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MIT Apollo Program Professor of Astronautics and Engineering Systems

Notes:

Discussion with Prof. Olivier de Weck about Technology Roadmapping. Including his 2022 book “Technology Roadmapping and Development: A Quantitative Approach to the Management of Technology”

Olivier is Apollo Program Professor of Astronautics and Engineering Systems at MIT & the Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Spacecraft and Rockets. Previously Olivier was Editor-in-Chief for INCOSE’s Systems Engineering journal and Senior Vice President for Technology Planning and Roadmapping at Airbus.

Links from discussion:

1. MIT Professional Education courses (including Technology Roadmapping): https://professional.mit.edu/programs/faculty-profiles/olivier-de-weck
2. Olivier’s 2022 Book: “Technology Roadmapping and Development”: https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-030-88346-1
3. MIT’s Roadmaps Home Page: https://roadmaps.mit.edu/index.php/Main_Page

Time stamps:

• 00:00:00 Introduction
• 00:01:00 What is technology Rd mapping and why should their organisation be doing it?
• 00:02:10 1962 JFK speech “We choose to go to the Moon in this decade…” example of a roadmap?
• 00:05:55 Figures of Merit (FoM), Utopian points, unachievable roadmaps & solar powered aircraft
• 00:10:22 Multidisciplinary nature of roadmaps & CFOs Chief Financial Officer is perhaps the most powerful person in the company
• 00:13:54 Value of traceability. Strategic Drivers to Roadmaps to Figures of Merit to R&D Projects Portfolio
• 00:16:47 Size of organisations to use roadmaps. Airbus is very complicated company…
• 00:19:03 Interfacing to suppliers of subsystems (e.g. aero engines)
• 00:23:36 Large amounts of information & keeping roadmaps updated
• 00:30:53 Disruptive innovation and Figure of Merit Changes
• 00:33:40 Handling disruptions from outside an industry (e.g. COVID-19, September 11th, Financial crisis of 2008)
• 00:36:51 MIT Online Course on Technology Roadmapping
• 00:38:14 Closing

Cofounder and CEO, QRA Corp

Notes:

Discussion with Jordan about the current state of Systems Engineering and where it can go in the future. Before founding QRA Corp, Jordan was a professor of quantum physics at Dalhousie University.

QRA Corp’s mission is to accelerate the design process across industries who are tackling the most complex systems by empowering them to build tomorrow’s safe, secure, and incredibly powerful products. QRA’s technology, patented toolsets, and capabilities have been used to avoid stressful reworks, enable confident engineering, and find previously undetected catastrophic flaws.

Links from discussion:

1. https://qracorp.com/
2. https://www.linkedin.com/in/jordankyriakidis/
3. https://jordan-kyriakidis.medium.com/

Time stamps:

• 0:00:00 Introduction
• 0:00:56 Jordan’s Background
• 0:01:24 QRA is centered on requirements and improving requirements
• 0:07:56 Entrepreneurship background
• 0:12:01 Current state of systems engineering
• 0:15:44 Impact of quantum computers
• 0:17:49 Rise in AI
• 0:22:06 Industries in demand for systems engineering
• 0:24:23 Culture differences in various domains
• 0:26:29 Processing requirements in different languages?
• 0:28:01 System Engineering in the next 10 years
• 0:33:37 Largest semiconductor manufacturer Nvidia
• 0:35:25 Demand of quality products from the consumers
• 0:36:40 Advice for novices in system engineering
• 0:39:40 Design level thinking
• 0:41:31 Jordan transition from being a Professor to CEO
• 0:45:51 Career opportunities at QRA Corp
• 0:47:53 Impact of Covid in day to day business operations
• 0:53:22 Conclusion

Dov Dori, Bruce Cameron, Mo Mansouri, Jon Holt, Alan Harding, Mike Johnson, Mohammad Chami & Joshua Sutherland

Notes:

In this episode we are going to be exploring the consequences of COVID-19 on Systems Engineering with SE experts from around the world.

Links from discussion:

Time stamps:

• 00:00 Intro – Mini
• 00:20 Intro – Full
• 02:11 Dov Dori – Technion & MIT
• 06:29 Bruce Cameron – MIT & Technology Strategy Partners
• 09:30 Mo Mansouri – Stevens Institute of Technology
• 11:38 Jon Holt – Scarecrow Consultants & Cranfield University
• 15:25 Alan Harding – BAE Systems & INCOSE Past President
• 17:56 Mike Johnson – SE-Training GmbH
• 21:59 Mohammad Chami – Chami Consulting
• 24:47 Joshua Sutherland
• 31:34 Outro

PMI Fellow & Past Chairman

Notes:

Interview with Ricardo Viana Vargas – Brightline Project Management Institute (PMI) – Project Management & Strategy Implementation

Links from discussion:

1. https://ricardo-vargas.com/
2. https://www.brightline.org/
3. https://www.linkedin.com/in/ricardovargas/

