To engineer the modern large, complex, interdisciplinary systems-of-systems (SoS), the collaborative world teams must "speak" the same language and must work on the same "matter." The "matter" is the system model and the communication mechanisms must be supported by standard, flexible, and friendly modeling languages. The evolving model-based systems engineering (MBSE) approach is leading the way and is expected to become a standard practice in the field of systems engineering (SE) in the next decade. As an emerging paradigm for the systems of the 21st century, it seems useful to overview its current state of the art concerning the developing standards, the embryonic formalisms, the available modeling languages, the methodologies, and the major applications.

Includes supplemental material.; Disaster relief operations, such as the 2005 Tsunami and Hurricane Katrina, and wartime operations, such as Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom, have identified the need for a standardized command and control system interoperable among Joint, Coalition, and Interagency entities. The Systems Engineering Analysis Cohort 9 (SEA-9) Rapid Response Command and Control (R2C2) integrated project team completed a systems engineering (SE) process to address the military’s command and control capability gap. During the process, the R2C2 team conducted mission analysis, generated requirements, developed and modeled architectures, and analyzed and compared current operational systems versus the team’s R2C2 system. The R2C2 system provided a reachback capability to the Regional Combatant Commander’s (RCC) headquarters, a local communications network for situational assessments, and Internet access for civilian counterparts participating in Humanitarian Assistance/Disaster Relief operations. Because the team designed the R2C2 system to be modular, analysis concluded that the R2C2 system was the preferred method to provide the RCC with the required flexibility and scalability to deliver a rapidly deployable command and control capability to perform the range of military operations.

This thesis utilizes principles of the systems engineering process discussed by Dennis Buede in â The Engineering Design of Systems: Models and Methods (2nd ed.)â (2009). The systems engineering process is used to create a functional architecture to analyze interagency coordination in support of counterterrorism efforts in the United States European Command area of operation. The resulting functional architecture serve as tools for policymakers as they determine the best ways to create a synchronous whole of government approach to defend United States interests.

This thesis analyzes interagency coordination from a functional and physical architectural perspective utilizing the Systems Engineering process outlined by Dennis Buede in The Engineering Design of Systems Models and Methods (2nd ed.) (2009). The process of interagency coordination is not fully understood and has proven difficult for various U.S. government agencies to replicate. Two examples of successful interagency coordination are used in this analysis the Joint Interagency Task Force-South (JIATF-South) and Special Operations Forces (SOF) high-value target teams. These two organizations are individually decomposed into their top-level functions and organized by their major physical components. The results of this analysis are applied in the creation of a notional functional and physical architecture for the U.S. European Commands new Joint Interagency Counter-Trafficking Center (JICTC).

Conference on Systems Engineering Research; Paper #1569270961; In both the public and private sectors, systems engineering analysis studies are used to inform a range of decisions, from selecting among low level design alternatives to conducting high level portfolio management. These studies are conducted to help various stakeholders make and justify decisions that have a lasting effect on a system throughout its lifecycle. The quality of the data used in these analyses can have a strong influence on the outcome of these decisions. The research described in this paper investigates the application of formal methods to architecture model quality assessment. These methods can be used to create sets of measures and criteria relevant in the systems engineering problem domain that can be tailored for different events, analytics, and decision points. Using formal methods, stakeholders can decompose and express architecture data quality expectations unambiguously, and in a way that is abstract and independent of tool.

Wayne E. Meyer Institute of Systems Engineering –Founded 28 May 2002. Rear Admiral Wayne E. Meyer (1926 -2009) is regarded as the "Father of AEGIS" for his 13 years of service as the AEGIS Weapon System Manager and later the founding project manager of the AEGIS Shipbuilding Project Office. He is the son of Mr. and Mrs. Eugene Meyer of Brunswick, Missouri, where he was born and raised. He retired from the U.S. Navy in 1985 as the Deputy Commander for Weapons and Combat Systems, Naval Sea Systems Command and Ordnance Officer of the Navy. -www.answers.com

Prepared for The NDIA Systems Engineering conference, San Diego, CA, October 26-29, 2009; This project describes a NPS capstone project as part of obtaining an MS in Systems Engineering. The project examined transporting cargo from a sea base to the desired destination and make recommendations regarding the best approaches for meeting those objectives. Key research goals were: Determine required capabilities and functions for an ASE, Develop appropriate operational concept (OPCON), Examine various ASE concepts, to include the Transformable Craft (T-Craft), Conceptual platform under the design of the Office of Naval Research (ONR), ONR sponsoring multi-year effort through NPS to assist in T-Craft system design and architecturing.

Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited; Forward operating bases are vulnerable to terrorist activity due to their location and limited resources. Threat awareness under these conditions is paramount to the safety of the personnel and to mission accomplishment. In the absence of the manpower required to maintain complete and continuous monitoring of the FOBs surroundings, an automated surveillance system is needed. The Smart FOB Surveillance System (SFSS) employs a multi-agent behavior analysis and decision system with Swarm Intelligence (SI) through a network-centric systems engineering method of development to create a robust surveillance system. The SFSS provides the capability of an intelligence automated system for continuously monitoring areas for certain behaviors, linking individuals, predicting future behaviors, and taking appropriate action against them to eliminate threats and the possibility of future threats. Environments, such as insurgent urban areas, Forward Operating Bases, country borders, and other high-value target areas all require constant personnel behavior surveillance and monitoring. The SFSS utilizes a complex network of aerial, fixed and mobile terrestrial units, capable of identifying and processing audible...

This document elaborates the principles and standards of scholarship that have been adopted by the faculty of the Department of Systems Engineering at the Naval Postgraduate School. They are applicable to both students and faculty in Systems Engineering. These principles are intended to guide the selection and execution of research projects, establish a basis for determining the quality of systems engineering research and provide an objective basis for promotion and tenure decisions.

Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited; This thesis describes a methodology used to develop a systems engineering (SE) competency framework for Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center (SSC) Atlantica Department of Navy organization whose vision statement is to Make IT count for the Warfighter and the Nation. This methodology defines the role of systems engineers at SSC Atlantic; establishes prioritized SE competency areas; identifies associated knowledge, skills and abilities (KSAs); identifies optimal workforce development methods for each KSA; and addresses how to assess systems engineers against a competency development model. The results of this analysis show that systems engineers require many of the same KSAs as other members of the engineering workforce, but also require unique KSAs focused on customer mission/capability areas, technology areas, SE processes/activities and leadership skills. Developmental methods for systems engineers to obtain these KSAs range from informal on-the-job training to professional certifications and degrees. The methodology established in this thesis can be used by other organizations to develop and employ their own competency framework in practically any discipline. The SE competency framework defined in this thesis can be leveraged/tailored by other SE organizations in order to establish developmental roadmaps for improving the KSAs of their workforce.

Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited; Model-based systems engineering (MBSE) needs a formal language, one defined with explicit rules between its elements, in order to support the use of formal modeling in systems engineering. This thesis examines desirable features in the context of quantitative modeling for systems engineering modeling language. Object Management Group’s UML and SysML and Vitech’s System Definition Language are then analyzed in terms of these features. The first important feature is the capability for interoperability between different MBSE tools combined with the ability to integrate the use of specialty tools to interact with and manipulate the system model. Flexibility is necessary in describing and defining entities in the system modeling language. This allows supporting project specific concerns in the system semantics, making MBSE tool support simpler. Finally, support for non-fixed value properties for entities, particularly random variables, is essential to representing system behavior. Existing system modeling languages have shortcomings that should be addressed to improve the conduct of MBSE. Random variables are inconsistently supported. Behavior modeling allows intermingling event timelines for different entities...

Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited; This thesis decomposed the problem of operational assessments within the Global Peace Operations Initiative (GPOI) and then proposed a comprehensive framework to better address the challenge. This analysis was conducted for the United States Southern Command but is generalizable to other GPOI implementers, including other combat commands as well as State Department offices. The problem space was considered using standard systems engineering techniques such as stakeholder and functional analyses. Given the complex and ill-defined nature of the problem, systems architecting methods were applied to lend structure to the solution space; specifically, a capabilities-based architecture, adapted from an existing IT model, was used to generate a coherent framework. The proposed architecture balanced technical and non-technical elements of the system and provided a means to develop appropriate metrics that were traceable to the stated objectives and outcomes. The assessment framework was built from a systems engineering viewpoint; however, several heuristics from the field of operational assessments were also employed to provide additional practical improvements. The findings proposed that the GPOI adopt a coherent assessment framework that emphasizes traceability of all metrics and a more complete measurement of the GPOI system.

Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited; This capstone report describes the expected mine countermeasures (MCM) performance of the Avenger class MCM ship (MCM 1), landing helicopter deck (LHD) support ship, and MH-53E helicopter legacy systems and Increment 1 of the littoral combat ship (LCS) and MH-60S helicopter future systems. The study focused on two measures of effec-tiveness (MOEs): area coverage rate sustained (ACRS) and percent clearance of mines. The systems engineering (SE) approach used to address stakeholder needs identified foundational requirements and developed functional and physi-cal architectures for simulation in conducting the comparative technical analysis. A design of experiments (DOE) methodology was used to determine which factors have the greatest influence on the MOEs. The significant factors’ values were varied to develop a set of recommended improvements to the future MCM systems. The study found that maintaining a constant search speed of 10 knots, improving the stream and recover time to 15 minutes, and improving the sortie time to 24 hours for the remote minehunting system (RMS) would provide a future ACRS performance greater than that provided by the legacy systems. When factoring in risk and operating and sustainment (O&S) costs...

