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Engineering DesignGraduate course exposes students to systems designThe Engineering Design Program once again offered itsinterdisciplinary graduate course, EDSGN 597C SystemsDesign during the spring 2009 semester.Systems design is an engineering field that encompasses aset of processes for defining and developing a system thatsatisfies requirements specified by a user. Just as the fieldof systems design draws on many disciplines to developcomplex systems, the Systems Design course brings togetherstudents from various engineering and technical backgroundsand gives them an overview of systems engineering design,methodology, management, tools, integration, and operationfor both large-scale and small-scale systems. The curriculumfocuses on the integration of various fields and the refinementof systems engineering skills needed to design systemssuccessfully. The course aims to prepare students for careersat systems-focused companies and agencies such as LockheedMartin, Boeing, BAE Systems, General Electric, NorthropGrumman, Raytheon, and NASA.“The ability to design complex systems is a critical one fortoday’s engineers to possess,” said Sven Bilén, associateprofessor of engineering design, electrical engineering, andaerospace engineering and the developer of the course. “Itis also important that they become systems thinkers, sincea systems perspective will be necessary to solve the complexchallenges facing us in the 21st century.”The Systems Design course covers such varied systemsengineering topics as requirements analysis, benchmarking,systems architecture, systems testing, and the connectionbetween verification and validation. To reinforce theseacademic concepts, the students also work on a real systemsdesign project. During the spring 2009 semester, the courseproject was Mashavu, a telemedicine system designed forThe importance of systems designuse in the developing world (see pages 30-31). Mashavu isa complex venture that has diverse users and stakeholders,hardware and software sub-systems, and numerous potentialapplication scenarios. It operates both alongside and withina number of larger systems that form the context for theventure.“The Systems Design class worked on the Mashavu systemfrom a systems perspective and developed comprehensivedocumentation to enable the organic growth of Mashavu andfacilitate the design of the system over multiple iterations,”said Khanjan Mehta, Mashavu leader, research associate, andaffiliate faculty in SEDTAPP.In addition to working on the Mashavu system, Bilénillustrated the concept of “practicing what you preach,”spending three weeks launching rockets—great examples ofcomplex systems in and of themselves—in Alaska (see storyon opposite page) during the spring 2009 semester. Duringthat time, he taught the Systems Design course remotely viaAdobe Connect, a Web-based video conferencing programthat is used frequently at Penn State to connect its employeesand collaborators across long distances. Although severalstudents in the class commented that they got a little tasteof the future of education, Bilén observed that, “curiouslyenough, the students all wanted my camera turned on so theycould see me, but none of them wanted to turn on theirs!”Although the course is currently offered every other year, withits next offering planned for spring 2011, student demand issuch that SEDTAPP plans to offer it on a yearly basis in thenear future.For more information about the EDSGN 597C Systems Designcourse, or to learn about project sponsorship opportunities, pleasecontact Sven Bilén at sbilen@psu.edu.“[The course] introduced us to concepts and principles that are critical to breaking down complex engineering problems into smaller,surmountable pieces. As a course dealing with real-world, big-picture engineering, the Systems Design class has proven to be especiallyrelevant to my early industry experiences.”—Erik Davidson, master’s student, Electrical Engineering“The mix of classroom academics with practical experiences added a valuable new dimension to the learning process. Having spent a longcareer in industry, I can attest to the value of learning systems design.”—Robert Capuro, a Penn State electrical engineering graduate with 43 years of systems engineering and systems design experience atHoneywell Aerospace and Defense. Capuro served as co-instructor, lecturer, and mentor for the spring 2009 Systems Design course.“The Systems Design course has given me significant insight into what it actually takes to produce a fully functioning system or product.The course showed me that, in order to be successful, one must have a firm understanding of the complete life cycle of the system as wellas how each element of the system, down to the smallest component, interacts with all the others.”—Tom Tyson, master’s student, Electrical EngineeringTop, right: Blastoff! Photo credit: NASAAbove, top: The rockets traveled eighty-sevenmiles into the aurora-lit sky. Photo credit: CraigHeinselmanAbove, middle: Associate Professor Sven Bilén andthe rocket (encapsulated in Styrofoam) try to keepwarm in the minus-twenty degree weather. Photocredit: Jack MitchellAbove, bottom: Thirty-five-foot, two-stage TerriorOrion rockets were used to collect informationabout the Turbopause. Photo credit: Sven BilénEngineers head to Alaska toexplore the ‘’ignore-osphere’’Sven Bilén, associate professorof engineering design, electricalengineering, and aerospaceengineering, and Jack Mitchell,professor of electrical engineering,spent three weeks in Fairbanks, AK,preparing and launching NASA rocketsinto the upper atmosphere.The purpose of the experiment wasto collect information about theTurbopause, the layer of atmospherethat exists at an altitude of about100 kilometers—an area too high forballoons and too low for satellites tomeasure.“The region between 50 and 250kilometers altitude is sometimesreferred to as the “ignore-osphere”because it is very difficult to makemeasurements there,” said Bilén. “Byunderstanding what happens in thatregion, we get a better understandingof how the Earth couples to the Sun.”“All the models on global warmingmake certain assumptions of what thatcoupling process is. Getting better datais important—you’d like to have moreaccurate numbers so you don’t makewild assumptions.”In order to collect the data, Bilén,Mitchell, and scientists from all overthe country traveled to the Poker FlatResearch Range, which is located 30miles north of Fairbanks, early in thespring 2009 semester. During thecourse of their stay, they assembled,tested, and launched four rockets—35-foot, two-stage Terrior Orions—thattraveled eighty-seven miles into the sky.All four rockets were equipped with amechanism that released a fluorescinggas into the atmosphere to measurehigh-altitude winds. Two rocketswere equipped with an instrument,designed by the Leibniz-Institute forAtmospheric Physics, that containeda filament that was used to ionizegases in the atmosphere, allowing theneutral gases to be measured on grids.In addition, a highly sensitive nose-tipprobe sensor element had the ability tomeasure electric current in picoamps—the equivalent of 1-¹² amps. (Forcomparison, the amount of electriccurrent in a standard light bulb is oneamp.) Charlie Croskey, professoremeritus of electrical engineering,designed and built the instrument.The rockets were launched in a series toobserve trending. The first three rocketswere launched within 30 minutes ofeach other, and the last rocket waslaunched within 50 minutes after thethird rocket.Gerald Lehmacher of ClemsonUniversity, who is the principalinvestigator for the experiment, notedthat the “instruments worked well.”The “Turbopause team” is now in theanalysis phase and will be interpretingdata and writing journal articles overthe next year. Bilén made a goodexample of his rocket-launchingexperience with his spring 2009graduate systems design class (seeopposite page).—Katie Cuppett14 | SEDTAPP NEwS | SPriNg 2010 SPriNg 2010 | SEDTAPP NEwS | 15