Investigating an Innovative Approach for Developing Systems Engineering Curriculum: The Systems Engineering Experience Accelerator
- Conference
- Location
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Vancouver, BC
- Publication Date
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June 26, 2011
- Start Date
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June 26, 2011
- End Date
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June 29, 2011
- ISSN
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2153-5965
- Conference Session
- Tagged Division
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Systems Engineering
- Page Count
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22
- Page Numbers
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22.970.1 - 22.970.22
- DOI
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10.18260/1-2--18193
- Permanent URL
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https://peer.asee.org/18193
- Download Count
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563
Paper Authors
Alice F. Squires Stevens Institute of Technology
Alice Squires has nearly 30 years of professional experience and is an industry and research professor in Systems Engineering at Stevens Institute of Technology in the School of Systems and Enterprises. She is a Primary Researcher for the Body of Knowledge and Curriculum to Advance Systems Engineering (BKCASE) and Systems Engineering Experience Accelerator projects. She has served as a Senior Systems Engineer consultant to Lockheed Martin, IBM, and EDO Ceramics, for Advanced Systems Supportability Engineering Technology and Tools (ASSETT), Inc. Alice previously served as a senior engineering manager for General Dynamics (GD), Lockheed Martin (LM) and as a technical lead for IBM. Alice is a lifetime member of Beta Gamma Sigma (Business), Tau Beta Pi (National Engineering), and Eta Kappa Nu (National Electrical Engineering) Honorary Societies and is an International Council on Systems Engineering (INCOSE) Certified Systems Engineering Professional (CSEP) in both base and Acquisition (CSEP-Acq). She is in the process of completing her doctorate dissertation in “Investigating the Relationship Between Online Pedagogy and Student Perceived Learning of Systems Engineering Competencies” and her research interests include systems engineering competency development, systems thinking and systems engineering education. Alice is the Chair of the Systems Engineering Division of ASEE and has a Masters in Business Administration (MBA) and Bachelors of Science in Electrical Engineering (BSEE). Alice received the Stevens Institute of Technology Provost’s Online Teaching Excellence Award in 2007.
Jon Wade, Ph.D. Stevens Institute of Technology
Jon Wade, Ph.D. is the Associate Dean of Research at the School of Systems and Enterprises at the Stevens Institute of Technology. Dr. Wade’s research interests include the transformation of systems engineering, Enterprise Systems and Systems of Systems, and the use of technology in technical workforce development. He has over 20 years of experience in the research and development of Enterprise systems at IGT, Sun Microsystems and Thinking Machines Corporation. Dr. Wade is a graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Douglas A. Bodner Georgia Institute of Technology
Douglas A. Bodner is a senior research engineer in the Tennenbaum Institute at the Georgia Institute of Technology. His research focuses on computational analysis and decision support for design, operation and transformation of enterprise systems. His work has spanned a number of industries, including aerospace and defense, automotive, electronics, energy, health care, paper and pulp, semiconductors and telecommunications. Dr. Bodner is a senior member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) and the Institute of Industrial Engineers (IIE), and a member of the American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE) and the Institute for Operations Research and Management Science (INFORMS). He is a registered professional engineer in the State of Georgia.
Masataka Okutsu Purdue University
Masataka Okutsu is a Postdoctoral Researcher in the School of Aeronautics and Astronautics at Purdue University. Dr. Okutsu directed development of virtual-world software for an aerospace design course (which he co-taught). With research background in astrodynamics, Dr. Okutsu has designed spacecraft trajectories for human missions to Mars and robotic missions to the outer planets.
Dan Ingold University of Southern California
Mr. Ingold is a Senior Research Analyst and Ph.D. student with the Center for Systems and Software Engineering at the University of Southern California (USC). Mr. Ingold has over 30 years of experience in the development of software-intensive systems, and prior to joining USC was CEO of a firm that developed specialized systems for defense C4ISR and industrial applications. His research interests are in the application of hybrid agile/plan-driven techniques to the development of large-scale, software-intensive systems. Mr. Ingold received his B.S. in Computer Science from Purdue University, and M.S. in Computer Science from USC.
Peter G. Dominick Ph.D. Stevens Institute of Technology, W.J. Howe School of Technology Management
Peter G. Dominick, Industry Assistant Professor teaches leadership development courses within the W.J. Howe School of Technology Management at Stevens Institute of Technology. His research focuses on leadership development processes with a particular focus on social cognitive dimensions of behavior change. Pete received his Ph.D. in Applied Psychology from Stevens, earned his M.A. in Organizational Psychology from Columbia University, and completed his undergraduate studies in Industrial and Labor Relations at Cornell University. He has received the Howe School’s Outstanding Teacher Award and also the Institute’s Harvey N. Davis Award for Distinguished Teaching.
