Tutorials

Navigation

Western States Regional Conference

Tutorials

Morning 8am-12pm

Afternoon 1pm-5pm

Cyber-Physical Systems

Dr. Azad Madni USC and Dr. Michael Sievers, USC and JPL

Model-Based Systems Engineering

Dr. Mark L. McKelvin, USC and The Aerospace Corporation

Data Analytics

Dr. Courtney Paulson, University of Maryland

Systems Thinking

James Martin, The Aerospace Corporation

Cyber-Physical Systems Tutorial

Cyber-physical systems (CPSs) comprise a tightly integrated network of mechanisms, sensors, computers, and software each operating in their own temporal and spatial world. CPSs ingest inputs from the physical world which when blended with system goals direct mechanisms that modify the physical environment for achieving those goals. The physical world though is messy. Sensors do not always produce perfect measurements and mechanisms do not always perfectly perform as intended. Kalman and other filters are traditionally employed to clean up physical world noise but these filters have limited noise assumptions and system operation that do not always apply. This tutorial begins by reviewing CPS fundamentals and then progress through examples that illustrate increasing system complexity and need for system resiliency. We conclude by exploring state-space modeling and other current research.

Dr. Azad M. Madni is a Professor of Astronautical Engineering and the Technical Director of the Systems Architecting and Engineering Program in University of Southern California’s Viterbi School of Engineering. He is also a Professor (by courtesy) in USC’s Schools of Medicine and Education. He is the founder and Chairman of Intelligent Systems Technology, Inc., a high tech R&D company specializing in game-based educational simulations, and methods, processes, and tools for complex systems engineering. He received his BS, MS and PhD degrees from the University of California, Los Angeles. His research has been sponsored by both government research organizations such as DARPA, OSD, ARL, RDECOM, ONR, AFOSR, DHS S&T, DTRA, NIST, DOE and NASA, and aerospace and automotive companies such as Boeing, Northrop Grumman, Raytheon and General Motors. He is an elected Fellow of the American Association for Advancement of Science (AAAS), the American Institute for Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA), the Institute for Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), the Institution for Electronics and Telecommunications Engineers (IETE), the International Council on Systems Engineering (INCOSE), and the Society for Design and Process Science (SDPS). His recent awards include: 2016 Boeing Lifetime Accomplishment Award and 2016 Boeing Visionary Systems Engineering Leadership Award for contributions to industry and academia (awards received in Boeing’s 100th anniversary); the 2016 INCOSE RMC Special Award for pioneering, industry-relevant contributions to Transdisciplinary Systems Engineering; the 2016 Distinguished Engineering Educator Award from the Engineers’ Council; the 2016 Outstanding Educator Award from the Orange County Engineering Council; the 2014 Lifetime Achievement Award from the International Council on Systems Engineering, the 2013 Innovation in Curriculum Award from the Institute of Industrial Engineers, the 2012 Exceptional Achievement Award from INCOSE, the 2011 Pioneer Award from the International Council on Systems Engineering. He serves on the USC’s Council of the Center of Cyber-Physical Systems and Internet of Things (CCI), and Steering Committee of USC Provost’s STEM Consortium. His research interests include formal and probabilistic methods in systems engineering, model-based architecting and engineering, engineered resilient systems, cyber-physical systems, and exploiting disciplinary and technology convergence in systems engineering. He is listed in the Who’s Who including in Science and Engineering, Who’s Who in Industry and Finance, and Who’s Who in America

Dr. Michael Sievers is a Senior Systems Engineer at Caltech’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and has more than 30 years experience in real-time embedded systems, fault-tolerance, mission safety, high-performance computing, computational biology, VLSI, and system software. He earned his BS, MS, and PhD degrees from the University of California, Los Angeles. At JPL Dr. Sievers was the avionics architect for multiple, high profile national defense and research spacecraft. He was the Principle Investigator for a team of scientists and engineers developing a supercomputer system for an extremely high temperature and caustic environment application as well as researching the design of a supercomputer for a cryogenic, quantum computing application. He is currently the Project System Software Engineer and fault protection lead on a major national defense system and conducts research into model-based systems engineering and resiliency. Prior to joining JPL, Dr. Sievers was the architect and chief engineer on projects including ultra-dependable nuclear power plant safety systems, train control, and aircraft subsystems. He was also the software architect and software lead for a highly parallel, pipeline bioinformatics processor. Dr. Sievers is an Adjunct Lecturer in the System Architecting and Engineering Program at the University of Southern California and has more than three dozen publications. He is an AIAA Associate Fellow, Senior Member of the IEEE, Member of INCOSE, Member of Sigma Xi, and Member of Upsilon Pi Epsilon.

