Student Team Spotlight: Smooth Out the Bumps and Play Nice
Spring 2024 H4Diplomacy RIT students, Jeff Aube, Nathan Trumble, and Shantanu Gujar, worked with problem sponsor Babita Kuruvilla and other DOS/DS personnel to address challenges related to the work order management system database and the workflow processes used by the DOS stack and work order management system teams to process service requests and work orders. The team’s final recommendation was developed with the primary goal of streamlining the workflow and improving the overall efficiency of the current system in place.
(From Left to Right): Rochester Institute of Technology DS-36 students Nathan Trumble and Jeff Aube in Washington, DC, for a DOS facility site visit with other H4Diplomacy peers.
The H4Diplomacy methodology, centered around the Mission Model Canvas, Value Proposition Canvas, and Minimum Viable Product (MVP) development, challenged students to leverage their problem-solving skills in a more rigorous way. The student team found these tools invaluable for externalizing and reasoning through their problem, emphasizing how important persistent communication with government and industry beneficiaries was in testing hypotheses around the problem. All three students on the team highlighted the practical insights gained from their site visit to a DOS facility in Washington, DC, and the value of the H4Diplomacy methodology in validating real-world problems.
Aube, a Management Information Systems major, found the course profoundly impactful and attributed his team’s success in the course to the lean-based approach, which shifted their focus from finding a solution to actually validating the root of the problem at hand. Aube noted that beneficiary discovery was a learning curve at first – conducting targeted interviews to test the students’ hypotheses proved challenging early on as the team navigated the vast and unfamiliar landscape of the DOS. The team noted later in their interview how these challenges were key for maximizing the unique professional development opportunity provided by H4Diplomacy.
Trumble, a fourth-year cybersecurity major, found immense value in learning to navigate the intersection of academia, industry, and government, in particular understanding the backgrounds of various stakeholders and how these influenced their discovery. Trumble attributes his interest in pursuing a career as a Foreign Service Security Engineering Officer to the experiences he had interfacing directly with DOS personnel during the semester. Initially attracted to the course by the opportunity to solve real-world national security challenges for the DOS, Gujar echoed Trumble’s experiences – H4Diplomacy provided the students a platform to enhance their public speaking and professional skills while broadening their professional networks significantly.
H4Diplomacy not only prepared Aube, Trumble, and Gujar for their future careers but also instilled a deeper appreciation for the process of problem-solving in complex, real-world contexts where innovation is often hindered by bureaucracy and long-standing processes. As the students move forward in their academic and professional journeys, the lessons learned and experiences gained from this course will undoubtedly continue to influence the ways in which they foster innovation in their own work.