Project Guidelines

A successful project needs to result in a publishable paper. The paper itself needs to be published in an established academic or trade journal or presented at a refereed conference.

The focus of your paper should relate either to your sponsor's (employer's) area of interest or alternatively, a particular area of interest consistent with your coursework. Quite often, a project relates to both. Common project forms include Case Studies and Research Investigation

The Case Study content: The student examines a completed project, from a previous course(s), and develops an "as completed" versus "as should have been completed" case study. There is an existing body of research you should reference when choosing a Case Study-based project. One such paper is Case Studies of Systems Engineering and Management in Systems Acquisition by Sage and Friedman, published in the INCOSE Systems Engineering Journal (2004,7,1).  For students who take this route, this paper is an essential reading. 

The Research Investigation content: The student embarks on a subject where systems principles are applied to cover new ground. For example, development of CONOPS (Concept of Operations), given the principles that were covered in the SDOE coursework, followed by modeling or simulating to verify and validate your CONOPS. Recognize that your research investigation does not have to cover all topics. Your opportunity/problem statement that triggers a project may use only a subset of the subjects covered in your coursework, and that is okay. 

The structure:   The output of the project should take the form of a technical manuscript.  See here

TOPIC IDEAS

We are compiling project topics for students who are in search of a project. Project Topics [link Project Topics to project topics web page] are currently being added to the SDOE website. Students can choose a project area and contact the faculty member identified on the topic. Please be sure to send email expressing your interest to the faculty member along with your work history and education background.

If you already have a topic in mind, please fax the title, a one-page summary of the topic, along with your work history and education background to the SDOE Program Office at 201-216-5080 and we will contact once we determine an appropriate advisor for you.

How to Enroll

Once you have chosen a topic and connected with a faculty advisor, please fill in the “ Request for Special Problem ” form and fax it to the SDOE Program Office, 201-216-5080. Print the title of the agreed upon project and the name of your faculty advisor on the form and sign it before faxing.

The cost for a 3-credit project course is the same as the current Stevens tuition in the School of Engineering .