Data Analytics Tutorial

Data analysis has long been an integral part of understanding and updating systems, but with recent advances in the size and scope of data collection, analysis has become more complex than ever before. Systems engineers face a critical dilemma: how can such large-scale data be evaluated and visualized to provide key insights? This tutorial is designed to introduce participants to some of the analytics tools available to systems engineers to solve that dilemma. Topics include using recent GUI-driven statistical software to identify crucial data variables, visualizing large data sets through easy mapping software, and making individualized data analysis apps available across organizations and research groups. This tutorial will demonstrate these topics using real data to show how researchers can use these cutting edge methods in a real-life modeling situation. In addition, while the tutorial focuses on familiarizing participants in-depth with a few of the many data analytics tools available, discussion includes overviews for software and tools helpful for more specific analysis considerations, with useful resources for further exploration,

Courtney Paulson is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Decision, Operations and Information Technologies at the Robert H. Smith School of Business at the University of Maryland. She received her B.S. in Statistics from the University of Central Florida in 2011 and her Ph.D. in Business Administration (Statistics) from the University of Southern California in 2016. Due to her research focus in interdisciplinary data analytics, she has worked with researchers across many domains, including marketing, operations, and systems analysis. Her work has been selected for awards from organizations ranging from the American Statistical Association to the INFORMS Society of Marketing Science, who recently honored her with the 2015-2016 ISMS Doctoral Dissertation Award. In additional, she serves as a Business Analytics faculty member for the DOIT department, specializing in teaching data modeling and data analytics.

Model-Based Systems Engineering Tutorial

Model-based systems engineering (MBSE) formalizes the practice of systems engineering through the use of models. This tutorial introduces the fundamental principles of modeling and its application to system engineering. This tutorial is intended to give students a basic understanding of MBSE and its applications by describing what a system model is, how it is used to enable systems engineering in real-world applications, and explore the role of tools in MBSE. The tutorial format is a slide presentation with some class exercises.

Dr. Mark L. McKelvin, Jr. is an Engineering Specialist in systems and software engineering at the Aerospace Corporation. In this role, Dr. McKelvin advises customers on model-based engineering techniques and develops solutions to architecture design challenges in cyber-physical and software-intensive systems. He is also a Lecturer in the System Architecting and Engineering Program at the University of Southern California, Viterbi School of Engineering. His interests are in the application of modeling, analysis, and design of engineered systems, including cyber-physical, embedded, and software systems. He holds a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences from the University of California, Berkeley with an emphasis in Electronic Design Automation

Systems Thinking Tutorial

Systems thinking has been touted as the "Fifth Discipline" in Peter Senge's famous book by that name. However, this is usually limited to the use of systems coupling diagrams and system archetypes to help understand the nature of feedback and complex system behavior. You will need more than these tools to fully appreciate how to think clearly about systems in a truly holistic manner. This tutorial will teach you some essential principles and concepts of systems and how to use these in a "systemic" fashion to improve your ability to think about systems in a holistic manner. You will learn about the PICARD Theory and the Seven Samurai Framework. You will see how the Knowledge Pyramid helps you understand how systems convert data into information that is used for the discovery of knowledge to be used in making better decisions.

James Martin is an enterprise architect and systems engineer working for The Aerospace Corporation developing solutions for information systems and space systems. He was a key author on the BKCASE project in development of the SE Body of Knowledge (SEBOK). His main SEBOK contribution was the articles on Enterprise Systems Engineering. Dr. Martin led the working group responsible for developing ANSI/EIA 632, a US national standard that defines the processes for engineering a system. He previously worked for Raytheon Systems Company as a lead systems engineer and architect on airborne and satellite communications networks. He has also worked at AT&T Bell Labs on wireless telecommunications products and underwater fiber optic transmission products. His book, Systems Engineering Guidebook, was published by CRC Press in 1996. Dr. Martin is an INCOSE Fellow and was leader of the Standards Technical Committee. He received from INCOSE the Founders Award for his long and distinguished achievements in the field. He is founder and current leader of the Systems Science Working Group for INCOSE.