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SERC TALKS: “What is the role of a Reference Architecture in research and development of autonomous and/or cooperative systems?”

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Speaker: Dr. David R. Jacques, Lt-Col (USAF-Ret), Professor of Systems Engineering, Air Force Institute of Technology | CONTACT

Abstract
The Autonomy and Navigation Technology (ANT) Center at the Air Force Institute of Technology (AFIT) has begun development of a new Reference Architecture for Autonomy to begin to answer the myriad of needs within research, development and testing of autonomous and/or cooperative systems. This Reference Architecture will initially cater to small unmanned aerial and ground vehicles and the interfaces and operators that would be used to direct these vehicles in accomplishing tasks. The framework should be flexible to allow achievement of effective mission capabilities with autonomous and cooperative agents. The framework will consist of hardware and software models and documentation that will enable researchers to develop focused autonomy capabilities in a stable and comparable testbed, with the intention of accommodating both simulated and real world flight test where appropriate. The Reference Architecture will facilitate reuse of hardware/software components, thus allowing accelerated design-build-test cycles and progress towards greater capabilities from autonomous/cooperative agent systems. The first spiral will focus on multi-vehicle aerial/ground missions and include several mission templates that exercise a range of human-autonomy interactions.
Bio
Dr. David Jacques is a Professor of Systems Engineering within the Department of Systems Engineering and Management at the Air Force Institute of Technology (AFIT). Dr. Jacques joined the AFIT faculty as a military member in 1999 and became a civilian faculty member in 2004 upon retirement from active duty in the Air Force. In prior military assignments he served in various capacities associated with development planning, research and development, developmental test, and intelligence analysis of foreign weapon systems. Within SERC, Dr. Jacques leads the AFIT efforts within the long standing "Systems Qualities Ontology, Tradespace, and Affordability (SQOTA)" research project, a now 7 year effort uniting nine of the SERC Collaborating Universities. Dr. Jacques' research interests include effectiveness of wide area search systems, cooperative behavior and control of Unmanned Air Vehicles (UAVs) and munitions, and early application of Systems Engineering for concept definition and requirements definition.

Reflecting the interdisciplinary nature of his research interests, his thesis advisement at AFIT has spanned seven academic programs and two academic departments. As a faculty researcher, he has served as a principal investigator on 32 funded research proposals at AFIT, and collaborated on 28 others. The total value of these 60 proposals is approximately $4.7 million in external funding. The research projects Dr. Jacques has been involved in have addressed critical problems and applications spanning the DOD and other government agencies. To date he has documented his research results in 26 archival journal publications, seven book chapters, one Systems Engineering case study, four magazine articles, 61 refereed conference papers, and numerous technical presentations and invited talks. Dr. Jacques is also an AFIT alum, earning his master's degree in Aeronautical Engineering in 1989 and his PhD in Systems Engineering in 1995.

More information on future SERC Talks can be found here. Thank you!

SERC TALKS: “What’s Really Distributed in Distributed Autonomy?”

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Speaker: Dr. Azad Madni, Executive Director, Systems Architecting and Engineering Program; Director, Distributed Autonomy and Intelligent Systems (DAIS) Laboratory, Professor of Astronautical Engineering; University of Southern California | CONTACT

Abstract
Distributed autonomy pertains to a sociotechnical system in which geographically distributed human and software agents make independent observations, pool them to jointly determine the state of the environment, and then make collaborative decisions based on their shared goals and knowledge of environment state. This Talk presents ongoing research on adaptive cyber-physical-human system, an example of intelligent distributed autonomy. The perimeter security of a parked transport aircraft using multiple surveillance quadcopters is used as an illustrative example. The distributed system simulation comprises: a world server, which maintains the state of all world entities and runs continuous dynamic simulation of all quadcopters; a perimeter defense computer, which runs the dashboard controlling the quadcopters; and an opposing force computer, which runs the dashboard controlling the enemy unit. In this simulation, decision making is also distributed with sensor fusion agents (that determine environment state from sensor data) residing on the world server, and decision-making agents (that exploit knowledge of environment state information to make decisions) residing on the perimeter defense computer.
Bio
Professor Azad Madni is the Executive Director of the Systems Architecting and Engineering Program and Professor of Astronautical Engineering in the University of Southern California. He is also the Director of USC’s Distributed Autonomy and Intelligent Systems (DAIS) Laboratory. He has a courtesy joint appointment in the schools of Education and Medicine.

