Top Gunners
Problem Statement
For a long time, filling out performance evaluations has been a sticking point for the Air Force Agency for Modeling and Simulation (AFAMS). Whether it is employees not being able to accurately recall their achievements, poor documentation for when they do, or even failing to remember the significance of their achievements, the current system struggles to retain and promote talent. Originally, we thought that our task was to do a complete overhaul of their current evaluation system and create a new one ourselves. After interviews with our problem sponsor, we learned that our problem is actually to create a tool that filters through emails and extracts action statements in order to assist employees in filling out their performance evaluations.
Solution
Our MVP addresses the AFAMS’s inefficiency of the performance evaluation process as well as helps employees with writing them in order to retain talented individuals when otherwise they would not be promoted due to issues with writing. The MVP allows the Air Force employee to pick multiple documents such as emails, pdfs, and activity reports and put them into our website which uses natural language processing to generate action statements with action verbs/adverbs that the Air Force is looking for. This helps the employee to remember what actions they did without having to spend time looking at the document as well as helps them start off their sentence with a strong action statement.
Meet the Team
Sebastian Bienkowski
Sebastian Bienkowski is an International Affairs Major with a concentration in Conflict Security and minors in Russian Studies and Honors Interdisciplinary Studies. Sebastian is fluent in Polish and has Intermediate proficiency in Russian. He is currently working for the Free Russia Foundation helping to support democracy and civil society in Russia and Ukraine in addition to teaching two Ukrainian boys English in Harrisonburg as a volunteer. As a first-generation student, he is currently applying to graduate schools in the U.S. and Europe to obtain his master’s degree in Security Studies. After graduate school, Sebastian plans on working in the government or as a consultant in the private sector.
Maximiliano Aedo Espicto
Maximiliano Aedo Espicto is a Computer Science and Mathematics double major with a minor in Russian Language. Max has completed an internship abroad in Ireland, where he learned the importance of integrating diverse perspectives into a project. He worked for a research company that was seeking to integrate machine learning with risk management software. He is currently serving as the Executive Director of JMU SafeRides, an organization at JMU that provides students with free rides home on the weekends. Following his graduation this spring, Max will complete a Masters in Engineering at the Virginia Tech Master’s campus in Falls Church.
Sara Montgomery
Sara Montgomery is a sophomore International Affairs major with a concentration in Global Human Development and Spanish language minor. Currently she is an Academic tutor for the JMU Communications Center and is on the Alumni board for Madison International Residential Living Learning Community. She speaks English and Spanish fluently and has intermediate fluency in Korean. In her time at JMU she has studied abroad at Salamanca University in Spain, furthering her fluency in Spanish through studying Spanish and Latin American Literature. These experiences have equipped her with leadership, communication, and adaptability skills necessary for professional circles. She intends to use these skills to pursue study abroad opportunities in Korea and Washington DC, as well as JMU’s accelerated masters program in Florence. She is going to pursue a career in diplomacy after graduation using her language and communication abilities.
Michael Michniak
Michael Michniak is a Mathematics and Quantitative Economics double major with minors in data analytics and robotics. He has worked with virtual school and open source intelligence agencies where he improved his technological capabilities and learned vital research, time management, and collaboration techniques. He has self studied machine learning for over two years and has taken several machine learning and artificial intelligence courses throughout his time at JMU. He has career goals of one day being a data scientist and hopes to earn a Master’s degree in data analytic engineering.