A Reference Curriculum for a Graduate Program in Systems Engineering.pdf

1 A Reference Curriculum for a Graduate Program in Systems Engineering Rashmi Jain, rashmi.jain@stevens.edu; Alice Squires, alice.squires@stevens.edu; Dinesh Verma, dinesh.verma@stevens.edu; and Anithashree Chandrasekaran, anithashree.chandrasekaran@stevens.edu n increasing number of universities are offering graduate programs in systems engineering, while simultaneously a number of corporations in the commercial and defense sectors have articulated needs for systems engineering skills and competencies. These programs often are structured by their academic legacy and strengths and their perception of the educational needs of their primary audience —students and sponsors, both within industry and government. This perception of audience needs is often based on interviews, exchange forums, surveys, and informal assessments. Industry and academia often differ in the definition of the scope of a systems engineering curriculum. Consequently, the need for a reference curriculum has often been articulated in a variety of meetings within the systems engineering community. The INCOSE Academic Council requested that a reference curriculum be developed by INCOSE, and an INCOSE Systems Engineering Curriculum Working Group was formed to develop the reference curriculum. This paper proposes a reference systems engineering curriculum at the graduate level based on a study of systems engineering programs at 36 universities in the United States and Europe by the Systems Engineering Curriculum Working Group. The working group met through teleconferences during from April to July 2006. Members of the Systems Engineering University Leadership Roundtable of INCOSE also reviewed the curriculum. Industry and government requirements for systems engineering competencies represent the “demand side” of the systems engineering education and competency development enterprise. One aspect of the “supply side” is represented by academia. The study correlated published demand-