April 09, 2008 — Members of the International Council on Systems Engineering (INCOSE)  gathered April 5-6 in Redondo Beach for Conference on Systems Engineering Research (CSER) 2008, one of a series of gatherings in early April at which Viterbi School units and affiliates were a highly visible presence.

Settles

Systems Architecting and Engineering Program Director Stan Settles, who will be installed as a fellow of the prestigious society in June, joined Epstein ISE department colleagues in welcoming visiting colleagues from all over the world. As co-hosts of the event, SAE played a critical role in the gathering, which included seven invited papers, and 100 presentations.

The plenary presentations included one on "Systems Engineering and Software Integration Employing the Incremental Commitment Model" by Professor Barry Boehm, Director of USC's Center for Systems and Software Engineering.

Elliot Axelband, advisor to the SAE program, ended the conference by chairing an Industrial Roundtable which provided comments by Rand Corp., Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Aerospace Corp, Northrop Grumman and Raytheon on the importance of research to systems engineering.

Epstein ISE department Adjunct  Professor George Friedman who also serves as associate director of the Systems Architecting and Engineering Program, was CSER general conference chair, while SAE / Epstein ISE advisory board member (and father of one USC alumna and one student) Azad Madni, CEO of Intelligent Systems Technology, served as CSER technical chair.

The Stevens Institute of Technology and the local Southern California INCOSE chapter joined the Viterb School in sponsoring the conference.

In addition to Boehm's plenary address, Viterbi students and faculty authored or co-authored seven other CSER 2008 presentations, including:

• "A Process Decision Table for Integrated Systems and Software Engineering," by Boehm and ISE doctoral student Jo Ann Lane.
• "A Model of Systems Engineering in a Systems of Systems Context;" co-authored by Lane.
• "A Dynamic Architectural Resource Adaptability Model for Natural and Human-Made Disasters;"  co-authored by Scott Jackson, Lecturer and Associate Director of the SAE Program.
• "Violent Agreement Amongst Systems and Software Engineers" and "Examining Customer-Side Engineering Practices for Robotic Systems," both by CSCI grad student Dewitt T. Latimer IV.
• "Systems Engineering requirements definition provides a quantitative foundation for Project Management tools," by ISE graduate student Jennifer Russell.
• "Business Jet Manufacturing: Aggregating and Partitioning Final Completion," by Kirk Vining, an MS student in Systems Architecting and Engineering.

Just prior to the meeting in Redondo Beach. the INCOSE Systems Engineering Doctoral Student Network (SEANET) Workshop 2008 took place the Davidson Conference Center, and many USC students attended. This event was organized by an Epstein School alumnus, Ricardo Valerdi (MS '02, PhD '05 SAE), who is now a research associate at MIT.

Davidson was also the site of a meeting of the Council of Engineering Systems Universities (CESUN) hosted by Settles, the first CESUN meeting ever held on the west coast.

"Three Generations of Aerospace Engineering" - from left, Stan Settles, Dr. William F. Ballhaus, Sr., President, Beckman Instruments (ret.), Ms. Holly Hansen, guest of William F. Ballhaus, Sr., Dr. William L. Ballhaus, President BAE Network Systems,Mrs. Jane Ballhaus, wife of William F. Ballhaus, Jr,Dr. William F. Ballhaus, Jr., CEO, The Aerospace Corporation (ret.).

Settles played a prominent role in a ceremonial banquet staged by the local INCOSE chapter April 4. The event,  "Three Generations of Aerospace Engineering,” honoring the Ballhaus family, whose members are deeply connected to corporations with strong links to Viterbi. (see photograph)
In the wake of the intense acitivty, Moore offered a summation of the significance of the gatherings to the Epstein department and Viterbi School:

"Our role last week demonstrates USC's leadership in the Systems Engineering arena, and helps focuses corporate attention on two unique dimensions of the Viterbi School: our Systems Architecting and Engineering program, and the Center for Systems and Software Engineering.

"Events like this also reveal a particular strength of the Epstein ISE Department, our ongoing collaboration with the best industry-based research talent Los Angeles has to offer."