SAE 548: Systems/System-of-Systems Integration and Communication
Spring 2017Dr. Michael Sievers
Draft Syllabus
Class Sessions:
Day: / WedTime: / 6:40pm to 9:20pm
Room: / OHE 100C
Class Number: / SAE 548
Contact Information:
Instructor: / Dr. Michael SieversOffice hours: / By Appointment Only
Office location:
Office phone: / (818)-354-1237
E-mail: /
TA: / TBA
Office hours: / By Appointment Only
Office location:
Office phone: / (818)720-2682
E-mail: /
Course website /
Course Introduction and Purpose:
With the increasing scale and complexity of systems and the need for systems to perform their own missions as well as participate in a larger system-of-systems to perform more complex missions, systems integration and system-of-systems integration has become a key area of emphasis for aerospace, defense, telecommunications, transportation, and emergency services engineering and research. The terms “system integration” and “SOS integration” can mean many things to many people. With this in mind, this course emphasizes the importance of stakeholder concerns and integration contexts before discussing theories, methods, processes and tools. The course presents key perspectives and challenges of SI and presents case studies and examples from several aerospace and government programs to reinforce the principles. The course discusses key integration challenges such as legacy integration, human-system integration, and SOS integration. The course discusses interoperability in suitable depth including pros and cons of interoperability. The course also covers Verification and Validation methods ranging from inspection, simulation-based analysis, demonstration, and test. Students will be exposed to both theory and real world case studies as well as findings from the recent literature.
Readings: Key Publications Each Week
Lectures and required reading: / Will be posted each week on D2LGrades:
Your grade will be primarily based on two mid-terms and a Research Paper. The two mid-terms will account for 50% of the class grade and aresearch paper due at the end of the course, will account for 30%. Homework will account for the remaining 20%. Please note: you will submit each research paper to the Turnitin plagiarism checker. More details regarding the research paper scope and expectations will be provided later.
IF YOU NEED HELP:
-Office hours, phone numbers, and e-mail addresses are listed at the top of this syllabus.
-You are encouraged to e-mail us if you wish to discuss your research problems. The usual turnaround time for emails is 24 hours. If you don’t hear from us within that timeframe, please send us a reminder.
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:
-Policies and procedures for submitting homework and exams (via DEN for all students) are available on the GAPP website ( Students are responsible for understanding and following these policies and procedures.
-Please feel free to e-mail me or the TA for help in structuring your research plan. We will gladly work with you to identify sources, publications, Internet sites, etc.
-There have been previous attempts of students to copy someone else’s text into their papers or homework. Never copy text in to your file without marking it with a citation. Never attempt to copy text into your file and then “edit it into your own words.” All text that you turn in that comes from somewhere else must be marked as quotation. All the ideas that you turn in that come from someone else must be cited. The default punishment for plagiarism by a graduate student is failing the course, and expulsion is possible.
Research papers will be checked for plagiarism and similarity to other papers using TurnitinSJACS will be informed of suspected academic integrity violations
Please visit
-Your grade depends on the clarity of presentation. If English, spelling and syntax are not your strong points, it is suggested that you obtain help in editing your text.
DELIVERY:All deliverables for the course must be submitted to the D2L dropbox system.
GRADING:Research papers will be graded on the letter scale: A, A-, B+, B, B-, etc. Your research paper grade requires writing a paper instructive to systems architects and engineers interested in systems integration and system-of-systems integration.
LATENESS:Work submitted after the time it was due will be docked 10% of the maximum possible score for the first 24 hours. For every additional day that it is late, it will be docked a further 10% per day. You can request an extension ahead of the deadline for an assignment. Most assignments are due on the day of the class lecture; extension requests must be received no later than 9am on the day before the class lecture.
RESEARCH PAPER GUIDELINES
RESEARCH PAPER:
We expect the major paper to be of sufficient quality that it could be submitted to a prestigious IEEE/INCOSE/IIE/AIAA conference, with the eventual goal of submitting it to a journal. The paper should address the following research problem:
Describe and analyze the integration challenges of a selected system in terms of any or all of the class concepts presented in lectures. Your analysis should discuss how the integration concepts led to the integration. The process should concern the steps taken, the questions asked, the people involved, the options generated, and the choice of/or decision techniques used. The analysis of the system should also include a quantitative and qualitative evaluation of the characteristics, benefits, and limitations of that system as a result of the aforementioned activities.
