systems Engineering, visit https://www.westpoint.edu/academics/academic-departments/systems-engine….
To learn more about Resilient Supply and Demand Networks, visit https://www.darpa.mil/program/resilient-supply-and-demand-networks.