Graduate Certificate in Architecture-Based Systems Integration

Motivation
There is much interest today in the engineering of systems that are themselves comprised of other component systems, and where each of the component systems serves organizational and human purposes. These systems families are often categorized as systems-of-systems, or federations of systems. The design of architectures is a major ingredient in the design of systems families and provides the conceptual basis for achieving system integration. Towards this end, the Department of Defense has issued new regulations for acquisition of systems. These require an architecture-based approach and focus on how a proposed system will be integrated with other existing or planned systems. Industry is expected to follow the new guidelines.

The Architecture-Based System Integration Certificate was created to prepare system engineers for these new demands. Studies cover: formulation of the system integration problem, definition of architecture frameworks, use of structured analysis and object oriented methodologies for the design of architectures, modeling and simulation for evaluation of architectures and approaches to integration. Both defense and industrial applications are considered. Students may pursue the certificate as apart of the MS in Systems Engineering degree program or as a stand-alone graduate certificate in Architecture-Based Systems Integration.

Admission Requirements
A baccalaureate degree from an accredited university in engineering, mathematics, physical sciences or related field is required. Aside from a strong academic record, students must have the standard mathematics background required for the MS/SE program, including calculus I, II and III, matrix or linear algebra, elementary differential equations and a calculus-based probability course.

Certificate Requirements
To obtain the certificate, candidates must complete the following courses with an average grade of B or better, for a total of 12 credits:

• SYST 520 Systems Engineering Design
• SYST 618 Model-based Systems Engineering
• SYST 620 Discrete Event Systems
• SYST 621 Systems Architecture Design and Evaluation

MS/SE with Specialization in Architecture-Based Systems Integration
In addition to the above four courses students must take six courses (18 credits) including

• SYST 505 Systems Engineering Principles
• SYST 510 Systems Definition and Cost Modeling
• SYST 530 Systems Management and Evaluation
• SYST 611 System Methodology and Modeling
• SYST 699 Masters Project
• One approved elective course chosen from the allowable electives for the ABSI Emphasis.