OLIVIER de Weck: About five years ago, we
started thinking about our classes in the area of aircraft
systems and spacecraft systems in the department.
And we started realizing that there
was a particular class that we didn't have,
and something that seemed very important to us,
and also very important to people in industry.
And that is a general introduction
to systems engineering.
Systems engineering is essentially the art and science
of coordinating and putting together
the different disciplines in order
to create safe, efficient flying systems--
not just flying systems, but systems in general.
And so we decided to create a six-unit class, which
is a half class, that would focus
on the methodology and the processes
in systems engineering, which is going all
the way from stakeholder needs and expectations,
all the way to a functioning system that
can be deployed in the field.
This class, 16842, is really a door-opener to the world
of systems engineering.
And what we use in the class to orient everybody
is the classic V-model of systems engineering.
Now what is the V-model?
The V-model takes you step-by-step through the life
cycle of a system, starting with the left side of the V,
which is, why should the system exist in the first place?
Who are the stakeholders?
What are their expectations?
How do you formulate a concept of operations for a system?
And then go step-by-step through the V,
through the requirements definition, concept generation
and selection, driving the system design, all the way
to the details, to every little part, and piece, and component,
and then moving up the right side
of the V, where you integrate all these pieces
into subsystems and modules.
You do verification, validation, testing.
You commission the system and bring it into operations.
And even then, the job isn't done.
You have to accompany the system throughout its life cycle
through maintenance, upgrades, repair,
making sure the system is really operating
as efficiently as it can.
So what the class does is take students systematically
through every portion of the V, so that at the end of it,
they have a good overview over, what is systems engineering?
And what are the key steps in the life cycle of a system?