Time stamps:

• 0:00:00 Introduction
• 0:02:10 Ricardo background and mission
• 0:04:28 Turn Ideas into Reality
• 0:06:56 Convince people by gain or by pain
• 0:10:23 Why become a project manager?
• 0:13:00 Behaviour drives your success
• 0:17:00 Success and Failures
• 0:21:00 Advice for Novices
• 0:21:53 Bad advice to ignore
• 0:22:57 Conclusion

Author of Architecting Systems: Concepts, Principles and Practice

Notes:

Interview with Hillary Sillitto author of “Architecting Systems: Concepts, Principles and Practice”
Check out Hillary’s website here to learn more about the book: http://sillittoenterprises.com/

Links from discussion:

1. Book: Architecting Systems – concepts, principles and practice. By Hillary Sillitto, 2014
2. Journal Paper: Dori, Dov, and Hillary Sillitto. “What is a system? An ontological framework.” Systems Engineering 20.3 (2017): 207-219.
3. Conference Paper: Sillitto, Hillary, Dov Dori, Regina M. Griego, Scott Jackson, Daniel Krob, Patrick Godfrey, Eileen Arnold, James Martin, and Dorothy McKinney. “Defining “system”: a comprehensive approach.” In INCOSE International Symposium, vol. 27, no.
4. Journal: https://physicsworld.com/
5. Challenger Shuttle Disaster: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Shuttle_Challenger_disaster 
6. INCOSE Complexity Primer White Paper: https://www.incose.org/docs/default-source/ProductsPublications/a-complexity-primer-for-systems-engineers.pdf?sfvrsn=0&sfvrsn=0
7. INCOSE Complexity Primer Presentation: https://www.incose.org/docs/default-source/default-document-library/complexity-primer-overview.pdf?sfvrsn=0 
8. Book: Systems Architecting: Creating & Building Complex Systems. By Eberhardt Rechtin, 1990.
9. Book: Anticipatory Systems: Philosophical, Mathematical and Methodological Foundations. By Robert Rosen, 2012
10. Book: The Incremental Commitment Spiral Model: Principles and Practices for Successful Systems and Software. By Barry Boehm, Jo Ann Lane, Supannika Koolmanojwong, Richard Turner, 2014.
11. Book:  Anticipatory Systems: Philosophical, Mathematical and Methodological Foundations. By Robert Rosen, 2012
12. INCOSE papers and presentations library: https://www.incose.org/ProductsPublications/Papers-Presentations-library 

Time stamps:

• 0:00:00 Introduction
• 0:01:41 Hillary Self Intro
• 0:02:20 His Mission
• 0:05:05 Identification of Definitions
• 0:09:15 Human side of systems engineering
• 0:10:25 How to sell the idea of systems to people?
• 0:14:20 Identifying obstacles
• 0:17:26 Hillary transition to system engineer.
• 0:21:05 Culture differences in organizations
• 0:24:15 Differences of Industries and Civil Service
• 0:27:17 Proud moments and Failures to learn from
• 0:31:37 How to develop your career?
• 0:34:00 Bad advice to ignore
• 0:37:40 Technical specialization to broader systems
• 0:40:42 Nature of requirements
• 0:47:00 Key books to read
• 0:49:26 Decision map
• 0:53:15 Biggest opportunities and challenges in the system engineer community
• 0:57:49 Advice to the system community
• 0:58:15 Conclusion

MIT System Design and Management (SDM) Academic Director and Sr. Lecturer

Notes:

• Interview with Bryan R. Moser – The nature of teamwork via the study and design of socio-technical systems: http://www.mit.edu/~bry/
• Academic Director and Sr. Lecturer, System Design and Management (SDM) @ MIT: https://sdm.mit.edu/
• Associate Director, Strategic Engineering Research Group @ MIT: http://strategic.mit.edu/
• Project Associate Professor, Graduate School of Frontier Sciences @ the University of Tokyo: https://www.k.u-tokyo.ac.jp/index.html.en
• Director, Global Teamwork Lab @ the University of Tokyo: https://gtl.edu.k.u-tokyo.ac.jp/home
• Founder of the company Global Project Design (GPD): http://www.teamport.com/

Links from discussion:

Time stamps:

• 0:00:00 Introduction
• 0:00:57 Bryan’s self introduction
• 0:01:35 Bryan’s mission
• 0:02:00 Bryan’s career
• 0:02:32 How to distribute the engineering?
• 0:04:00 Decomposition and design of a product
• 0:05:12 Teamwork
• 0:06:50 Steps of Bryan’s Career
• 0:08:42 Entrepreneurship journey
• 0:10:35 Transition to teaching and research
• 0:12:00 Advice to novices
• 0:14:40 The underlying physics of complex systems
• 0:15:35 Bad advice to ignore
• 0:17:15 Opportunities and Challenges
• 0:18:15 Failures to learn from
• 0:20:15 Conclusion