Development of a department of defense focused graduate program in systems engineering

The Air Force Institute of Technology has responded to a need for a significant revision of its graduate degree program in systems engineering. The need was brought on by several factors, including a move towards a capability based acquisition system, the emergence of system architecture as a means for insuring interoperability, and the recognition that sound system engineering principles were not being uniformly applied across AF and DoD programs. The first year revision of the program concentrated on a new line-up of core courses to insure a common body of knowledge for all students going through the degree program. These core courses, together with a project application are also offered as a stand alone graduate certificate program. The second year revision continues to fine tune the core courses, but also adds an elective sequence that can take students through the front end systems engineering process for a current AF mission area. This sequence has the students perform a mission area analysis, concept definition, analysis of alternatives, program formulation and the development of test and risk management plans for their concepts. Progress of the program revision is discussed and future initiatives can be mentioned.