July is at hand, and a mid-year update is in order – a review of where we have been and a look ahead at the chapter activities planned for next year. This year, our chapter has led or participated in the following:

• January: John O. Clark, of Northrop Grumman and a past president of the Hampton Roads Area chapter of INCOSE, made two presentations, “Systems of Systems Engineering and Family of Systems Engineering from a Standards Perspective,” (a speaker meeting) and “Systems Engineering Stand on Standards.” The latter presentation was a tutorial presented as a part of a joint technical symposium with SPIN, the Software Process Improvement Network.
• February: “Systems Engineering for Project Managers” was presented by James Manson III, a past president of our Los Angeles chapter and a Project Management Professional. This presentation was a part of a dinner meeting held jointly with the local chapter of the Project Management Institute.
• March: “State Analysis for Systems Engineering” was presented by Robert Rasmussen and Michel Ingham of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Mr. Rasmussen and Mr. Ingham discussed their topic as both a speaker meeting topic, with several remote sites, and as a tutorial.
• April: The Conference on Systems Engineering Research (CSER) 2008, a two day event, was held in Redondo Beach. A three-day course on the “Basics of Systems Engineering” was held at the Aerospace Corporation in El Segundo.
• May: Todd Bayer and Glenn Havens presented a discussion entitled “Systems Engineering Challenges and Results for Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter” in a joint meeting with the AIAA. INCOSE Fellow Scott Jackson conducted a tutorial, “Architecting Resilient Systems: Beyond Challenger, Katrina and Chernobyl.”