Title: Systems Engineering at Purdue: A work in progress
1Systems Engineering at Purdue A work in progress
- 03 April 2008 at USC
- CESUN Meetings Day 2 - Panel Discussion
- prepared by Prof. Bill Crossley
(crossley_at_purdue.edu)School of Aeronautics and
Astronautics - Chair of System of Systems Signature Area
- and Prof. Vince Duffy (duffy_at_purdue.edu)
- School of Industrial Engineering Ag. Bio. Eng.
- Regenstrief Center for Healthcare Engineering
2Recent Purdue SE discussion / thinking
3Purdue Activities Related to Systems Engineering
- System of Systems signature area
- Trans-disciplinary research initiative
originated by AAE faculty member - College-level, involves faculty in several
schools - AAE Aerospace Systems area
- Research and curriculum for design, development,
operation of aerospace systems (aircraft,
spacecraft, etc.) - Within AAE involves plans of study, shared
research interests, PhD qualifying examination - Systems Engineering education
- Educational support to SoS research
- Address external stakeholder needs for graduate
education in SE - Could be college-level, currently AAE-led,
support offered from ProEd
AAE Aerospace Systems area
System of Systems signature area
Systems Engineering education
4Stakeholder / Customer Push for SE
- Industry and government employers looking for
systems engineers - Aerospace / defense organizations
- Raytheon, Lockheed Martin, Boeing, General
Motors, BAE Systems, Rolls-Royce, GE Aircraft
Engines, NASA, USAF - Other engineering / product development
companies - Cummins, General Motors, International Truck
- Student interest developing around new course
offerings - Purdue Alumni at companies are earning graduate
SE degrees from other universities - Crossroads of America (IN / IL) chapter of INCOSE
actively engaging Purdue have twice hosted
mini-conference on campus - Involvement with Lean Aerospace Initiative
highlights need for systems engineering - Student interest in systems engineering topics
and in academic programs linked to SoS signature
area
5Plans for SE Academics at Purdue
- Interactions to gain best practices and to see
potential models with - Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Cummins, NASA
- Air Force Systems Engineering Center of
Excellence - CESUN
- AERO (Aerospace Education, Research, Operations)
Institute in Palmdale, CA - Center of Excellence in Systems Engineering at
Indiana-Purdue Ft. Wayne - Purdue Engineering Professional Education (ProEd)
- Offers graduate courses, non-thesis MSE degrees
to distance-learning students - Fall 2007, offered GRAD 597N Introduction to
Systems Engineering - Instructor, Dr. Dan Surber, Principal Engineer of
Systems Engineering and Systems Safety
Engineering Division at Raytheon Technical
Services, Indianapolis, IN - Taught using studio facility at IUPUI in
Indianapolis - Available only to distance-learning students for
Fall 07 intend to have available for on-campus
West Lafayette students Fall 09 - New Engineering Management and Leadership MSE
degree specialization - Plans of study will contain 9 credits of systems
engineering topics - Common SE courses to support ProEd MSE
specialization and on-campus area of concentration
6Options for SE Academics at Purdue
- Three major options
- Area of concentration
- Students earn MS degree from traditional
engineering program - Certificate
- Post-baccalaureate course work, fewer credits
than MS degree - MS degree in Systems Engineering
- Non-thesis option likely thesis option possible
- Prevailing attitudes favor Graduate Area of
Concentration in SE - Most Purdue on-campus students have little
previous work experience - Often cited as necessary prerequisite for
graduate degree in Systems Engineering - Re-emphasized in discussions with Mike Griffin,
NASA Administrator - Comparative ease of implementation
- No new school or department
- No (or few) new additional faculty
- Several existing Areas of Concentration to
provide template
7Potential Graduate Area of Concentration
- Students earn graduate degree from existing
school - For example, MS AAE, MS CE, MS ME, etc.
- Total of 30 credits (all course work, if
non-thesis option 21 credits course work with
thesis option) - Systems Engineering area of concentration appears
on transcript - Students take three to four SE courses (nine to
12 credits) from an approved list - Choose from a core list covering SE topics and
a related list with discipline-specific topics - Need to leverage GRAD 597N Introduction to
Systems Engineering course as a core course - Several precedents exist for this
- Software Engineering - cooperation between
Computer Science and Engineering (across
Colleges) one of the most visible
8Potential Certificate Program
- Post-graduate studies resulting in an awarded
certificate - 12 or 15 credits (four or five courses) in
Systems Engineering - Courses from same list of courses that could be
used in area of concentration (at graduate school
level, not short courses) - Precedents exist for this
- Digital Signal Processing from EE, as an example
- Quality Engineering program under development as
interdisciplinary - Purdue Engineering Professional Education (ProEd)
helping to coordinate new certificates - Enables off-campus students to pursue advanced
study - A lower-commitment than direct entry in MS program
9Graduate Degree in Systems Engineering
- Would require an entire SE curriculum
- 30 course credits for MS non-thesis, 21 for MS
thesis option - Likely need several new courses
- Faculty needed to serve as advisory committee
chairs and members - Thesis topics in SE maybe more difficult to
define - Should include some sort of SE practice / case
study / similar as formal part of program - Somewhat more challenging to implement
- New faculty likely needed
- New program or department needed
10SE-related Courses on Campus
- Many engineering faculty have teaching and
research interests aligned with systems
engineering - Systems engineering-related courses are currently
available on campus - Predominately graduate (dual 500) level courses
- Focus is usually discipline-specific (e.g.
aerospace systems, civil engineering systems) - Purdue strengths in operations research,
optimization, systems modeling and analyses
11A Sampling of Current SE-relevant Courses
- AAE 550 Multidisciplinary Design Optimization
- Basics of numerical optimization. Calculus-based
techniques for univariate and multivariate
optimization. Constrained and unconstrained
optimization methods. Global optimization
methods. Multi-objective optimization. Recent
multidisciplinary design optimization. - Applications of methods and techniques to
representative engineering problems, culminating
in a final project. - AAE 551 Design Theory and Methods for Aerospace
Systems - Introduction to design theory, aerospace design
process, design specification and requirements,
concept generation and selection, design
decomposition, improving designs, process design,
concurrent engineering, and design for X. - Projects allow for application and analysis of
design methods.
