MIT Receives Three out of Six INCOSE Best Paper Awards

ESD takes active role in conference, professional society

August 13, 2004

ESD professors captured three out of six Best Paper Awards at the 2004 Annual International Symposium of the International Council on Systems Engineering (INCOSE) held June 21-24 in Toulouse, France. INCOSE is the international professional society for systems engineering, with over 5000 members from around the globe.

ESD Professor Oli de Weck won the best paper award in the Modeling and Tools category for a paper co-authored with M.B. Jones, "Isoperformance: Analysis and Design of Complex Systems with Known or Desired Outcomes."

With ESD Professor Chris Magee, de Weck won a second best paper award at the same conference in the Education and Research category for a paper entitled "Complex Systems Classification."

ESD Professor Nancy Leveson’s student, Nick Dulac, won the INCOSE Best Student Paper Award at the INCOSE International Systems Engineering Conference in June 2004 for "An Approach to Design of Complex Systems,” which she co-authored.

“Receiving three out of six best paper awards at the INCOSE 2004 conference is a very significant event for MIT and ESD, because it establishes us as a leader in the field of Systems Research and demonstrates our contributions to this emerging community,” noted de Weck. “It is also significant because the awards were selected by independent technical committees, which shows our degree of competitiveness in multiple areas.”

“INCOSE'S strength is in bringing together leading complex system engineering practitioners in a focused conference,” added Magee. “There is a clear opportunity for ESD to bring some academic strength to this group and at the same time increase and maintain our knowledge of engineering practice.”

ESD plays a significant leadership role in INCOSE overall, as well as at the conference. ESD Director Daniel Hastings presented an overview of the ESD program to the INCOSE Academic Council, which comprised of academic leaders from leading universities. Hastings is also co-chair of the INCOSE Academic Council.

ESD Senior Lecturer Donna Rhodes presented a talk on “Emerging Themes and Concepts for Systems Engineering Education” at the one day Academic Forum event, and also presented on the INCOSE vision at the plenary session. She is also INCOSE’s director for strategic planning.

ESD’s Lean Aerospace Initiative held a panel entitled “Lean Systems Engineering”, moderated by Rhodes, with LAI researcher Eric Rebentisch as panelist along with three other members of the LAI’s EdNet Systems Engineering Group.

Pat Hale, Acting Director of the System Design and Management Fellows Program serves as INCOSE’s treasurer.

ESD also hosted an exhibit showcasing materials from all ESD programs and research centers. ESD PhD students Heidi Davidz, Adam Ross, and Troy Downen staffed the booth and shared information on ESD with many of the over 800 conference attendees from around the world.

"Attending the INCOSE international symposium was an excellent opportunity to see the international view of systems engineering,” said Davidz. “ESD's involvement in INCOSE enables students to develop an international professional network. With a very visible presence at the conference, ESD has begun to show academic leadership in this organization.”