Dr. Madni conducts research in probabilistic model-based and machine learning approaches in engineering complex systems. His specific areas of research are engineered resilient systems, distributed autonomy and intelligent systems. His research sponsors include DoD-SERC, DARPA, DHS S&T, DTRA, OSD, MDA, ONR, NAVAIR, NAVSEA, SPAWAR, AFOSR, AFRL, ARI, ARL, RDECOM, CECOM, DOE, NIST, NASA, Boeing, Raytheon, Northrop Grumman Corporation, General Motors, SAIC, and Lockheed Martin Orincon.

An elected Fellow of AAAS, AIAA, INCOSE, IEEE (Life), IETE (Life), and SDPS (Life), a few of Dr. Madni's noteworthy awards in 2019 include AIAA/ASEE Leland Atwood Award, INCOSE Founders Award, ASME CIE Distinguished Leadership Award, and Engineers’ Council William B. Johnson International Inter-Professional Founders Award. He is also the recipient of the 2011 INCOSE Pioneer Award, IEEE SMC Award for leading the most active Systems Science and Engineering Technical Committee (MBSE), the 2006 SDPS C.V. Ramamoorthy Distinguished Scholar Award, and many more.

Additionally, Dr. Madni is the founder, CEO and chief scientist of Intelligent Systems Technology Inc, an award-winning high-tech company that he founded 25 years ago to pursue research in modeling and simulation technologies for education, training and performance support.

He received his B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. in Engineering from the University of California, Los Angeles, in 1968, 1971 and 1978, respectively. He is also a graduate of the AEA/Stanford Executive Institute program for senior executives. He is listed in Who’s Who in Science and Engineering, Who’s Who is Industry and Finance and Who’s Who in America.

More information on future SERC Talks can be found here. Thank you!

29th Annual INCOSE International Symposium

INCOSE’s Annual International Symposium is the largest worldwide annual gathering of people who do systems engineering for four days of presentations, case studies, workshops, tutorials and panel discussions. The program attracts an international mix of professionals at all levels, and includes practitioners in government and industry, as well as educators and researchers. The benefits of attending the Symposium include the opportunity to share ideas, network, build competency, pursue certification, contribute to the advancement of the profession through collaboration on tools, processes and methodologies, learn about new offerings in training and education, and forge new partnerships. INCOSE offers a variety of options for sponsoring and exhibiting at IS 2019 and the technical program is filled with keynotes, tutorials, presentations, and panels that address the most relevant topics in systems engineering.

For more information about the event click here.

Call for Papers: 2020 IEEE Systems Security Symposium

The Systems Engineering Research Center is an official Technical Sponsor of the Systems Security Symposium 2020.

The IEEE-INCOSE-NDIA Systems Security Symposium seeks research papers and application studies which focus on the development of secure, safe, and resilient systems. This symposium attempts to address the convergence of cybersecurity, safety, and engineering with interest in the effective application of security principles, methods, and tools to complex systems such as cyber-physical systems, autonomous systems, transportation vehicles, medical devices, large IoT systems, and other systems of interest. Preference will be given to papers and case studies which bridge theory to practice.

The conference caters to both practitioners and academics, providing a forum to exchange ideas and experiences on technology, methodology, applications, study cases, and practical experiences. Given this unique desire, two types of paper submissions are offered:

  • Research papers: Manuscripts addressing novel ideas, theoretical issues, technology, methodology, or detailed studies. These academic-oriented papers will be peer reviewed and prioritized according to their contribution. Note: student papers should be submitted in this category and will be reviewed as such.
  • Case studies and practical experiences: Extended abstracts presenting practical ideas, lessons learned, and real-world achievements. These papers are typically 1-3 pages in length. Accepted authors have the option to publish a full 8-page paper. These abstracts are reviewed for relevance but not necessarily academic contribution.

Papers of both categories will be published in the proceedings and have an 8-page maximum. All papers and proposals must be submitted electronically to the IEEE-INCOSE-NDIA SSS 2020 Submission Portal: http://edas.info/N25878. Tutorials (1/2 day) are encouraged; please add TUTORIAL to your paper title. Student papers are also encouraged. Best Paper awards provided for regular as well as student papers.