Subject to approval, you get to choose the topic:
-It can be something that you have been personally involved in, or something that interests you.
-It should address a system where the integration problem is well-documented, and the measures of effectiveness, are available in the public domain.
APPROVAL:Submit a one-page proposal by March 8, 2017on your topic for approval.
FORMAT:Typed. A bibliography and contact list is essential, listing what sources you used. Be sure to provide the URLs and dates of any Internet sources used in your research. Be sure to include all necessary citations in the body of your text. Use clear style for citations and references.
The class website will provide guidelines on how to write a research paper, with suggestions for format, organization, structure, and content of good research papers. These guidelines are also applicable for weekly homework, and must be followed.
LENGTH:The research paper should be at least 12 pages but no more than 15 pages, single-spaced, in 12-point type. The research paper is due by 11:59:59 pm (Pacific Savings Time)April 28, 2017. Late submissionsare not accepted without prior approval.
PLAGIARISM: Research papers will be checked for plagiarism and also against papers submitted to other classes. You are expected to properly cite all sources. Suspected plagiarism will be reported to the University. Refer to Statement on Academic Integrity below.
UNIVERSITY LEVEL ISSUES
STATEMENT FOR STUDENTS WITH DISABILITIES:
Any student requesting academic accommodations based on a disability is required to registerwith Disability Services and Programs (DSP) each semester. A letter of verification for approvedaccommodations can be obtained from DSP. Please be sure the letter is delivered to the instructors (or tothe TA) as early in the semester as possible. DSP is located in STU 301 and is open 8:30 a.m.–5:00p.m., Monday through Friday. The phone number for DSP is (213) 740-0776.
STATEMENT ON ACADEMIC INTEGRITY:
USC seeks to maintain an optimal learning environment. General principles of academic honestyinclude the concept of respect for the intellectual property of others, the expectation thatindividual work will be submitted unless otherwise allowed by an instructor, and the obligationsboth to protect one’s own academic work from misuse by others as well as to avoid usinganother’s work as one’s own. All students are expected to understand and abide by theseprinciples. Scampus, the Student Guidebook, contains the Student Conduct Code in Section13.00, while the recommended sanctions are located in Appendix A: Students will be referred to the Office of Student Judicial Affairs and Community Standards (SJACS) forfurther review, should there be any suspicion of academic dishonesty. The Review process canbe found at:
Schedule of Class Sessions:The exact schedule is subject to change based on availability of guest lecturers. Changes will be announced in class.
Date / Week / Session number: Planned topics1/11 / 1 /
- Course Introduction/Overview
- Course term paper requirements and expectations
- Big picture and brief history
- SI and SoSI Drivers
1/18 / 2 /
- Definitions of SI and SOSI
- Integration failures
1/25 / 3 /
- Integration Ontology
2/1 / 4 /
- Current Practices in Software-Intensive Systems Integration-key challenges -key concepts
2/8 / 5 /
- Software integration (continued)
2/15 / 6 /
- Interoperability Challenges and Key Concepts
2/22 / 7 /
- Current Practices in Human-Systems Integration
- Task network models and human factors analysis models
- Workload analysis and function allocation models
- Human operator models
3/1 / 8 /
- Legacy Integration
3/8 / 9 / Guest Lecture (TBA)
Term Paper Abstract Due
3/15 / - / Spring Break
3/22 / 10 /
- Integration Implications for Elegant Systems
3/29 / 11 /
- Integration Implications of Fault-Tolerant and Engineered Resilient Systems
4/5 / 12 /
- Complex SI Example: Integrating a Spacecraft
- Problem statement, constraints, and assumptions
- Approach
- Metrics
4/12 / 13 /
- Bio-Inspired systems & integration
4/19 / 14 /
- Guest Lecture (TBA)
4/26 / 15 /
- Wrap-up
4/28 / Term papers due @ 11:59:59 PST
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