Increasing complexity and interconnectedness of today's cyber-physical systems make them more prone to attack from outside adversaries as well as disruption from internal failures. Systems engineering methods, processes and tools for ensuring the safety, reliability, and security of these systems remain stovepiped by discipline and rooted in linear cause-effect relationships that are ineffective given complexity of currrent systems and threats. Today's systems need resilience strategies that ensure safe and secure control of system behavior and availability strategies supporting mission-level needs. SERC research in Trusted Systems introduced the concept of "System Aware" resilience strategies in 2016, combining system behavioral monitoring with design of resilience modes that are enacted by behavioral anomalies. That research continues today with the development of a standard Cyber-Security Requirements Methodology (CSRM) combined with a standard Mission Aware model-based systems engineering meta-model, providing a structured approach to design in assurance in all stages of system development. This presentation will provide a history of SERC Mission Aware research, current work to standardize assurance design in MBSE tools, and a discussion of opportunities for future research. The presentation will include a demonstration of a mission aware meta-model for an example complex system-of system.

Tom McDermott is the Deputy Director and Chief Technology Officer of the Systems Engineering Research Center at Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken, NJ. He is also a lecturer on systems thinking and leadership development in Georgia Tech’s Professional Education college. He consults with multiple organizations on enterprise modeling for transformational change through his research and consulting practice. He is the elected Director of Strategic Integration for the International Council on Systems Engineering. He has over 35 years of background and experience in technical and management disciplines, including 15 years at the Georgia Institute of Technology and 18 years with Lockheed Martin. He served as Principal Researcher, Interim Director and Director of Research of the Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI) from 2002 until 2018, leading a strategy of unprecedented growth (over 200% from 2008-2013) while repeatedly being named one of Atlanta’s best places to work. Prior to GTRI, he spent 18 years with Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Company, serving as Product Team Lead and Division Manager for Lockheed Martin’s F-22 Raptor Avionics Team. He successfully led the F-22 Avionics team to Raptor #4004 avionics first flight in January 2001.

Dr. Peter A. Beling is a Professor of Systems Engineering at the University of Virginia (UVA). In addition, Dr. Beling serves as a SERC Research Council member, providing guidance in the Trusted Systems research area. Dr. Beling’s research interests are in the area of decision-making in complex systems, with emphasis on adaptive decision support systems and on model-based approaches to system-of-systems design and assessment. His research has found application in a variety of domains, including mission-focused cybersecurity, reconnaissance and surveillance, prognostic and diagnostic systems, and financial decision making. He directs the UVA site of the Center for Visual and Decision Informatics, a National Science Foundation Industry/University Cooperative Research Center, and the Adaptive Decision Systems Laboratory, which focuses on data analytics and decision support in cyber-physical systems. Dr. Beling has served as editor and reviewer for many academic journals and regularly serves as a panel member for the National Research Council and the National Science Foundation. Dr. Beling received his Ph.D.in operations research from the University of California at Berkeley.