S&T Department Profile - Systems Engineering

Missouri S&T’s interdisciplinary systems engineering graduate program was developed in 1999 from a proposal with the University of Southern California to the Boeing Company to provide off-campus systems engineering graduate education to Boeing engineers and their suppliers, worldwide. Since that time, the graduate program has grown exponentially reaching 370 both on and off campus from over 20 companies from around the world. Approximately 290 students have graduated with a MS degree in Systems Engineering. The first PhD was granted in summer 2007 and the second was granted in December 2007.

Engineering is becoming more complex. Engineers who have interdisciplinary skills and can design and manage from large systems perspective have a distinct competitive advantage. Practicing engineers know the value of Systems Engineering. This is further highlighted by an increase in the number of companies worldwide that are requesting students with degrees in Systems Engineering, along with an increase in the number of programs now offering graduate degrees in Systems Engineering.

Missouri S&T’s systems engineering graduate program with its MS and PhD degree offerings is one of the top rated graduated programs in the world. This 21st century graduate program builds on sounds engineering undergraduate education and experience, and maintains engineering specializations is attained through teaching and research contributions of core and contributing faculty from a number of campus graduate programs.

Missouri S&T’s graduate program in systems engineering gives the opportunity to professional engineers who have a solid background and experience in engineering and hard science. This is the place “Where Tomorrow’s Systems Architects and Engineers are Inspired.”

FAQ & Points of Distinction

What Companies Are Interested In Systems Engineers?
Companies who are large scale integrators such as IBM, Boeing, GE, Lockheed Martin, BMW, Airbus, Siemens, and government agencies are having difficulties filling systems engineering positions even though they are offering high salaries. The professional society for systems engineering, International Council on Systems Engineering (INCOSE) predicts that this trend will continue into 2040, 2050 and probably into 2060 as the increased pace of change continues to accelerate as does the complexity of the systems and system of systems that need to be engineered.

What Research Areas Are Available?
   Model Based Systems Engineering
   Systems Architecting
   Modeling and Simulations
   Network Centric Systems
   Computational Intelligence
   Human System Integration
   Infrastructure Systems

The systems engineering graduate program builds on sound engineering undergraduate education and experience, and maintains engineering specialization diversity in its graduates at both the MS and PhD levels.

Missouri S&T’s Smart Engineering Systems Lab (SESL) develops new models and tools for building complex systems architectures that are intelligent, modular, and adaptive based on a DOD architecture framework and similar enterprise architecture frameworks contributing heavily to systems architecting research. The engineering tools and algorithms that are developed by the interdisciplinary teams can be used in building today’s complex systems.

Research Challenges. The systems engineering graduate program, with over 160 students and 487 graduates, contributes to the research challenges of systems engineering imposed by today’s complex, adaptive, distributed, cooperative, and dynamically changing engineering systems.

One of 22 collaborating universities that participate in the System Engineering Research Center, a designated University Affiliated Research Center (UARC) supported by the Department of Defense.

Systems Engineering Fellows. Two of the 64 INCOSE (International Council of Systems Engineering) Fellows contribute to systems engineering research and education as full time and adjunct faculty at Missouri S&T.

Missouri S&T’s National Science Foundation Industry/University Cooperative Research Center (NSF I/UTRC) on Intelligent Maintenance Systems. This center is supported by The Boeing Company, as well as Caterpillar, Festo, Chevron, 21st Century, AVETEC, TRW Military and Honeywell in the areas of Sensing and Monitoring, Prognostics, and Advanced Simulation. The NSF I/UTRC is one of the research units of the Systems Engineering Graduate Program.

Energy Research & Development Center. The mission of the Energy Research & Development Center is to educate students in energy topics to solve problems of society and to deliver solutions for energy related issues, by forming collaborative relationships with industry and government, for the benefit of the university, the state of Missouri and the nation.

Missouri S&T houses the Center for Aerospace Technologies (CAMT). This center is a collaboration of Missouri S&T, Boeing Phantom Works and the Air Force Research Laboratory. The mission of CAMT is to serve as a Center of Excellence for research and development. The CAMT also evaluates and demonstrates new and optimal methodologies and tools for the rapid and cost-effective manufacture of aerospace components and products, as well as promoting new education and training programs for the evolving aerospace workforce, resulting in significant technological advancement and national impact.

Missouri S&T’s Center for Infrastructure Engineering Studies. This center provides research expertise in the areas of building and civil infrastructure, such as roads and bridges, power infrastructure, such as electric power, and infrastructure management.