Why systems engineering?

Today everyone uses many different systems in their daily lives. We fly in an airplane (a system) operated by an airline (a system) within a national airspace system which fits inside a national transportation system which integrates with other national transportation systems. We use Internet-based systems to pay our bills, order clothes, books, and groceries. We get imaged (a system) to determine our ills, and systems for delicate surgery aid surgeons to reattach retinas or repair our brains. Systems control the environment and security in our buildings, and systems help soldiers find the enemy and provide firepower on targets. Systems observe and analyze the global environment to help us survive storms, tsunamis, and earthquakes; and help determine why crops don’t grow or give guidance to farmers on how to improve their yield. Systems give us the means to vote and know the results quickly. Systems integrate seamlessly into our daily lives.

How do these systems come to be? Originally, someone created a system like the car; over time it was refined. But such systems had flaws: they failed unexpectedly, had unsafe features, and were difficult to operate and repair. Quality and performance varied from year to year.

For a time, people accepted this. But as the systems became more complex and competition heated up, system flaws turned into lost money, lives, and reputations. Consumers (whether people, organizations, or governments) demanded better from the creators of systems. Systems engineering improved the situation by establishing processes and methodologies that have helped engineers conceive and implement safe and secure systems, based on multiple technologies and engineering disciplines, which work and last as their buyers intended and allow activity to occur over and over again.

Systems engineering is not a static discipline. It evolves as we learn to improve how to get it right the first time. At the University of Maryland, we recognize the importance of systems engineering. We work at teaching you, the next generation of systems engineers (the appliers of systems engineering), to follow the principles, the state of the art methods and techniques, and understand the relationship of systems to their environments and to technology. We also teach you about the profession.

LEARN MORE ABOUT...

... The MSSE degree

... What systems engineers do and who they are