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The Graduate Reference Curriculum for Systems Engineering (GRCSE™) is the first ever worldwide release of an "official" reference curriculum for a systems-centric master’s level program in systems engineering. GRCSE provides a standardized set of recommendations for graduate level systems engineering programs, together with implementation guidance for a university to satisfy those recommendations. The newest version of GRCSE™ is available at http://www.bkcase.org/grcse-05/ for comment.

“GRCSE project is ready for review and early adoption,” said Dr. Art Pyster of Stevens Institute of Technology, principal investigator on the GRCSE™ project. “GRCSE was motivated by the huge diversity in systems engineering graduate programs and the need to create a common core of systems engineering content in worldwide graduate programs.”

The Naval Post Graduate School, co-leads the project with the strong support of the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD), which provided financial support through the Systems Engineering Research Center (SERC), a University Affiliated Research Center (UARC) consisting of 20 schools and led by Stevens. This truly was a community effort. More than 50 volunteer authors from around the world helped write GRCSE.

The International Council on Systems Engineering (INCOSE), the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Computer Society, the National Defense Industrial Association (NDIA) Systems Engineering Division, and the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) all support and contribute to its writing. Stevens’ Dr. Alice Squires and Nicole Hutchison also both contribute significantly as GRCSE authors and editors.

According to Dean Dinesh Verma of the Stevens School of Systems & Enterprises, “GRCSE is a milestone within the systems engineering discipline and a reflection of its increasing maturity and standing within academia. It will have enduring impact on the discipline in the coming years and is a reflection of the leadership role that Stevens is playing within the systems engineering academic domain.”

GRCSE is a part of the Body of Knowledge and Curriculum to Advance Systems Engineering (BKCASE™) project. BKCASE is also developing the Guide to the Systems Engineering Body of Knowledge (SEBoK). SEBoK v0.5 was released in October 2011 and led by Stevens and the Naval Postgraduate School, working together through the SERC.

GRCSE v0.25 was released in December 2010 to selected members of the systems engineering community with the invitation to review and provide the necessary feedback to develop subsequent versions. This feedback was received and forms the basis of the current version, v0.5. Version 1.0 is scheduled for release in late 2012. To access GRCSE 0.5 and to provide review comments, visit http://www.bkcase.org/grcse-05/.