Smaling
and de Weck
Receive
2007 Best Paper Award from Systems
Engineering
June
24, 2008
The
journal Systems
Engineering has given its
2007 Best Paper Award to Dr. Rudolf
Smaling and MIT Engineering Systems
Division Prof. Olivier L. de Weck
for their paper "Assessing
Risks and Opportunities of Technology
Infusion in System Design."
The
paper, which appeared in the Spring
2007 issue, presents a technology
infusion assessment methodology
to quantify both the potential benefits
as well as costs of new technologies—not
in isolation, but in the context of
a parent system or host product. Systems
Engineering, the scientific journal
of the International Council on Systems
Engineering (INCOSE), is considered
the primary vehicle for disseminating
scholarship to practitioners and academics
in the field of systems engineering.
The award was announced at the opening
plenary session of the 18th Annual
International Symposium of INCOSE
on June 16, 2008 in Utrecht, The Netherlands.
In the paper by Smaling and de Weck,
the effect of infusing new technologies
is captured using the concept of architectural
invasiveness relative to a baseline
system. The degree of invasiveness
is related to the amount of design
change required to accommodate the
new technology. The technology infusion
methodology is demonstrated for a
hydrogen-enhanced combustion engine,
where the effects of integrating a
plasma fuel reformer are modeled in
terms of fuel economy, NOx emissions,
and vehicle add-on costs.
Dr. Smaling is Chief Architect for
Hybrid Power Systems at Eaton
Corporation in Michigan. Previously,
he was an Adjunct Professor at the
University of Houston, director of
research at the Houston Automotive
Research Center (HARC), and director
of research and engineering for Arvin
Meritor's Light Vehicle Systems division.
In this capacity he was responsible
for commercial development of the
plasma fuel reformer for light vehicle
applications. He holds two MIT degrees:
a Ph.D.
in Engineering Systems (2005)
and an S.M. in System
Design and Management (2003).
Professor de Weck holds dual appointments
at MIT, in the Department
of Aeronautics and Astronautics
and at ESD. His research interests
are in Systems Engineering and Aerospace
System Design. From 1993 to 1997 he
served as liaison engineer and later
as engineering program manager for
the Swiss F/A-18 program at McDonnell
Douglas (now Boeing) in St. Louis,
MO. This is not his first best paper
award; he received two at the 2004
INCOSE Systems Engineering Conference.
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