Midwest Gateway Chapter

Welcome to the Midwest Gateway Chapter

Welcome to the Midwest Gateway Chapter of INCOSE. We are based in the St Louis region, from Rolla to the Metro East. The Midwest Gateway Chapter of INCOSE was founded in St. Louis in 1992. Over the years we've hosted the INCOSE Symposium and the Conference on Systems Engineering Research (CSER), and been the home chapter of national and regional INCOSE leaders.

Bronze Chapter Award 2004
2004
Bronze Chapter Award 2004
2005
Bronze Chapter Award 2004
2020
Bronze Chapter Award 2004
2021
Bronze Chapter Award 2004
2022
Bronze Chapter Award 2004
2023
Silver Chapter Award 2006
2006
Silver Chapter Award 2007
2007
Silver Chapter Award 2008
2008
Silver Chapter Award 2009
2009
Silver Chapter Award 2010
2010
Silver Chapter Award 2011
2011

2025 Board of Directors

President: Mike McCarthy, Paragon Technology Group
President-Elect (Vice President): George Sconyers III, Boeing
Secretary (2025/2026): Emily Orwaru, Deloitte Consulting LLP
Treasurer (2024/2025): Lou Pape
Director (2024/2025): Dr. Mary Malast, Leonardo DRS
Director (2024/2025): Chris Smith, Boeing
Director (2025/2026): John Thompson
Director (2025/2026): Geo Sconyers
Past President: Mike Franco

Contact the MGC Board of Directors at [email protected].


Upcoming Chapter Events

Speaker Event

When:  Thursday, Mar 13, 2025

Where:  Sports Cafe, 3579 Pennridge Dr, Bridgeton, MO, 63044

Who:  TBD

Collaborative Systems Thinking Culture: A Path to Success for Complex Projects

Online
Ann Hodges
505-951-7067
[email protected]

Abstract: The world is filled with hard, complex problems seeking solutions. To make these often daunting problems more manageable to solve, both a mindset shift, and key candidate methodologies centered around a collaborative systems thinking culture are proposed. The idea is to introduce not just some collaborative practices, or systems-thinking approaches. Rather, the proposal for solving the tough problems – complex problems that basic approaches do not seem to solve – is to move an organization beyond basic techniques into a culture that has as its core a collaborative and systems-thinking theme. This paper will present an introduction to what a collaborative systems thinking culture (CSTC) is and looks like. The paper starts with exploring the state of the practice, presents the mindset change involved with systems thinking, propose that a collaborative approach is a part of this shift, and then conclude with the 7 phases that the reader can introduce into their organization to realize some of the benefits. What the attendee will learn, is a practical, 7-step approach to help facilitate moving their group to a more collaborative culture. Not all steps must be done at once, and the approach of course is tailorable to the attendee's situation. Cultural change can be hard, but this presentation will provide ideas and a process to get started. The intent is that with the right amount of CSTC in the organization, projects will produce results of higher quality, with better schedule and cost performance.

This work first appeared at the 2022 INCOSE International Symposium, and is the culmination of the research performed by the INCOSE Technical Leadership Institute (TLI) Cohort 6. Authors for the original work also include Mickael Bouyaud (Ingenico SAS), Natalie Davila-Rendon, Jay Patel and Michael Wozniak (Lockheed Martin), Alex Deng (SNC-Lavalin Atkins), Jean Duprez (Airbus), Anabel Fraga (Carlos III of Madrid University), Leema John (Eli Lilly), Ryan Noguchi and Maria Romero (Aerospace Corporation) and Erika Palmer (Cornell University). The original paper is available in the IS 2022 proceedings.

SpeakerRaymond Wolfgang helps a variety of National Systems complete projects on-time and on-budget through crafting and managing requirements, verification, and validation activities. He currently serves as a Systems Engineer at Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque, NM. He has led requirements authorship and analysis for several programs, at both the systems-level and for multiple components. He has deployed several process improvement initiatives in requirements management, and currently leads an effort to complete a large program’s use case portfolio. His INCOSE papers focus on requirements state-of-practice, and injecting MBSE into current programs that are already midway into the lifecycle. Raymond currently serves on the INCOSE Requirements Working Group, and as a member of the INCOSE Technical Leadership Institute (TLI). Before Sandia, while working for the US Navy (NAVWAR in San Diego), Raymond managed installation requirements for a critical ship-board technology refresh and served as a systems engineer and electrical engineer on several research and development programs. Raymond has a Master’s degree in Electrical Engineering from Purdue University (USA), and remains involved in Toastmasters International as well as the Enchantment chapter of INCOSE in the southwest US. He is originally from the Philadelphia, PA, USA area.

Chapter Newsletters


Chapter News

New Chapter Members - 2025

Irwandi Kardjana, Boeing, Jan 5
Robert Reinke, Intelligent Information Technologies, Jan 15

New Chapter Members - 2024

Matthew Trainor, Leonardo DRS, Jan 9
Bradley Jones, Jan 11
Ethan Bandick, Leonardo DRS, Feb 27
Alexander Hawkes, Mar 21
Aditya Akundi, UWM, May 3
Madelynn Frappier, Leonardo DRS, May 21
Hector Castelblanco, May 29
Kaylee Catlett, Jun 2
William Conrady, Boeing, Jun 2
Prithbey Dey, Jun 3
Ezechiel Ouedraogo, Jun 17
Braxton Schmedeke, Jun 19
Haley Spillars, Jun 19
George Sconyers, Boeing, Jul 3
Serge Krawczyk, Boeing, Jul 11
Seth Copeland, V2X, Jul 17
Thomas Vanhooser, Jul 24
Wade Wilson, Boeing, Jul 29
Tyson Prosser, Boeing, Aug 9
Amanda Baker, Cummins, Aug 13
Jared Blatsioris, Purdue University, Aug 20
Tracey Feldhake, Sep 4
Xorge Hernandez, Sep 5
Miguel Delgado, Peraton, Sep 9
Michael Malast, Boeing, Sep 10
Kyle Edwards, UL, Sep 12
Andrea Foutch, Sep 13
Reginald Robinson, Boeing, Oct 4
Wesley Freeman, Leidos, Oct 24
Geo Sconyers, Nov 7
Matthew Hollander, DRS Land Systems, Dec 5
Paul Mizwicki, Aclara, Dec 5
Jacob Kramer, Leonard DRS, Dec 11
Daniel Chikwendu, Wichita State University, Dec 21

The Midwest Gateway Chapter of INCOSE was founded in St. Louis in 1992. Over the years we've hosted the INCOSE Symposium and the Conference on Systems Engineering Research (CSER), and been the home chapter of national and regional INCOSE leaders. Many of our members are engaged in defense, biotech, connected devices, and academia. Most members are located in St. Louis and the surrounding area (from Missouri S&T in Rolla to Scott Air Force Base in the Metro East), but all are welcome to affiliate with us.

For more information about joining INCOSE, please visit the incose.org website: Join INCOSE. If you're not sure about joining yet, come out and visit us at one of our events.

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If you have any questions for us, get in touch: [email protected]. You can also get in touch with our Board of Directors.

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