84th SAWE Conference Information
84th International Conference
Welcome to our 2025 International Conference
May 18 - 23, 2025
The Society of Allied Weight Engineers (SAWE) is excited to welcome you to attend our 84th Annual Conference on Mass Properties Engineering which will be held in beautiful Albuquerque, New Mexico. We are looking forward to getting back together in-person to share our experiences, learn from each other, improve our skills through training, and create some new memories.
A special shout out to undergraduate students as well! We have opportunities for you to present your work through papers, presentations, and a poster contest. Prizes are available for Best Student Paper and Best Student Poster, so be sure to get your abstracts in ASAP.
Use the buttons below to submit your abstracts, register for the conference, and learn all the details of what is in store for you during our in-person event. Don't miss it!
Conference Announcement
Use the buttons below to find more information regarding the conference or click on the image to the left to view or download our preliminary Conference Announcement. Much more information is coming soon, so check back often for updates.
President's Message
Robert Hundl - President
Robert Hundl
SAWE President
Fluor Corporation
On behalf of the Society of Allied Weight Engineers I want to extend a cordial invitation to our 84th Annual International Conference being held in-person again in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Our conference planning committee has assembled a great line up of topics and papers for you:
- Learn about today’s latest technologies, techniques, and programs.
- Participate in development and updates of mass properties industry standards.
- Experience problem solving in forum discussions.
- Meet vendor representatives and get acquainted with products essential to our jobs.
- Talk informally with customers, competitors, and suppliers.
- Review development of the new Mass Properties Engineer Certification Program.
- Learn first-hand about the latest SAWE activities and programs,
SAWE’s technical sessions, standards and practices workshops, and forum discussions address the many needs of our members across the military aircraft, commercial aircraft, airline, space, marine, offshore, land vehicles, and allied industries represented by our society.
The conference is designed to enhance your knowledge and technical capabilities in a comfortable and fun atmosphere. At our conference you will be rewarded with a valuable experience, renewing and strengthening your understanding of mass properties, and improving your abilities to generate top performance products in a safe, efficient manner.
We look forward to seeing you there!
Schedule Overview
The general conference schedule shown below. Daily training is available from Sunday through Thursday. Monday evening, we have the opening welcome reception. On Tuesday we have the Opening Session with the keynote address, followed by technical sessions, and a student poster contest. Wednesday is Standards and Practices Day which includes a guest speaker at the luncheon. Thursday is another day of technical paper presentations with the Awards Banquet in the evening. Finally, Friday we will visit with our New Mexico Tech Student Chapter at their campus and tour their facilities.
General Conference Schedule
Keynote Speaker
Dr. Thomas A. Spencer
Director of Engineering and Technical Management
Kirtland Air Force Base
Dr. Thomas A. Spencer, a member of the Senior Executive Service, is the Director of Engineering and Technical Management, Air Force Nuclear Weapons Center, Kirtland Air Force Base, New Mexico. Dr. Spencer is responsible for technical policy, independent validation of nuclear certification, cybersecurity assessment, and the oversight of center test and evaluation activities, ensuring technical supremacy and integrity of the center’s nuclear weapons systems supporting two legs of the nation’s nuclear triad, including intercontinental ballistic missiles, air-launched cruise missiles, gravity bombs, and nuclear command-and-control communications systems.
Technical Papers
We are actively soliciting technical papers for the conference! Authors have already submitted their plans to present their work on a variety of topics including artificial intelligence, submarine solid ballast, student rocket payloads, additive manufacturing, dynamically scaled tests, technical forum transcriptions, guarantee weights, and many more. Don't miss this chance to share your experience with your colleagues! Important deadlines for papers are shown below.
Call for Papers Deadlines
* This due date ensures your paper will be considered for Professional and Student Awards.
** Please note: This deadline misses the opportunity for being considered for a Paper Award but is a required deadline for being included in the final conference schedule.
