The foundation of system approaches to developing integrated systems.

The program learning outcomes (PLOs) are:

1. Needs, Context and Systems
  1.1. Describe, investigate and analyse complex engineering systems and associated issues (using systems thinking and modelling techniques)

2. Problem Solving and Design
  2.1. Develop creative and innovative solutions to engineering problems
  2.2. Anticipate the consequences of intended action or inaction and understand how the consequences are managed collectively by your organisation, project or team

3. Professional Practice
  3.1. Initiate, plan, lead or manage engineering activities
  3.2. Understand the scope, principles, norms, accountabilities and bounds of contemporary engineering practice in the specific discipline

Based on these PLOs, the course learning outcomes (CLOs) are defined:

1. Apply principles of system engineering and system life cycle approaches to analyse and design complex engineering solutions to real life problems

2. Develop new operational capability using system engineering management approaches

3. Apply system engineering approach for development of new engineering products or improvements of in-service engineering assets

4. Analyse implications of legacy systems on technology insertion and upgrades in relation to the system as a whole

5. Manage complex engineering projects including operations, design, sustainment and decommissioning

The PLOs and CLOs are mapped in the following table:

PLO         CLO

1.1           3

2.1            2

 2.2           4

3.1            1

3.2             5

The concepts of systems, systems thinking and systems life cycle are necessary in dealing with complex problems. Hence, this course aims to introduce a universally accepted good system development practice that deals with complex problems in the planning, developing and managing of engineering and technological systems. The course design concept is to build up the students' competency of practising systems engineering through three successive assessable assignments. The assessments are mapped to the CLOs as follows:

PLOs       CLO         Assignment

 1.1          3                  1, 2

2.1            2                    2

 2.2           4                     3

3.1             1                    1

3.2             5                     3

The assignments are designed to build up your learning of systems engineering principles. Each assignment has a score contributing to the final score of your course. None of the assignments is a hurdle, i.e. you just need to accumulate sufficient pass marks to pass the course, or sufficient high marks to achieve distinction or high distinction.

Assignment 1

Assignment 1 is to develop "system conceptual design". This assignment an individual assignment and will be submitted as a written report. The outcome will form part of Assignment 2. The due date for Assignment 1 can be found in the course outline.

Based on the user requirements as described in the first 3 weeks, you are required develop a system conceptual design of the ADAV. The role of a systems engineer is to ensure the system is designed and be able to be used in the ways that have specified by the users. Hence, the crucial information in this assignment is to capture user requirements and develop novel concepts of system design. The underlying concepts and user expectation have been described in the relevant lectures.

The first hurdle is to form a high level view of what the system looks like. This is done by elaborating at a very high level, the functions that are required to form parts of your system.

Since you are going to combine as group design after Assignment 1, it will assist your next assignment if you use the verb and noun combination to define these functions clearly. Innovative ideas are most important at this stage. You are encouraged to use whatever resources that you can grasp to develop new effective solutions.

The design of a large system requires components that work together in a way that shows integrity, stability, compatibility, safety, and sustainability. Your high level functional descriptions should show these characteristics as well. No detail analysis is required at this stage but conceptual sketches and rough-order-magnitude type estimations will be valued.

In summary, you should provide a detail explanation of the ADAV as a system and integrated with high level functions. You should minimise the chance of mis-interpretation with well-researched data and well-structured presentation, including information about the environments in which the system could be used. It is also important that you explain why your system design will satisfy the user requirements, not only on the given data, but also other possible extensions.

Your report should be submitted individually and will be assessed individually. The recommendation in your report can be used to combine with recommendations from other students to form the system that your group will explore in Assignment 2.