Course Description: Systems Engineering is an interdisciplinary approach and means to enable the realization of complex systems with desirable specifications. The course introduces fundamentals of systems engineering process and will prepare students for a diverse career opportunity. Topics of this course include a brief history of systems engineering, structure of complex systems, system life-cycle modeling, systems engineering methods in system development process and design issues for operational feasibility such as reliability, maintainability, predictability, usability, and supportability. Some basic engineering design methods and tools will be included. Successful systems engineering cases will also be studied.

The life cycle model is fundamental for systems engineering and it is a very important topic covered in EL-GY 5213 Introduction to Systems Engineering. Systems of systems represent a trend of systems engineering and one specific class of systems of systems are cyber-physical systems. Course content in EL-GY 5213 also covers the inter-disciplinary study of systems of systems.

Textbooks:           

[SA]      A.P. Sage and J.E. Armstrong, Introduction to Systems Engineering, Wiley-Interscience, 2000.

[MK]     G. E. Mobus and M. C. Kalton, Principles of Systems Science, Springer, 2014.

Grading:

• Participation – 10%
• Homework – 30%
• Project – 60%

Course Schedule:

Lecture 1 Introduction to System Engineering

Lecture 2 Structure of complex systems

Lecture 3 Systems engineering through system life-cycle

Lecture 4 Needs analysis

Lecture 5 Concept exploration

Lecture 6 Concept definition

Lecture 7 Advanced development

Lecture 8 Engineering design

Lecture 9 Integration and evaluation

Lecture 10 Production

Lecture 11 Operation and support

Lecture 12 Systems engineering decision tools

Lecture 13 New trends of systems engineering

Lecture 14 Case study