12A Sampling of Current SE-relevant Courses
- CE 594 Transportation Systems Analysis
- Planning, design, operation, and management of
transportation systems. Aims to impart a systems
perspective to transportation problems. - Incorporates concepts from economics,
engineering, operations research, management,
psychology, and public policy analysis. - CE 660 Demand Analysis And Forecasting
- Analysis and forecasting of demand for facilities
and services, for use in the planning, design,
and operations of transportation systems.
Emphasis on the collection and analysis of survey
data for demand model development. - Covers alternative sample designs, individual
choice theories, probabilistic discrete choice
models, estimation of disaggregate and aggregate
models, and aggregate forecasting methods and
simulation.
13A Sampling of Current SE-relevant Courses
- ME 553 Product and Process Design
- Principles of product and process development to
produce a marketable product, a preliminary
business strategy and prototype. - Team-based project course A market analysis,
design parameters, manufacturing prototype plan,
production process plan, and a business strategy
will be developed by project team. - ME 557 Design for Manufacture
- Topics include the product development cycle,
manufacturing process selection, tolerancing,
quality function deployment (QFD), design for
assembly (DFA), quality control techniques,
Taguchi's robust design methodology, life cycle
engineering, and reliability. - Laboratory projects in the area of tolerancing,
assembly, and manufacturability are included.
14A Sampling of Current SE-relevant Courses
- ME 571 Reliability Based Design
- Basic concepts of probability and random
variables. Time-dependent reliability models.
Strength-based reliability and interference
theory. Weakest-link and fail-safe systems.
Extremal distributions. Monte Carlo methods.
Maintainability and availability. Fault tree
analysis. Quality control and reliability. - Relevant courses available from other departments
/ schools include (but are not limited to) - ECE computer systems, power systems, distributed
systems - IE operations research
- MGMT new product design, total quality management
15A Sampling of Current SE-relevant Courses
- IE 656A Design of IT Systems
- Research seminar providing understanding of
human-computer interaction theory and research
methodologies with emphasis on human factors for
systems with a variety of industrial application.
- IE656B Modeling Healthcare Systems
- Research seminar providing bridge between human
factors, systems and healthcare for improved
clinical performance, healthcare delivery and
patient safety systems. - IE656C Digital Human Modeling
- Research seminar focused on advancing
computer-aided engineering tools to provide
visualization and math/science that enable human
factors and ergonomics considerations earlier in
the design process. - Each of the IE656 courses is focused on helping
graduate students learn the research process.
16Next Steps for Purdue SE
- Purdue participants to move forward with
formalizing and gaining approval for Systems
Engineering area of concentration - Formalize SE curriculum/ academic advisory
council - Analog to school industrial advisory council
- Industry and government SE experts to help craft
programs, provide continuous improvement - Leverage ProEds Introduction to Systems
Engineering course - Serve as core course, independent of specific
disciplines - Facilitate on-campus student enrollment
- Identify opportunities for case study and SE
practice as part of academic studies - Requires input and collaboration from industry /
government advisory council and other partners
17Continue cooperation to better serve Ph.D.
program development
- Internally consider Branding what level of
recognition is needed now (vs. what may happen
more naturally with time) - what may quicken that impact (eg. rankings
funding success of junior faculty hires
continued communication/support between and
within consider ES/SE in ENGR 2020 education
initiatives) - Opportunities to share experience with new AAE
home- building developed for cross-disciplinary
engineering and research Neil Armstrong Hall of
Engineering - Continue hiring/recruiting faculty across
Engineering Schools (depts). Including AAE,
Civil, Industrial Eng. - https//engineering.purdue.edu/Engr/
- SoS has hired 2 faculty over the last 3 years
interviewing now - will hire this 1 year 2 in
coming 2-4 years. - IE alone has 9 faculty positions remaining (hired
3 in the past year interviewed 10 this semester
will likely hire 3 this year) - Head Search - Industrial Engineering - position
announcement
18ES/SE Program Development Challenges
- At M.S. level
- there are obvious new program opportunities to
meet external demand - however, junior faculty time spent in new course
prep for grad level courses that primarily have
non-research track students can be (justifiably)
questioned by senior faculty concerned about long
term School/College interests - At Ph.D. level
- New faculty hires require awareness among
existing faculty about potential impact of
multi-disciplinary trans-disciplinary and/or
cross-disciplinary research - A blending of research cultures (across
disciplines) and faculty generations is
occurring - consideration of breadth vs. depth can be
supported by faculty cooperation yet, junior
faculty may be evaluated somewhat by their
ability to develop their research portfolios more
independently - continual balancing of preconceived notions of
need within the College with perspectives on
excellence eg. know it when you see it.