Richard R. Reilly Stevens Institute of Technology
Richard R. Reilly holds the Ph.D. in Organizational Psychology from the University of Tennessee and is an Emeritus Professor in the Howe School of Technology Management, Stevens Institute of Technology. Dr. Reilly joined the Stevens faculty in 1982 where he developed and led the Ph.D. program in Technology Management. Before joining Stevens, Dr. Reilly was a research psychologist for Bell Laboratories, the Educational Testing Service and AT&T and has been a consultant to Fortune 500 and governmental organizations. He is on the Editorial Board of Personnel Psychology, and the International Journal of e-Collaboration and is a Fellow of the American Psychological Association and the American Psychological Society. He has authored four books and over 70 publications related to organizational behavior and project and team performance. Dr. Reilly’s most recent books include Blockbusters: Five Keys to Developing Great New Products published by Harper-Collins and Uniting the Virtual Workforce, published by Wiley & Sons. Dr. Reilly has developed and taught courses in Research Methods, Multivariate Statistics, Leadership, and Judgment and Decision Making. He currently serves as a technical advisor to the Office of Naval Research Benchmarking and Best Practices Center in Manufacturing.
William R. Watson Purdue University
William Watson is an Assistant Professor of Educational Technology in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction at Purdue University and the director of the Purdue Center for Serious Games and Learning in Virtual Environments. His research interests include the critical, systemic change of education to focus on learner-centered learning environments, including customized and personalized learning through the application of technology such as video games, virtual environments, and learning management software.
Don Gelosh ODDRE/Systems Engineering
Dr. Don Gelosh is the Deputy Director for Workforce Development in the OSD Directorate of Systems Engineering. He provides expertise in workforce development, competency models and assessments, and knowledge management with over 34 years of systems engineering experience from the U.S. Air Force, government, industry, and academia. While serving in the Air Force, Dr. Gelosh worked as a systems engineer on the Space Shuttle as a member of NASA’s Vehicle Integration and Test Team where he was responsible for communications and payload integration and ensuring the Shuttle was ready for launch. Dr. Gelosh also taught electrical and computer engineering at the Air Force Academy in the early 1990’s and later served as Deputy Department Head for Electrical and Computer Engineering at the Air Force Institute of Technology. Don received his Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Pittsburgh in 1994, a M.S. in Computer System Design from the University of Houston, Clear Lake in 1989, and a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from the Ohio State University in 1981. He also holds an INCOSE CSEP-Acquisition certification and is DAWIA Level III certified in SPRDE – Systems Engineering.
Abstract
Investigating an Innovative Approach for Developing Systems Engineering Curriculum: The Systems Engineering Experience Accelerator Traditional systems engineering education, training, and experience are not adequate tomeet the emerging challenges posed by ever increasing systems complexity and societaldemands, the workforce called upon to meet the challenges, and the timeframe in which thesechallenges need to be addressed. In response to this fundamental issue, the systems engineeringExperience Accelerator research project was initiated to leverage technology to create anexperiential, emotional state in the learner coupled with reflective learning so that time iseffectively compressed and the learning process of a systems engineer can be significantlyaccelerated as compared to the rate at which learning would occur naturally on the job. Thepurpose of the research project is to develop a simulator prototype of the Experience Acceleratorfocused on a small set of systems engineering competencies to evaluate the theoreticalcapabilities of the developed system. In the process of developing the research prototype, theExperience Accelerator team defined an approach that can be leveraged in the development ofexperiential-based systems engineering curriculum. This approach leverages a competencytaxonomy, a collection of ‘Aha’ moments, and a learner profile coupled with a series ofsimulated challenges and land mines. The systems engineering competency taxonomy is basedon a combination of systems and critical thinking, systems engineering technical leadership,systems engineering implementation, technical and program management, and other broad-basedprofessional competencies; and was built from existing models and systems thinking research.The ‘Aha’ moments were gathered from ongoing interviews of systems engineering experts whowere asked to recall specific moments in their past experiences where they had a definingmoment that helped mature their systems engineering expertise. The events that surroundedthose moments were collected as examples of the conditions under which the learning or ‘Aha’moments occurred. These events, combined with collected learner profile information, willshape the inclusion of challenges and land mines in the simulation to create an environment ripefor the learning experience. An understanding of the Experience Accelerator approach can guidecurriculum development in attempting to recreate on-the-job experiential learning in an artificialsetting. Case studies can be leveraged to develop new learning scenarios that could be added tothe planned open source version of the Experience Accelerator simulator. These and otherapproaches for experience-focused systems curriculum development are discussed in the paper.
Squires, A. F., & Ph.D., J. W., & Bodner, D. A., & Okutsu, M., & Ingold, D., & Dominick, P. G., & Reilly, R. R., & Watson, W. R., & Gelosh, D. (2011, June), Investigating an Innovative Approach for Developing Systems Engineering Curriculum: The Systems Engineering Experience Accelerator Paper presented at 2011 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Vancouver, BC. 10.18260/1-2--18193
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