Research on Building Education & Workforce Capacity in Systems Engineering

Abstract : RT-19A, Research on Building Education & Workforce Capacity in Systems Engineering, is the second phase of a two-year research study whose goal is to understand the impact of diverse capstone courses that exposed undergraduate and graduate engineering majors to authentic Department of Defense (DoD) problems and engaged them in the learning and practice of systems engineering, and outcomes related to systems engineering careers and interest. Over an 18-month, three-phase effort from April 2011 to September 2012 that encompassed course planning, implementation, and analysis, participating RT-19A schools and the research team explored methods and approaches to augment the systems engineering workforce for future DoD and related industry workforce needs. The strategic goals addressed by this research are twofold: to understand the institutional challenges and successes in the adoption of core elements of successful systems engineering capstone projects; and to examine the contexts and program characteristics leading to highly successful student team-developed products and artifacts that respond to authentic Department of Defense (DoD) problem areas. To produce the following report, the research team gathered data from student pre and post surveys in order to analyze the impact of the systems engineering capstone project on student learning of systems engineering, student interest in systems engineering careers, and student awareness/interest in authentic DoD problems. In addition, this report also contains input gathered from surveys submitted by PIs and mentors, and from observations and interviews taken from a systems engineering capstone conference June 2012.