Applying systems engineering tools to teach systems engineering in an engineering management program

Abstract

Engineers learn how to design engineered solutions by applying their specialty engineering disciplines, such as chemical, electrical, mechanical, aerospace, materials, and industrial engineering to name a few. Systems engineering tools and concepts help to integrate the specialty engineering designs together to better design and manage complex systems. These same systems engineering tools can be used to teach systems engineering to engineers. A graduate-level engineering management curriculum includes a Management of Engineering Systems course, whose key learning objective is for the students to be able to synthesize and apply the systems engineering methods and tools to a real-world system design project. This paper will describe how the instructor applied systems engineering tools to enhance learning of systems engineering tools and concepts in an engineering management course. The students applied the systems engineering tools in the course to design a system in teams of 4 to 5 students. The instructor assessed the students on their ability to apply the systems engineering tools through the team reports. The average students' grades on their system design reports improved by 6% on the system engineering design reports assessments, from Fall 2016 to Fall 2017, and 5% from Spring 2017 to Fall 2017 (ANOVA alpha = 0.000181). However, the positive responses on the qualitative evaluation from the students' perspectives on the Student Evaluation of Teaching question "I learned a great deal from this course" decreased from Fall 2016 to Spring and Fall 2017 semesters by 16% (94% to 78%).