System Design and Integration

This course will provide students with knowledge, skills and attitudes necessary to conduct the design and integration processes of systems engineering. This course establishes a foundation of knowledge that will enable students to convert a conceptual design into a system definition that is suitable for detailed design and subsequent manufacture. The course covers both classical systems engineering design and systems-integration-based design that exploits existing subsystems to the greatest extent possible. The architectural design process including: Requirements analysis, validation of the design inputs including customer expectations, requirements flow down through design tiers, identification of technical performance measures; Functional analysis, in particular, in the presence of constraints on the system design imposed by the use of commercial-off-the-shelf and military-off-the-shelf components; Functional and physical partitioning; Generation of solution concepts that involve both bespoke and pre-existing components; Trade-off analyses to determine the preferred design concept; Describing the design through architectural views, specification of subsystems, and interface definitions. System implementation aspects: Off-the-shelf, modified OTS, or design trades for system components; Selection of configuration items; Choice of appropriate specification standards for components. Introduction to design assurance aspects: Discussion of factors sought in a good system design: reliability, maintainability, availability, manufacturability, testability, electromagnetic compatibility, integratability, safety, security, flexibility, interoperability, capability growth, disposal, etc; Design reviews; Interface management; Use of modelling and simulation during design and integration; Process products and documentation; model-based systems engineering. Integration and Test: Integration and test planning from a design perspective; test coverage; The integration and test process; Accepting components into integration.