Lessons Learned from Establishing a Networked UARC
SERC leaders Dr. Dinesh Verma (Executive Director), Tom McDermott (CTO) and Dr. Dan DeLaurentis (Chief Scientist) published a retrospective in the INCOSE journal Systems Engineering on the founding of the Systems Engineering Research Center as a University Affiliated Research Center (UARC).
They explored the SERC’s mission, growth, collaborative culture, unique structure, and prolific research impact with co-authors Mr. Scott Lucero, who served as the SERC government program manager; former SERC COO Dr. Art Pyster; Ms. Kristen Baldwin, currently the Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Science, Technology and Engineering; and former SERC CTO Dr. Jon Wade.
From their abstract: “The Systems Engineering Research Center (SERC), established in 2008, was the first UARC established as a networked research center, gradually growing to include more than two dozen university members, each offering systems engineering research capabilities. A large diverse pool of faculty and student researchers arguably delivers the most consequential academic research in systems engineering anywhere in the world. In its first few years, the SERC had to overcome challenges that single-university UARCs did not face in exchange for the advantages that such a sizable network of universities offers. This review paper explores those challenges, offering lessons for new network-based UARCs and other network-based university research centers. Systems engineering communities, globally, are exploring such constructs, and this reflective paper may offer useful insights.”
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