UK Chapter

Dr Robert Davis and Paul Cheeseman, TPD, 1730H, Wednesday, 1st May 2013, LU's offices in Holborn, London. A review of experience in preparing systems safety handbooks for the rail industry and a look at the challenges and opportunities associated with integrating good practice in Systems Safety Engineering with good practice in Systems Engineering.

Using Multiple Perspectives to Design Resilient Systems for Agile Enterprises

by Jeremy Hilton, Cranfield University

This paper proposes an approach to improve the resilience of systems in the design stage by considering a framework of resilience to inform the system’s requirements. We suggest that, in addition, one should consider the regulatory needs, not only of the system, but also the management of the engineering and project/program management processes. Finally we propose a link between the unstructured problem space and the structured engineering and project management space through the consideration of multiple dimensions of the system’s needs.

Since this is the inaugural meeting, some time will also be allocated to reviewing the aims of the Interest Group and gathering views from those attending on topics for future sessions.

Light refreshment will be provided.

Please note that if you wish to attend you must book by close of play on Friday 10th May, to to allow names to be given to the venue prior to the event.  Please bring some form of identity, such as photographic driving licence or passport to show at reception. The event is free to attend.

We are delighted to invite you to an event at the Bristol Robotics Lab on the North side of the UWE Frenchay Campus, looking at robotic technology R&D, and investigating some of the systems issues related to the procurement, development, acceptance and operational use of robots and unmanned systems.  This event will include a tour of the BRL facilities prior to the presentations.

Delegates are advised to arrive in good time for the event in order to get through the security procedures.

Not every member can make it along to the UK Annual Systems Engineering Conference every year, and many members will never have attended an International Symposium.  This event will feature a selection of papers from past conferences, recent conferences, and hopefully a sneak preview of papers yet to be presented. 

If you are presenting at the IS2013 and would like the opportunity of a dry run on home soil before heading out to Philadelphia then please contact the BLG committee.

Steve Lilleyman, Purple Secure Systems.

MBSE offers plenty of promise, tempting architects and system designers with opportunities to improve quality at reduced cost through a rigorous methodology and the possibility of reuse. In reality, it can be difficult to know how to apply this modern paradigm to organisations that have long established ways of working with more traditional approaches to product development. 

This presentation addresses these issues by identifying common problems faced by a range of projects of different types, as experienced by systems engineering consultants working both in the defence industry and in other public and private ventures, and sets out some ways to apply the model based paradigm to good effect.

Note: INCOSE UK South Coast Meetings are open to both INCOSE members and non-members at no cost. 

Once again, this event offers the opportunity to find out what another year of EngD Systems students have been researching, and get an insight into their results and findings.

This event is organised by the Railway Engineer's Forum, not INCOSE, but tackles a very system-oriented topic and may be of interest to INCOSE members.

For further details please click the link below to see the event flyer.

As with many defence organisations AWE has undergone significant transformation in the last ten years as a consequence of changing stakeholder requirements, increasing system complexity and an ever reducing defence budget. Systems Engineering is increasingly embraced within AWE as the key to managing this complexity through life. However, embedding Systems Engineering practice requires more than implementation of the process to be successful, it needs commitment across the enterprise from all business functions.

In order to deliver the company vision and continue to be successful in to the future, the people of AWE need to develop an awareness of what Systems Engineering means to the organisation and also to their individual and team roles. The message that Systems Engineering is not just for systems engineers is key, and that the benefits of Systems Engineering practices can be realised across all AWE functions.

To date much of the Systems Engineering training and education within AWE has been delivered to specific groups with specialist needs rather than creating awareness at the right level of abstraction across the entire enterprise.

The aim of this talk is to demonstrate how a collaborative partnership involving academia, industry and AWE has used a virtual learning environment to develop, design and implement an introduction to Systems Thinking and Systems Engineering that can be understood by all employees regardless of their role in the development of complex systems.

There is an emerging recognition within the project management and systems engineering communities that there is potential for putting the ideas of project management and system engineering to work better together. The Association for Project Management (APM) and the UK chapter of the International Council on Systems Engineering (INCOSE UK) intend to work together to help realise this potential.

So on Tuesday 15th January 2013, we are holding a joint workshop in London, places are limited

The workshop will be an early activity in an extended programme of co-operation between the two organisations; a programme which the workshop will help to shape.

The workshop is intended to help projects deliver better systems, more reliably, more quickly and at lower cost. The primary objective of the workshop will be to identify specific areas which the systems engineering and project management communities can profitably explore and to start to identify what needs to be done in these areas. The workshop will also promote communications and the sharing of ideas between the project management and systems engineering communities.

For more information and to register please visit the Association for Project Management (APM) website.