The Field Of Engineering

Systems and its Impact on

Systems Engineering
By Dr. Donna H. Rhodes
Tuesday, August 9th, 2005
6:00 - 7:00 PM Dinner and Business Meeting
7:00 - 8:00 PM Presentations by Dr. Rhodes

Booz Allen Hamilton

MEETING
Hamilton Building, Mclean Conference Center
LOCATION 8283 Greensboro Drive, McLean, Virginia 22102, (703) 902-5000
Directions: http://www.incose-wma.org/info/directionsToDinnerMeetings.htm

RESERVATIONS AND FEES

Cost for dinner is $10.00 for members and non-members. Reservations are strongly encouraged. RSVP no later
than Thursday, August 4th. On-line registration via WMA Chapter web-site, http://www.incose-wma.org

Engineering Systems is emerging as an important new field of study focusing on the complex engineering of systems in a broad
human, societal, and industrial context. It takes an integrative holistic view of large-scale, complex, technologically-enabled
systems which have significant enterprise level interactions and socio-technical interfaces. Over the years, systems engineering has
suffered from an identity crisis in the sense that it has never quite fit as an engineering science, nor has it quite fit as a management
science. This ambiguity has resulted in organizations being unsure of where its practitioners should be placed within the overall
organizational structure, particularly in domains outside aerospace and defense. Similarly, in universities we have evidenced
schools, divisions, or colleges often reluctant to serve as the host for systems engineering departments or programs, citing a lack of
academic rigor. This emerging field of engineering systems provides an intellectual home for the field of systems engineering, as a
hybrid engineering-management-policy science into which it can more logically fit. While it may be some time before engineering
systems influences the organizational structures in corporations, we may sooner see changes to educational institutions in this
regard, as exemplified by MIT’s Engineering Systems Division. This talk will introduce the field of engineering systems, discuss its
relationship to the field of systems engineering, and highlight selected research at MIT that lies at the intersection of the two fields
of study.

Donna H. Rhodes joined Massachusetts Institute of Technology in June 2003 as Senior Lecturer in the Engineering Systems
Division and Principal Researcher in the Lean Aerospace Initiative research group. Her research is focused on complex systems
engineering and enterprise architecting. Dr. Rhodes has 20 years of experience in aerospace, defense systems, systems integration,
and commercial product development. Prior to joining MIT, she held senior level management positions at IBM Federal Systems,
Lockheed Martin, and Lucent Technologies in systems engineering and enterprise transformation. Dr Rhodes has been involved in
establishing several systems engineering graduate programs and has been an adjunct professor and lecturer at several universities.
She presently serves on a number of systems engineering university advisory boards and industry advisory boards. She is a Past-
President and Fellow of the International Council on Systems Engineering (INCOSE), and presently is INCOSE Director for
Strategic Planning. She received her Ph.D. in Systems Science from the T.J. Watson School of Engineering at SUNY Binghamton.

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For additional information and paper abstracts, check our web site at http://www.incose-wma.org/
Information on INCOSE can be found at http://www.incose.org

Directions to Booz Allen Hamilton

 Hamilton Building, Mclean Conference Center
8283 Greensboro Drive, McLean, Virginia
From Dulles Airport (or Westfields)

Take the Dulles Access Road and exit to Route 7 East. After the first light on Route 7, begin merging left,
and make a left turn onto Westpark Drive. Go up the hill one block to the next light and turn right on
Greensboro Drive. Once on Greensboro, you can see the campus a block up on your right. To park, turn
right on Solutions Drive just before the campus, and then left into the visitor lot.

From Washington, D.C.

Before 4:00 pm and after 6:30 pm, take I-66 West to Exit 67 (Dulles Access/Toll Road). Follow the signs
for “All Local Exits (267 West)” to Exit 17 (Spring Hill Road). After the tool booth ($.25), turn left onto
Spring Hill Road (which becomes International Drive). At the fourth light, turn right on Greensboro Drive.
Take the second left onto Solutions Drive and another left into the “visitor” lot. The Building sits on the
corner of Greensboro and Solutions Drives.

Between 4:00 pm and 6:30 pm, ask for directions across one of several Potomac River Bridges to the
George Washington Parkway going north. Exit at Route 123 South. Go about 4.5 miles on Route 123.
After passing under I-495, watch for International Drive, where you will turn right. At the first light, turn
left onto Greensboro Drive. Take the second left onto Solutions Drive and another left into the “visitor”
lot. The Building sits on the corner of Greensboro and Solutions Drives.