An Academic Forum will be held on Monday May 24th as part of the conference and reflects the regional character of the conference and the conference theme (Systems Engineering and Innovation).
The aim of this EuSEC’s Academic Forum is to illustrate the way academia prepares students for their future work in the field of Systems Engineering, to investigate the influence of cultural differences on the way Systems Engineering is taught, learned and performed and to discuss the relation between Systems Engineering and innovation. Each of these three aspects will be addressed in a session of 90 minutes and will be introduced by experts in the field, followed by a discussion with the audience. The Academic Forum will feature speakers from a number of organisations to present different viewpoints from the academic and the industrial side and stimulate debate.
a) Improvements in Systems Engineering education – matching offer and demand
Which is the appropriate path for SE Education – Bachelor, Master, PhD or postgraduate second degrees? What is the value of case studies and projects as part of the education of SEs? Should Systems Engineering be taught as a discipline on itself or as part of the curriculum of another engineering discipline? Which expectation has the application field of a student trained in Systems Engineering?
Some examples of Systems Engineering education on BSc, MSc, PhD and post-graduate education will be given and will be confronted with demands coming from industry. Special attention will be paid to innovations in teaching SE.
b) Bridging cultural differences in Systems Engineering
Cultural differences play a role in the way the the engineering trade in general is performed. Do cultural differences play a role in the way the Systems Engineering trade is performed also? Is their influence on the Systems Engineering process or on the way Systems Engineering education is performed different? Does culture influence SE research?
Speakers from the academic and the industrial SE world will identify typical differences and give examples of e.g. the way these may be handled in the education of culturally mixed groups, the place and role of “soft engineering” skills in this context, and how to achieve a uniform application of Systems Engineering in multinational enterprises.
c) Innovation and Systems Engineering – a paradox?
Often it is suggested that application of Systems Engineering in a project limits the creativity of engineers in inventing new products, pointing at the disciplined and methodical character of Systems Engineering. In this session speakers will explore whether this is a paradox, what can or must be done to prevent that Systems Engineering hampers innovation, or whether Systems Engineering may even stimulate innovation.
A short report of the Academic Forum will be presented at the final conference day.
Members of the Systems Engineering academic and industrial community that may contribute as a speaker to this Academic Forum and stimulate the debate during the sessions may contact Rob Hamann, robbert.hamann@incose.org.
QUESTIONS:
Rob Hamann, E-mail:
robbert.hamann@incose.org
IMPORTANT DATES:
Speaker proposals: Monday, December 7th 2009