Integrating Systems Engineering In Main Stream Engineering Disciplines

Systems Engineering is a life cycle engineering approach that is being used for development of large systems. It has been implemented by DoD, NASA, and most all major corporations such as Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Northrop Grumman, Raytheon, etc. There are over 120 programs in systems engineering that are currently being offered at the undergraduate and graduate levels [1]. A large percentage of these are graduate programs or certificate programs in Systems Engineering and are mostly housed in industrial and systems engineering departments. Yet there are only a handful of undergraduate programs offered by universities that integrate systems engineering in main stream engineering disciplines such as electrical engineering, mechanical engineering, etc. A systems engineering based concept curriculum, that provides foundation for a broadbased major discipline such as electrical engineering, is presented. This is proposed as a domain centric systems engineering program under the Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering program. The motivation to develop such a program stems from the growing industry demand for systems engineers who are equipped with skills related to development, evolution and verification of lifecycle based system solutions for a variety of applications in the areas of power and energy, telecommunications and information technology, robotics and control systems, and hardware and softwarebased embedded systems.