Team SpecTrack
Team SpecTrack
James Madison University
How Team SpecTrack Tackled Spectrum Chaos at JMRC
The Team
Christopher Lesley
Christopher graduated from James Madison University with a B.S in computer science. He has some professional experience with front-end development, as-well as other skills that will be directly relevant to SpecTrack. He is very excited to join the DISF-C Incubator and continue working with the team.
Abigail Fornadel
Abby is a recent graduate from James Madison University where she majored in International Affairs. She was very involved in the Hacking for Defense program and was a key member of two successful projects; ARMY456: Diplomacy for Payload Recovery and ARMY 413: Seeing the Spectrum. Throughout the incubator program she will be working as the Project Manager for ARMY 413: Seeing the Spectrum, SpecTrack.
Zach Putz
Zach is a graduate from JMU with a bachelor’s in computer science and a focus in cybersecurity. He has the technical background to contribute developmentally to this product, as well as make sure the product is secure and safe for production. He also has the experience in the backend side of things, spinning up servers, and doing so in a team environment.
Rafael Gould-Schultz
Rafael recently graduated from James Madison University with a degree in computer science and a minor in data analytics. He is passionate about turning data into clear, actionable insights and has done so on the OneStream platform, helping enterprise clients build budgeting and reporting systems. Rafael especially enjoys front-end development that emphasizes design and user-centered thinking. He is drawn to projects that bridge technology and business, and he is excited to keep building systems that allow for data-based decision making.
Stephanie Koehler
Stephanie Koehler is a recent Computer Science graduate with a minor in entrepreneurship. She is interested in AI and full-stack development. Stephanie loves building things from the ground up and analyzing how products and services might be used by the customer.
Rachel McCoy
Rachel has a bachelor’s degree in computer science and is currently pursuing her Master of Engineering in Computer Science at Virginia Tech with a focus on Data Analytics & Artificial Intelligence. She recently graduated from James Madison University, where she balanced NCAA Division I swimming with academics and technical projects like SchedUREC. Rachel is currently working as a Software Engineer Intern at Praxis Engineering, and she is passionate about building impactful technology and paving the way for women in STEM and sports.
Overview
JMRC Hohenfels - U.S. Army
Problem Sponsor
The Instrumentation, Training Aids, Computer Simulators, and Simulations (ITACSS) team need an efficient way to understand what portions of the electromagnetic spectrum are available in European countries in order to better plan and prepare for training exercises.
30+
Original Problem Statement
Number of Interviews
The Problem
What happens when your entire mission relies on communication systems and your spectrum allocation is denied last-minute on the ground? That’s the dilemma faced regularly at the Joint Multinational Readiness Center (JMRC) in Germany, where electromagnetic spectrum mismanagement has caused countless delays, cancellations, and logistical nightmares for deployed units.
Originally assigned a different problem, undergraduate students Abigail Fornadel, Rafael Gould-Schultz, Christopher Lesley, Rachel McCoy, Zach Putz, and Thomas Brickhouse on Team SpecTrack pivoted multiple weeks into the semester when their sponsor became unavailable. “We were two or three weeks into the course, had built mockups and even started prototypes, and then had to drop everything,” shared Rafa Gould. That reset led to their assignment with the JMRC on electromagnetic spectrum allocation.
Their new challenge was to improve the broken, outdated, and deeply manual system for managing and allocating spectrum. With only one person trained to use the current system (a 1990s-era command-line interface), teams in the field were being denied spectrum access and forced to halt operations. Compounded by the lack of recordkeeping or transparency, the current process wasn’t just frustrating; it was mission-breaking.
The Innovation
Through dozens of interviews with spectrum managers, planners, and soldiers, Team SpecTrack discovered that the core issue wasn’t just policy; it was a lack of visibility, usability, and efficiency across the entire process. Rather than writing a policy proposal, the team built a real solution.
Their product, SpecTrack, is a military-grade “conference room booking system” for electromagnetic spectrum bands, or a user-friendly web application designed to overhaul the spectrum management process. Instead of filling out disjointed forms or waiting on a single spectrum manager, users can request, visualize, and coordinate spectrum usage directly through an interactive, centralized tool.
“We started off thinking this was a policy problem,” said Abby Fornadel. “But after talking to people on the ground, we realized it was a tech problem. So we had to make a strong pivot.”
One of their biggest breakthroughs came during their site visit to Germany, where they demoed their prototype to actual end users. “We met someone who saw what we’d built and immediately started pulling other people over,” recalled Rachel McCoy. “He said, ‘This could solve all our problems.’ He was taking pictures, grabbing radios, and showing it to everyone. That’s when we knew we were onto something.”
Team SpecTrack Hacking for Defense Experience
The H4D program gave Team SpecTrack experiences that made lasting impacts on their professional trajectories.
“This was a full-on flash forward to what work in the real world actually looks like,” said Rachel, who initially took the class to fulfill a math requirement. “We had to build a real product, navigate team dynamics, and talk to people in Germany who were actually going to use our system.”
For Abby, the journey came full circle: she’d shadowed an H4D class while in high school and returned years later to build her own solution. “This is exactly what I wanted, to be able to work on a real-world problem and help make change,” she said. “I even took the class again the next semester with a different problem.”
The team credits H4D’s methodology, i.e. constant interviewing, customer validation, iteration, and ruthless prioritization, for their success. “We wouldn’t have been able to build on our MVP(minimum viable product) into what it is today without the H4D foundation,” Abby shared. “We still reference our original documents when making decisions.”
Presentation
What’s Next
Team SpecTrack is actively building out their full-stack application with integrated front-end and back-end functionality. As of summer 2025, they are nearing a deployable version of the product through the Defense Innovation Summer Fellowship-Commercialization (DISF-C) accelerator program.
“Our short-term goal was just to have a working MVP,” said Abby. “Now we’re almost ready to deploy.”
Long-term, the team is exploring options to transition SpecTrack to a real-world defense partner, whether by licensing the tech, integrating it into existing systems, or finding a commercial partner to take it further. “We’re trying to figure out the right path: do we push forward ourselves, or hand it off to someone who can bring it across the finish line?” Rafa explained. “Whatever happens, we want this to help JMRC and others avoid the chaos they’re dealing with today.”
For a team that started three weeks behind, Team SpecTrack is now way ahead.