The System of Systems Engineering Collaborators Information Exchange (SoSECIE) is a web-based seminar series organized by the Office of the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense (SE) in association with the National Defense Industrial Associations’s SoS Engineering committee. The goal of this series is to provide guidance, education and training for SoS and dissemination of engineering best practices within the government, military, contractors, academia and International partners.

Contact sosecie@mitre.org for questions or concerns.

Speaker: Dr. Nicole A. Hutchison, Stevens Institute of Technology

Title: Mission Engineering Competency Model

Abstract: This webinar will explore the mission engineering competency framework developed by the Systems Engineering Research Center. Mission engineering is the development and deployment of a military capability by applying a mission context to systems of systems (SoS) and to complex systems within the US Department of Defense. From the mission engineering perspective, the individual systems that comprise a military capability are inherently flexible, functionally overlapping, multi-mission platforms supported by a complex backbone of information and communication networks. The SoS approach has arisen in response to the Department’s needs for capabilities requiring multiple linked systems that are greater than the sum of the capabilities of the constituent parts. As the Department moves toward a mission engineering approach to defense capabilities, one question is what are the critical skills required to successfully accomplish and shepherd this work? The Mission Engineering Competency research task used in-depth interviews with experts and practitioners in mission engineering currently working in the DoD to develop a competency framework to support DoD mission engineering.

Bio: Dr. Nicole Hutchison is the Chief of Staff and a research engineer with the SERC. She has supported the Helix project since its inception and currently serves as its Principle Investigator. Previously, she supported the Body of Knowledge and Curriculum to Advance Systems Engineering (BKCASE) project (2009-2014). Before coming to Stevens, Dr. Hutchison worked for Analytic Services Inc. as a contractor working primarily on public health, biodefense, and fullscale exercise projects for the US Departments of Defense, Homeland Security, and Health and Human Services. Dr. Hutchison holds an MS in Biohazardous Threat Agents and Emerging Infectious Disease from Georgetown and a PhD in systems engineering from Stevens.

Please visit the System of Systems Engineering Collaborators Information Exchange (SoSECIE) webpage for more information and presentation archives following the event.