SEANET: The Tale of Two First-Time Attendees PDF Print E-mail
Written by INCOSE-LA   

Article submitted by Mary Bone, Iowa State University, and Jennifer Maxwell, University of Southern California/JPL

A group of 30 systems engineering Ph.D. students and faculty members met at USC Davidson Conference Center on April 3. We were attracted to the day-long workshop because we hoped to learn a few tips on how to successfully complete our Ph.D. program. By the time the event was over, we had picked up a few tricks, and, more importantly, we came away feeling a part of a dynamic and growing community of engineers.

Fellow students, themselves studying at various stages of the doctoral process, gave personal and inspirational talks, while esteemed faculty members, including Professor George Friedman of the University of Southern California and Professor Larry Head of the University of Arizona explored the Ph.D. education process and degree requirements in great detail. Lynne Cooper, a soon-to-be USC graduate, gave a talk titled “From Inspiration to Dissertation,” during which she stressed that intellect without passion and determination was not enough to see you through to the defense of your thesis.

The day provided an invaluable opportunity to learn about research being done at other universities. The most valuable part of the conference was time between sessions, during which students and faculty from around the world were able to share ideas and discuss current issues in our field. This downtime allowed students to establish common interests and to discuss ideas for future collaboration, despite being from different cultures and programs.

During her closing address, Donna Rhodes — leader of SEANET, past INCOSE President, research scientist and senior lecturer at MIT — posed the question “How can we get more universities to participate in this workshop?” It was easy to see why she would ask, since only ten universities were represented at the event. Money was clearly not a deterrent — beyond travel costs for non-local students, the attendance fee was minimal.

Systems engineering research does not always provide a traditional, linear means toward acquiring a degree. You would think that those of us pioneering this academic road would quickly sign up to participate in collaborations such as these, because they are essential to forming research initiatives across institutions — initiatives that can make a real impact on the systems engineering field.

A day after SEANET, INCOSE-LA hosted the CSER conference. At the CSER closing address, INCOSE President-elect Samantha Brown unknowingly provided insight into Dr. Rhodes’ question. Ms. Brown invited those in attendance — students, academics and industry experts — to enter what she referred to as the “Valley of Death,” the wide-open abyss of essential research that is both relevant to industry and inspiring (motivating) to academia.

In addition to the networking opportunities that students had with each other at SEANET, one of the biggest connections that SEANET, CSER, and INCOSE could forge is the connection between the industry leaders (with the complex systems engineering problems but without the resources to perform long-term research), and the academic world (with the research expertise but lacking the insight and funding support into the relevant problems in industry). Systems engineering is ultimately a response to the growing complexity of engineering today. Systems engineering research must respond in a similar manner to solve these complex problems by growing its academic programs beyond their traditional boundaries. Collaborative initiatives like SEANET and CSER are the perfect venues to begin cultivating these relationships between industry, academia, and professional societies like INCOSE. We hope that at next year’s SEANET, there will be representatives from industry, as well as from all universities with systems engineering research programs, to discuss the major problems plaguing systems engineering and how we can best distribute the research needed to solve these problems across the academic enterprise.