Need for a Fresh Look at Systems Engineering

Systems Engineering Research and Education at ISR Systems engineering activities complement (and support) those of the traditional engineering disciplines. What's Systems Engineering? Our goals for Systems Engineering Research and Education at ISR are to formulate and provide formal (model-based) methodologies and tools for "liason among disciplines" and "systems analysis and trade-off." Why Systems Engineering is Important? Over the past fifteen years there have been several important reasons and developments that have rendered systems engineering educational programs and methods critical. They are: Rapid changes in technology; Fast time-to-market most critical; Increasing pressure to lower costs; Increasing higher performance requirements; Increasing complexity of systems/products; Increased presence of embedded information and automation systems; and Failures due to lack of systems engineering. 70% of product and system failures are due to bad or no Systems Engineering effort, as our industry advisors (General Electric, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman) and collaborators have frequently stated. NSF CRCD Project Challenges (May, 2000) Identify and address key research challenges facing "synthesis of engineering systems." How to codify this knowledge into courses and provide systematic methodologies and tools for the "synthesis of engineering systems?" How to find a practical way of using web technology to enhance: (a) classroom instruction, and (b) self-guided "post-training" instruction.

Section 1-1: December, 2002.