Current Technical Papers to be Presented
| Paper No. | Title | Author/s |
|---|---|---|
| 3814 | Submarine Solid Ballast | D. E. Tellet - NAVSEA (Retired) |
| 3815 | Defending Mass Properties | R. Zimmerman - Lockheed Martin (Retired) |
| 3816 | Empowering Mass Properties Engineers with Artificial Intelligence: Transforming Estimation, Analysis, and Optimization | W. Boze - HII (Retired) |
| 3817 | Mass Property Data Checking for On-Shore Modular Construction | R. Hundl, J. Robertson - Fluor |
| 3818 | Structural Weight Estimation of Naval Surface Combatants Using SAWE Handbook Ratiocination | H. Tomaszek, et al. - NAVSEA |
| 3819 | The Impact of Vertical Test Weight Movements on the Shipboard Inclining Experiment | A. Bryden, R. Dvorak - NAVSEA |
| 3820 | Modeling and Calibration of the International Space Station (ISS) Mass Properties | C. Stephenson - Boeing |
| 3821 | Developmental Aircraft Design: Quantifying Weight Maturity to Calculate Retired and Remaining Developmental Weight Growth | R. Aman – Lockheed Martin, M. Gray - USAF |
| 3822 | Enabling Digital Transformation in Weights Management: A Unified Data Model for Industry-wide Integration | M. Beyer – Beyer Flight Sciences |
| 3823 | Agile RIO Management: Best Practices for Vehicle Development | M. Beyer – Beyer Flight Sciences |
| 3824 | A Development of the Estimation Model of KUH Fuel CG by Application of the Response Surface Method | K. Lee – Korea Aerospace Industries |
| 3825 | Moving Mass Coaxial Monocopter: Design, Simulation and Control | D. T. A. Nguyen, et al.- New Mexico Tech |
| 3826 | A Non-Conservative Assessment of the Feasibility of a Solar-Powered Airship for Mars | Y. Pozhanka, M. Hassanalian - New Mexico Tech |
| 3827 | Dynamic Mass-Aware Trajectory Tracking of Airships Using Multi-Actors Proximal Policy Optimization | R. Liang, et al.- New Mexico Tech |
| 3828 | Biomimetic Swimming Taxidermy Duck Robot: Design, Development, and Testing | D. Vosbein, et al.- New Mexico Tech |
| 3829 | Bio-Inspired Innovations: Exploring the Aerodynamic Impacts of Wing Coloration, Shape, Mass, and Spacing in Flight Efficiency | N. Bagheri, et al.- New Mexico Tech |
| 3830 | Integrating Taxidermy into Drone Engineering: A Mallard-Based Flapping-Wing Aerial System | D. Vosbein, et al.- New Mexico Tech |
| 3831 | Mass-Dependent Thermal and Mechanical Responses in Bio-Inspired Carbon Fiber Epoxy Wings for Aerial Vehicles | N. Bagheri, M. Hassanalian - New Mexico Tech |
| 3832 | Bio-Inspired Group Avian Flight: Exploring the Aerodynamic Impacts of V-Formed Flight in Flight Efficiency | N. Bagheri, M. Hassanalian - New Mexico Tech |
| 3833 | Design of Ground Systems; Path Planning of Autonomous Advanced Designed Robots in Underground Mine | N. Bagheri, et al. - New Mexico Tech |
| 3834 | Numerical Approach Based on Cuboid Splitting to Calculate the CG Shift of a Liquid Filled Container Resulting from Rotations | Marvin Siewert - Airbus Operations GmbH |
Technical Forum
"Opportunities for Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning in Mass Properties Applications"
Moderator: Amanda Cutright, SAWE VP – Technical, NASA Langley
At this Technical Forum during the Conference, a panel of individuals from across multiple industries will discuss their experience with using Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning (AI/ML) for projects with benefits to the mass properties discipline. Relevant experiences will be shared about topics such as generative design, deep learning, and potential future applications including examples from the marine and space industries. During this session, the audience will have time to engage in the discussion, so please join us on Thursday, May 22, 2025 and bring your questions about AI/ML opportunities for mass properties!
Training
The following training courses will be offered at the conference:
Click the button below to learn more about these courses and all of the courses offered by SAWE.
Standards and Practices Day
Join us as we work together to develop and update our standards and recommended practices. The day will open with some remarks by our Vice President - Standards and Practices, followed by a workshop to help us continue to develop our Certified Mass Properties Engineer program. We will then divide up into separate industry breakout sessions to discuss the current standards that are in-work, and plan future activities.
Dr. Mostafa Hassanalian
Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering
and Dean’s Research Scholar
New Mexico Tech
A special luncheon at midday will feature Dr. Mostafa Hassanalian from New Mexico Tech who will present “Unlocking Nature's Secrets: Drones, Biomimicry, and Beyond.”
At the end of the day, we will rejoin the main meeting for a summary from each group.
It is important for everyone to be involved in shaping the standards we deliver to the world, so don't miss your opportunity to have a say in the results. You will be glad you did!
Click on the button below to view or download the latest status of our standards and practices documents.
Sponsor Information
The table below lists opportunities that are available for sponsorship at the conference.
Use this link to discover: Why should I become a SAWE Conference Sponsor?
Conference Sponsorship Benefits
Student Information
CALLING ALL STUDENTS!
The SAWE organization is invested in encouraging and mentoring the next generation of mass properties engineers. We are excited to host our student attendees with either free registration for student presenters, or reduced cost for non-presenting student attendees. Registration for the conference includes our Welcome Reception, admittance to all paper sessions, our Standards and Practices luncheon, and the Awards Banquet at the conclusion of the conference. In addition, our students are invited to attend some special events designed just for them.
Present your work through papers, presentations, and a poster contest. Prizes are available for Best Student Paper and Best Student Poster, so be sure to get your abstracts in ASAP.
Click on the image to the left for more information or use the button below to submit an abstract for your paper or poster, or your completed paper.
Guest Events
Once again, SAWE welcomes attendees and guests for some exciting extracurricular events including the following excursions:
- The Sawmill Market
- The National Museum of Nuclear Science and History (Students)
- Botanic & Japanese Gardens / Old Town
- Santa Fe Day Trip
- New Mexico Tech Day Trip
Transportation is limited to the first 14 persons to sign up, so be sure to register and make your selections as early as possible to ensure you don't miss out.
Click on the image to the left for more information.
Sponsors
Silver Partners
Company Members - L 2
Spirit Aerosystems - Belfast, UK
Company Members - L 1
B&A Software AS (ShipWeight/MassTrack)