The Pathway to Systems Education for the Global Engineer
- Conference
- Location
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New Orleans, Louisiana
- Publication Date
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June 25, 2016
- Start Date
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June 25, 2016
- End Date
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June 25, 2016
- Conference Session
- Tagged Topic
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International Forum
- Page Count
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9
- DOI
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10.18260/1-2--27266
- Permanent URL
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https://peer.asee.org/27266
- Download Count
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429
Paper Authors
Alice F. Squires Washington State University
Dr. Alice Squires has served in technical and leadership roles for over 35 years. After nearly 25 years in industry, Alice is serving engineering education as an Associate Professor in the Engineering and Technology Management department of Washington State University. She earned her BSEE from University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland; her MBA from George Mason University, Fairfax, Virginia; and her doctorate in Systems Engineering from Stevens Institute of Technology, Hoboken, New Jersey. She has been serving academia in part since 2001. In industry, Alice recently served Aurora Flight Sciences as their Systems Engineering Manager, and was part of the UAV development team that led to a world record for an 80-hour+ gasoline-powered engine autonomous vehicle flight time. She previously served Lockheed Martin and General Dynamics as a Senior Engineering/Scientist Manager and IBM as an Advisory Engineer/Scientist. She has also served as a consultant Senior Systems Engineer to small and large commercial and defense organizations. Alice is Founder and Chair of the INCOSE Empowering Women as Leaders in Systems Engineering (EWLSE) committee and serves as INCOSE Academic Matters Assistant Director for Sector I, the Americas. She also serves the American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE) as Director on both the Systems Engineering Division (SED) and Corporate Member Council (CMC) boards and is serving a three-year appointed term on the Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Committee. She is an INCOSE Expert Systems Engineering Practitioner (ESEP) with Acquisition (-ACQ), a PMI certified Project Management Professional (PMP), an ASEM certified Professional Engineering Manager (PEM), and a Senior IEEE Member. Alice was a key contributing member of two recent team awards: the 2016 Women in Engineering Pro-Active Network Strategic Partner Award awarded to the ASEE Diversity Committee, and the 2012 Product of the Year Award by the International Council on Systems Engineering (INCOSE) for Body of Knowledge and Curriculum to Advance Systems Engineering (BKCASE) Publications. She completed an autobiographical book to be published by IEEE Women in Engineering (WIE) in May 2019 as the final ebook in a series on women overcoming various challenges to complete a STEM education and succeed as an engineering professional.
Jon Patrick Wade Stevens Institute of Technology (School of Systems & Enterprises)
Jon Wade, Ph.D., is a professor of practice at the Jacobs School of Engineering at the University of California at San Diego where he is the director of convergent systems engineering designing transdisciplinary education and research programs oriented around the fundamental principles of contemporary closed-loop systems engineering design. Previously, Dr. Wade was a research professor in the School of Systems and Enterprises at the Stevens Institute of Technology where he also served as the chief technology officer of the Systems Engineering Research Center (SERC) UARC. His industrial experience includes serving as executive vice president of Engineering at International Game Technology (IGT), senior director of Enterprise Server Development at Sun Microsystems and director of Advanced System Development at Thinking Machines Corporation. His research interests include complex systems, future directions in systems engineering research and the use of technology in systems engineering and STEM education. Dr. Wade received his S.B., S.M., E.E. and Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineering and computer science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Nicole A.C. Hutchison Stevens Institute of Technology
Dr. Nicole Hutchison is a Research Engineer at the SERC. Her primary work through the SERC includes the Helix project. Previously she was a member of the BKCASE research team. Before joining Stevens, she spent 5 years working for Analytic Services, supporting the US Departments of Defense and Homeland Security. She holds a PhD in systems engineering from Stevens and her INCOSE CSEP.
Abstract
As systems become increasingly global in nature, it is critical that those who are involved in conception, design, development, support, sustainment, and end of life of such systems have both a global perspective on the context in which these systems will be used, and an understanding of the global issues faced by the teams involved in their creation and support. In addition, it is critical that the foundations of these skills are instilled in engineering students early in their education, starting no later than their undergraduate education. This paper describes how societal needs combined with global trends produce the systems challenges that must be addressed by systems thinkers and engineers, and proposes what advancements must be made in supporting education based on multiple research efforts to date.
The analysis begins a description of the future engineering capabilities, specifically in systems engineering, necessary to address our future societal needs, supported by findings from the report A World in Motion: Systems Engineering Vision 2025. The results are then coupled with ASEE’s findings on “The Attributes of a Global Engineer”, the most important attributes being identified as: • Communicates effectively in a variety of different ways, methods, and media • Possesses the ability to think both critically and creatively • Shows initiative and demonstrates a willingness to learn • Functions effectively on a team • Possesses the ability to think both individually and cooperatively • Demonstrates an understanding of engineering, science, and mathematics fundamentals • Demonstrates an understanding of information technology, digital competency, and information literacy • Maintains a positive self-image and possesses positive self-confidence
These attributes are then compared with those of expert systems engineers as determined by the HELIX study, to explore the alignment between these capabilities. Finally, based on workshops focused on the integration of systems education for all engineers, delivered by the International Council of Systems Engineering (INCOSE) Academic Council with support from the American Society of Engineering Education (ASEE) and the Systems Engineering Research Center (SERC), a proposal is presented that incorporates both the value proposition for and the identification of foundational systems engineering skills and how they can be instilled into undergraduate students within the constraints imposed by global undergraduate curricula standards.
Squires, A. F., & Wade, J. P., & Hutchison, N. A. (2016, June), The Pathway to Systems Education for the Global Engineer Paper presented at 2016 ASEE International Forum, New Orleans, Louisiana. 10.18260/1-2--27266
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