Document Tracking

Team USAF-546 didn't set out to revolutionize military bureaucracy. They came to untangle it—one lost document, one delayed approval, one frustrated airman at a time.

The problem was as mundane as it was maddening: managing and tracking administrative documents in the U.S. Air Force had become a digital-age nightmare built on analog assumptions. Emails flying in all directions. Documents disappearing into inboxes. Approval chains where each link only knew the next step, never the full picture. The result wasn't just inefficiency—it was a system where oversight was impossible and accountability was a myth.

So the team set out to bring visibility to the invisible.

Getting Close to the Chain of Command

From the beginning, Team USAF-546 understood that administrative problems aren't solved in conference rooms—they're solved where the work actually happens. Led by Noor Mostafa under the guidance of instructor David Riel, they didn't theorize about document workflows from Pittsburgh. They committed to getting proximate to the problem.

Their Air Force sponsor, TSgt Emma M. Hamrick, made that proximity possible. The base was just 30-45 minutes outside Pittsburgh—close enough to make regular site visits feasible, far enough to require intentional commitment to understanding the ground truth of Air Force administrative reality.

"We needed to see how documents actually moved through the system," Mostafa explained. "Not how they were supposed to move, but how they really moved—and where they got stuck."

Mapping the Invisible Workflow

USAF-546 treated their base visits like forensic investigations into bureaucratic breakdown. Working alongside teammates Hanah Ryu, Manraj Dhillon, and Tim Wang, they tracked document journeys from initiation to approval, interviewing everyone from the airmen who submitted forms to the commanders who signed off on them.

They didn't just ask about pain points—they observed them. They watched training managers juggle email chains. They saw the moments when critical documents fell into administrative black holes. They mapped the human workarounds that kept the system functioning despite itself.

More importantly, they assessed the feasibility of commercial software solutions and existing tools already in use. This wasn't about building from scratch—it was about understanding what worked, what didn't, and what gaps remained.

Operators of Another Kind

Noor Mostafa, leading the effort from Carnegie Mellon, brought the kind of systems thinking that bureaucratic challenges demand. Her approach combined technical precision with an intuitive understanding that in military operations, administrative delays can cascade into mission failures.

Working alongside teammates Hanah Ryu, Manraj Dhillon, and Tim Wang, Mostafa assembled a team capable of translating process inefficiencies into technological solutions—analytical enough to map complex workflows, practical enough to work within military constraints, and mission-focused enough to deliver tools that actually get used.

Under the guidance of instructor David Riel, they developed an approach that treated every document workflow as a system to be understood, not just a problem to be solved.

What Comes Next

Back at Carnegie Mellon, the team is translating field observations into system solutions. Their focus remains practical: automated notifications, approval chain visibility, and accountability mechanisms that work within existing Air Force infrastructure.

Whether USAF-546 becomes a formal Air Force program, a commercial solution, or something else entirely, its foundation is solid: a problem measured in operational readiness, a team committed to understanding bureaucracy before fixing it, and a mission that puts efficiency back in the hands of the airmen who need it most.

They didn't just study document workflows. They committed to making the invisible visible.