Topics:

  • Systems Security Work Focused on Advancements in Theory, Practice, and Education
  • Engineering of Safe, Secure, and Resilient Systems
  • Examples of Mission/Systems Assurance and Assurance Cases
  • Model Based Engineering focused on Security, Safety, Trust, Resiliency
  • Affordable and Scalable Approaches to Hardware, Software, Firmware Assurance
  • Novel Architecture Design and Analysis Examples or Trade-Space Studies
  • Trust of Complex Systems with Emphasis on Cyber-Physical Systems
  • Security considerations for machine learning / artificial intelligence
  • Large-Scale DevSecOps and Agile Approaches for System Development
  • System Security Design Considerations for Cloud Environments
  • Verification, Validation, and Evidences for Secure System Development
  • Extensions of Formal Methods to System-Level Evaluation
  • Cybersecurity in Manufacturing and Supply Chains
  • Case studies to include automotive, transportation, space, and others
  • Cyber-Physical System Event Detection, Investigation, Forensics, and Malware Analysis
  • Tailored Risk Management Approaches for Large Complex Systems
  • Attack/Defense Modeling, Simulation, and Characterization
  • Techniques for Cyber Risk Buy Down in Legacy Systems, Infrastructure, and Enterprises
  • Policy, Ethical, Legal, Privacy, Economic, and Social Issues

SERC TALK VIDEO AVAILABLE: “Can DevOps Practices Be Applied to Cyber-Physical Systems Development?”

The video for the June 5, 2019, SERC Talk presented by Dr. Steve Mayner, SAFe Fellow and Principal Consultant is now available on the SERC YouTube Channel, along with past Talks. Dr. Mayner’s Talk explored “Can DevOps Practices Be Applied to Cyber-Physical Systems Development?” as the final Talk of our three part series on “Applying DevOps to Complex Muti-Organization Systems.” View the Talk below.

ABSTRACT | SLIDES | CONTACT

Thank you to everyone who joined and participated in this discussion as well as the overall series. Special thanks again to Dr. Mayner for his presentation of SERC Talks: “Can DevOps Practices Be Applied to Cyber-Physical Systems Development?” on Wednesday, June 5, 2019. For more questions or information feel free to reach him via email. For more information on SERC Talks or potential present in a future series, please email us.

NEXT SERC TALK

Distributed Autonomy

SERC TALKS: “What’s Really Distributed in Distributed Autonomy?”

August 7 | 1 PM ET | Dr. Azad Madni, Executive Director, Systems Architecting and Engineering Program; Director, Distributed Autonomy and Intelligent Systems (DAIS) Laboratory, Professor of Astronautical Engineering; University of Southern California | CONTACT

 ABSTRACT

SERC TALKS: “Can DevOps Practices Be Applied to Cyber-Physical Systems Development?”

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Speaker:  Dr. Steve Mayner, SAFe Fellow and Principal Consultant, Scaled Agile | CONTACT

Abstract
DevOps practices such as continuous integration and continuous deployment were born in the world of software development. That works with bits and bytes, but how can DevOps work with programs that produce physical systems such as satellites, fighter jets, and high-tech medical equipment? In this presentation, Dr. Steve Mayner, SAFe Fellow and Principal Consultant at Scaled Agile, shares a brief overview of the top ten DevOps practices that can be adapted to produce faster time-to-delivery and higher quality with cyber-physical systems. The practices are a synthesis of the guidance for large solution development from the Scaled Agile Framework, and the white paper on Industrial DevOps from IT Revolution, which Dr. Mayner co-authored.
Bio
Dr. Steve Mayner is an executive coach and Lean-Agile evangelist with a passion for cultivating transformational leaders and high performing teams. His 30-year career in business includes roles as Vice President in multiple Fortune 500 companies, as well as Chief Technology Officer for a Health IT startup company. Steve is a thought leader and change agent for Lean-Agile and DevOps adoption within the world’s largest organizations as well as the U.S. federal government. In his current role as a SAFe® Fellow for Scaled Agile, Inc., Steve is using his experience as an innovator, strategist, public speaker, teacher, trusted advisor, and transformational leader to help enterprises in the Global 1000 implement Lean-Agile and DevOps at scale. He holds a Doctor of Business Administration degree in Strategy and Innovation, as well as Masters’ degrees in Business Administration and Divinity, and a Bachelor’s in Education. He has been a PMI certified Project Management Professional (PMP) since 1999, and an Agile Certified Practitioner (PMI-ACP) since 2012. He also holds a Certified Scrum Professional (CSP) credential from Scrum Alliance. Steve retired in 2003 as a commissioned officer in the reserve component of the U.S. Air Force with just under 21 years of service. He is married with five children and three grandsons. He lives in Southern Maryland in the U.S., and is an avid golfer, runner, cyclist, and backpacker.

NOTE TO PARTICIPANTS: 
SERC Talks will now broadcast using the Zoom Webinar Platform. Prior to the SERC Talk, we encourage all participants to install and test the platform.
Zoom Installation | Troubleshooting Guide

More information on future SERC Talks can be found here. Thank you!