Johns Hopkins University was once again a proud sponsor of the INCOSE (International Council of Systems Engineers) International Symposium this year. Held in Las Vegas, the conference provided an excellent venue for meetings, technical papers, networking, and sharing the latest advances in the field.
Johns Hopkins hosted many visitors to our exhibit explaining the program and opportunities to advance their skills in systems engineering.
The systems engineer has many responsibilities in the development of a complex system. While there are many subjective and qualitative decisions to make, analytical skills and knowledge are essential to understand the technical work of the team and to comprehend the fundamental physics and math principles that underlie the design and system performance.
We are problems solvers. We are creative and innovative. We like quick gratification. We want to develop products and make things. Sound familiar? From a young age and through much of our educational experiences, we learn that rewards and satisfaction come to those first in line with an answer, even if it might be the wrong one!
The Systems Engineering program at Johns Hopkins Engineering for Professionals is focused on graduate education for the working professional. Admissions criteria requires work experience in order to understand the systems concepts and to put into practice the skills learned right away.
Staś Tarchalski has taught in the Systems Engineering and Technical Management programs at Johns Hopkins Engineering for Professionals for more than five years.
He currently teaches Introduction to Systems Engineering, Test and Evaluation, and Introduction to Project Management. He is also leading the development of the capstone course, Executive Technical Leadership.
Systems engineering principles are necessary for the test and evaluation your system elements and, ultimately, the verification and validation of the total system. Test requirements, selection of critical test parameters, analysis of test results, and determination of remedial action in the event of discrepancies are all systems engineering functions.
Kossiakoff states, The operations and support phase of the system's life cycle is the time during which the products of the system development and production phases perform the operational functions for which they were designed. The tasks of systems engineering are completed when the user needs are fully met. In practice, the operation of modern complex systems is never without incident.
Recently, the National Academy of Engineering conducted a study with prominent engineers and scientists and identified the world's greatest engineering challenges.
They serve as inspirations and guideposts for areas where future complex systems will need to be developed.
Practicing systems engineers must be able to learn and adapt in an environment of dynamic and constantly changing challenges. Being a lifelong learner is a critical skill for a systems engineer in a world in which technical knowledge is doubling at a rate that is difficult to measure.
In the development of complex systems, systems engineers focus on identifying, minimizing, optimizing, and managing the interfaces between the subsystems. This concept, introduced more than fifty years ago by Alexander Kossiakoff, provides the opportunity to divide the functions and hence, the components of a system, in a manner that allows effective interactions.