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<p class="xxmsonormal">Dear Professor,<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="xxmsonormal">(bcc’ed) <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="xxmsonormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="xxmsonormal">Hope your semester is going well. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="xxmsonormal"> <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="xxmsonormal">The 7th Annual Sage Conference in April 2024 was a great success. Over 200 students from 9 universities/institutions participated in the competition. Forty-one (41) student teams presented their outstanding capstone project work in the
competition. Nine (9) Best Papers and 9 Honorable Mentions were selected for prizes and recognitions.
<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="xxmsonormal"> <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="xxmsonormal">We will continue to host the competition in April 2025 for undergrad seniors and graduate students for their capstone projects in the areas of Systems Engineering, Climate and Sustainability, Cyber Security, AI, Machine Learning, Operations
Research and Data Analytics. We are planning to conduct the conference in Fairfax, VA on
<b>Thursday April 24, 2025</b>. We also welcome online participation for those who cannot travel to our campus. More details (such as website for registration, paper submission, etc.) about the conference will come in December but if you can communicate to
students and to your capstone program coordinators to save the date for the 8<sup>th</sup> Annual Sage Conference (SMDC-25), that will be greatly appreciated.
<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="xxmsonormal"> <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The Sage Competition is a student-focused forum for the design of complex systems and a leading showcase for undergraduate and graduate (master’s) design projects. Systems engineering, with the global perspective of the system, combined
with an emphasis on computer technology, mathematics and science, is uniquely suited to address the challenges associated with the complexity of many of today’s pressing issues such as global warming and national security. The competition presents a forum
for students to demonstrate systems engineering skills and the knowledge to perform all the activities associated with a systems developmental life cycle.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="xxmsonormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="xxmsonormal">We look forward to having your student teams joining us on
<b>Thursday April 24, 2025</b>.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="xxmsonormal"> <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="xxmsonormal">Sincerely,<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="xxmsonormal"> <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="xxmsonormal">Songjun<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="xxmsonormal"> <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="xxmsonormal">__________________________<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="xxmsonormal">Songjun Luo, Ph.D.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="xxmsonormal">Associate Professor<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="xxmsonormal">Department of Systems Engineering & Operations Research<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="xxmsonormal">Volgenau School of Engineering<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="xxmsonormal">College of Engineering and Computing<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">George Mason University<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
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