Bringing a Knife to a Gun Fight: Systems Engineering for the Modern World

Panel: 9

When: Tue 18, Jul 15:30-16:55 HST

Where: 316C

Keywords: Sociotechnical Complexity Vision 2035 Social Systems Systems Thinking

Topics: 1.1. Complexity 1.6. Systems Thinking 20. Industry 4.0 & Society 5.0 22. Social/Sociotechnical and Economic Systems

Abstract: As a named discipline, systems engineering emerged in the 1940s and 1950s addressing large scale, long-lived, electromechanical aerospace, defense, and communication systems. Since then, we have advanced the technical and management processes, grappled with the increasing role of software, and evolved practices across diverse product lifecycles. Today we have a host of model-based tools and agile methods, but many of our processes and the underlying mindset remain grounded in the electromechanical systems of the 1950s. Systems Engineering Vision 2025 and Vision 2035 challenge us to look beyond our roots to address challenges at the product, enterprise, and societal levels. They challenge us to embrace global– human, societal, and technological megatrends as we engineer solutions for a better world. But what got us here won’t get us there. To address today’s problems across domains and levels of complexity requires we recognize the changing context and capabilities at our disposal. We must embrace sociotechnical, the human both in problem and solution, and corresponding methods for success. What does it take to move beyond traditional practices and properly recognize and respond across the domains reflected by Cynefin’s framework of clear, complicated, complex, and chaotic? How do we embrace humans and complexity? What techniques and insights from others can we leverage and what new problems must we be alert to? How do we apply the innovation power of diverse teams and communities. It’s time to recast our vision beyond the complicated and the product-centric evolving our mindset, methods, and tools for the modern world.

Biography
David Long: David has spent over 30 years helping organizations assess, adopt, and deploy methods to increase their systems engineering proficiency while simultaneously working to advance the state of the art. David founded and led Vitech where he developed innovative, industry-leading methods and software to engineer next-generation systems. Today, he is the Chief Engineer for Digital Engineering at the Systems Engineering Research Center working to coordinate and advance their digital portfolio. He co-authored A Primer for Model-Based Systems Engineering and frequently delivers keynotes and workshops around the world.

An INCOSE Fellow and Expert Systems Engineering Professional, David was the 2014/2015 President of INCOSE. David currently serves as INCOSE’s Director for Strategic Integration and as a coach in INCOSE's Technical Leadership Institute.

Biography
Jon Wade:

Jon Wade, Ph.D., is a professor of practice at the Jacobs School of Engineering at the University of California, San Diego where he is the director of Convergent Systems Engineering and the executive director of the Institute for Supply Chain Excellence and Innovation. Dr. Wade’s focus is on developing research and education to provide ethically sustainable solutions to critical, complex societal problems. Previously, Dr. Wade was the chief technology officer of the Systems Engineering Research Center, executive vice president of Engineering at International Game Technology, senior director of Enterprise Server Development at Sun Microsystems, and director of Advanced System Development at Thinking Machines Corporation. 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. Dr. Wade is an INCOSE Fellow.

Biography
Duncan Kemp:

Professor Duncan Kemp is the Senior Fellow for Systems Engineering in Defence Equipment and Support (DE&S) within the UK Ministry of Defence, where he leads the DE&S internal consultancy.
Duncan has over thirty-years’ experience of developing safe and effective socio-technical systems, in: air Defence, submarine combat systems, operational and business information services and railways. Previous roles have included Chief Systems Engineer for rail in the UK Department for Transport, Chief Architect for MODs Command, Control, Computing and Communication systems and MOD acquisition reform team leader.
Duncan is a chartered engineer, Fellow of the IET and INCOSE Fellow. He was one of the authors of the SE Vision 2025, the INCOSE UK Capability SE Guide and the INCOSE UK Agile SE guide. He has presented over 20 peer reviewed papers at INCOSE international symposia and INCOSE UK conferences. He was the co-author of the INCOSE UK Agile SE guide and the INCOSE Capability SE guide. Duncan has held a range of formal positions within INCOSE and is currently the co-chair of the INCOSE System Safety Working Group.
Duncan is the Visiting Professor for Systems Thinking at the Wolfson School of Mechanical, Electrical, and Manufacturing Engineering at Loughborough University.

Biography
Erika Palmer:

Dr. Erika Palmer is a Senior Lecturer in the Systems Engineering Program at Cornell University, where her research and teaching focuses on sociotechnical systems. She founded the Systems and Society Research Lab (SSRL) at Cornell, which brings together systems engineers and social scientists to develop new modeling and simulation methods for evaluating sociotechnical and policy systems. Dr. Palmer is the founding chair of the Social Systems Working Group and the incoming Deputy Technical Director of the International Council for Systems Engineering (INCOSE).