INCOSE NE Membership April 2021 Monthly Meeting: WebEx

Agenda: 

6:00-6:45 PM: Introductions of Attendees and Chapter Business

6:45-7:30 PM: Invited Speaker

7:30-7:45 PM: Q&A and Open Discussion

Title: 

System Architecture, the Missing Piece of Engineering Education

Abstract:  

The performing of system architecture is an essential predecessor to any successful engineering effort, especially as the complexity of systems continue to grow.  Unfortunately, architecture-specific learning is not typically part of an undergraduate engineering curriculum.  Undergraduate academics are filled with core courses and humanities leaving little room for architecture-specific learning.  Noticing the gap in system architecture education, several universities have recently started offering architecture related graduate degrees/certificates.  However, with very limited graduates going to any one organization, it is insufficient to truly seed the architecture domain knowledge required in an engineering organization.  

This paper will address how both the undergraduate academic curriculum and organizational training can be improved to provide the requisite architecture domain knowledge.  Rather than expanding the number of undergraduate academic courses, it is recommended that the existing courses implement the use of multiple system thinking techniques to develop the core architecture-centric thinking skills which can then be applied to multiple domains.  Engineering organizations will continue the architecture education through domain specific training, and the introduction of architecture development possesses and tools.  Examples of architecting a military payload, and a humanitarian aid network will be used in this paper to emphasize the broad applicability of the proposed approach.

Bio: 

Eric Dano is a 1987 graduate of the United States Naval Academy, where he majored in physics, and served in the United States Marine Corps as an Electronics Counter Measures Officer (ECMO) flying in the EA-6B Prowler. Eric received his Ph.D. at the University of Michigan in Electrical Engineering and Atmospheric, Oceanic, and Space Sciences.  Upon graduation he took a job at Sanders/ BAE Systems in Nashua, NH where he has been for the past 24 years.  During that time he has served in numerous systems engineering roles including serving as System Architect/ Chief Engineer on multiple advanced land, sea and space based systems.  Eric is currently serving as the lead of the System Architecture Community of Practice and in charge of developing Chief Engineers in the CEMA and PS3 business areas.  His current research interests include the implementation of agile and digital engineering into the systems engineering process.  He has been an 8 year member of INCOSE, an IEEE senior member, serves on the NDIA system architecture committee, and is an ASEE member.