Approved for public release; distribution unlimited; Systems thinking is commonly accepted as the backbone of a successful systems engineering approach. As such, the Body of Knowledge and Curriculum to Advance Systems Engineering (BKCASE) team chose to leverage a systems thinking based tool, called Systemitool, to describe our project to the vast audience that would potentially become involved directly or indirectly in the success of the project. This paper describes the process and steps used by the authors and the BKCASE team to develop the project’s systemic diagram, or SystemigramTM, and the story behind the project, the products, and the vision of the BKCASE project. The goal of the paper is to provide guidance so that readers can leverage the lessons learned from this effort to successfully develop their own project definitions and stories.

CALL FOR APPLICATIONS! Joint Executive Systems Engineering Management (SEM-PD21) The Naval Postgraduate School Department of Systems Engineering is pleased to announce this year’s offering of the Joint Executive Systems Engineering Management (SEM) distance learning (DL) program offered in partnership with MIT’s “Educational Consortium for Leadership in Product Development in the 21st Century” (PD21). Deadline for application is 15 June 2015.

Navy acquisition activities frequently produce combat system architectures based on existing systems rather than stakeholder requirements. This approach limits software component reuse which, in turn, limits potential application to other platforms. The objective of this Capstone project was to develop a methodology for creating complex combat system architectures that emphasize the use of Software Product Lines (SPLs), requirements traceability, integrated supportability and Modeling and Simulation (M&S) early and throughout the approach. To address this objective, an integrated methodology that utilizes Model Based Systems Engineering (MBSE) to create open, supportable combat system architectures was developed. The methodology was evaluated by applying it to a naval surface combatant Anti-Air Warfare (AAW) mission area. Application of the methodology led to the following major findings: (1) Proven systems engineering practices, languages and tools can be integrated with the MBSE approach for developing complex architectures, (2) Creation of domain centered SPLs facilitates planned reuse and allows for assessment to candidate architectures, (3) Requirements traceability can be achieved by using a combination of modeling languages and tools...

Information, and the knowledge gained from it, has been the key component to strategic planning since the earliest combat operations. Success in the Information Age is defined by the military's ability to communicate effectively in a dynamic environment and share relevant information seamlessly. Sharing information is a critical element to understanding missions that employ the operational concept of Network-Centric Operations and Warfare (NCOW). Discovering valuable information is vital towards our capacity to predict and/or prevent circumstances in our current war against terrorist organizations. This thesis describes fundamental concepts of information sharing and information discovery. Through the use of a systems engineering approach, this thesis created a common vision of an information sharing and discovery (ISD) system, evaluates the role of ISD in network-centric systems (NCS), and discusses the relationship of NCS to NCOW. This study also employs the system architecture method to establish the operational concept of ISD systems; derive requirements for future acquisitions of ISD systems; analyze the interactions that ISD systems have with external systems; and establish a functional architecture for the ISD system. This research approach provides guidance for the development and integration of future ISD systems in order to meet the needs of future DoD NCS.; US Navy (USN) author.

Nowadays consumers are demanding products richer in technologies and associated services -- That is why the link between disciplines, such as Engineering Design and Mechatronics, gets stronger each day, especially, due to the different functionalities and features that should be integrated in products in a more articulated manner -- In order to prepare the future generation of engineers, they should be aware and must know the supporting tools recently available in the market to support and automate these interactions among disciplines -- Regular engineering design approaches, start from requirements understanding and end with a physical prototype, passing by conceptual and detailed design -- Nevertheless, the product design process should allow engineering students to forecast product behaviour and its validation through simulation in early design phases, before physical prototyping -- In some cases, complexity increases as products require the integration of technical systems involving mechanics, electronics and control, among others -- Therefore, design concepts cannot be easily tested using a traditional CAD package that needs a physical prototype for validation purposes -- This article presents a case study using a Systems Engineering approach in academia (with RFLP Requirements/Functions/Logical/Physical) to develop a virtual prototype of a mechatronic product...

O presente trabalho trata de um estudo de caso, a fim de validar a aplicação de duas teorias - Gestão de Produtos e Sistemas Complexos (CoPS) e Engenharia de Sistemas - como ferramentas modernas de gestão de projetos complexos na área de Tecnologia da Informação (TI). Em particular, procura-se mostrar a utilidade dessas ferramentas para a definição dos parâmetros de uma Rede de Comunicações de Grande Porte, na fase de projeto. Para tanto, tomou-se como objeto do mencionado estudo de caso o projeto da Rede Corporativa de Comunicações do Exército (EBNet), uma das maiores redes dessa natureza no País, reconhecidamente um projeto complexo. O projeto da EBNet é analisado à luz das teorias da abordagem de sistemas complexos - CoPS - e de Engenharia de Sistemas, concluindo-se quanto à validade das mesmas como ferramentas modernas para o gestor de projetos complexos na área de TI.; The present work deals with a case study, in order to validate the application of two theories - Complex Products and Systems (CoPS) and Systems Engineering- as modern tools for complex projects management in the Information Technology (IT) field. In particular, it is intended to show the use of those tools for the parameters definition of a big Communications Network...

Graduate Council Program Review - ME (Masters of Engineering) in Industrial and Systems Engineering (Dec 2010)