 The Department of Systems Engineering and Engineering Management (SEEM) and the Systems Design and Operational Effectiveness (SDOE) graduate program have experienced tremendous growth over the past six years. From the first 20 students, sponsored by Lockheed Martin and the Office of Secretary of Defense, US Department of Defense, in spring 2001, the current academic year undergraduate enrollments exceed 120 students and graduate enrollments exceed 700 students. Over 150 graduate courses are taught annually, and the annual research expenditures exceed $2M.
Given society’s inevitable march towards conceiving systems and enterprises of ever increasing complexity, this growth is not surprising, but is unique in an academic context. Our growth in the future will be limited only by:
- Our ability to bring inventiveness and relevance to our academic programs,
- Our ability to develop and execute an innovative and rigorous research strategy, and
- Our ability to create meaningful alliances with national and international organizations similarly focused on research related to the synthesis, analysis, and evaluation of complex systems and enterprises.
Stevens is uniquely positioned to realize the academic and research opportunities resulting from the current interest in the development, deployment, and behavior of complex systems and enterprises as articulated in the Figure 1. An aggressive and inventive academic and research response within this discipline will ensure that we achieve a leadership position.
Figure 1. Unique positioning of the School of Systems and Enterprises.
Much like California Institute of Technology was with applied physics and creation of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in the 1940s and Carnegie Mellon was with robotics, software engineering, and the creation of the Software Engineering Institute during the 1960s, Stevens is positioned to lead the development of an academic discipline for the development and composition, management and governance, operation and evolution of complex systems and enterprises. This new academic unit will provide the necessary resources, responsibility, and accountability to first synthesize an overarching strategy, and then a plan to realize it.
The strategic intent of the School of Systems and Enterprises at Stevens Institute of Technology, is to create the necessary environment within an institution of higher education and research to:
- Build upon our existing reputation in complex systems engineering to realize a research and academic program of national and international repute in systems and enterprise architecting, management, and analysis;
- Provide the synergies to attract large, interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary research initiatives focused on problems of national significance, and;
- Position Stevens to be on the forefront of emerging nontraditional education programs and initiatives that blur the boundaries between engineering, technology, and management; and between industry, government and academia.
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