The Department of Systems Engineering provides instruction and conducts research
in the two major disciplines that run across all applications: systems design
and systems analysis. Systems design encompasses goal-setting and the formulation
of policies and plans to accomplish the goals. Systems analysis involves those
functions necessary to ensure the successful accomplishment of specified plans
and policies.
Students in the M.E. and M.S. programs learn the foundations
of both systems analysis and systems design. The M.E. students apply this knowledge
to case studies, while the M.S. students apply their knowledge to a more focused
research project leading to the defense of an M.S. thesis. In either case, opportunities
exist for specializing in one of several applications areas: intelligent decision
systems; manufacturing; communications systems; environmental systems; systems
management; transportation; risk assessment and management; financial engineering;
and information technology.
Ph.D. students have the opportunity to contribute
to fundamental knowledge in systems engineering. These students explore issues
in theoretical and methodological optimization; combinatorial optimization, heuristic
search; machine learning; artificial systems; information technology; statistical
process control; time series analysis and forecasting; risk and reliability modeling;
queuing theory; neural networks; control theory; and empirical model building.
Both M.S. and Ph.D. students typically associate with an ongoing research
project in the department. These projects involve both applied and theoretical
elements, and allow students to work closely with faculty on challenging, contemporary
problems. Examples of current research projects include: intelligent transportation
systems; multi-sensor data fusion; locational analysis and geographic information
systems; expert systems for diagnosis and classification; forecast decision systems;
human-computer interaction through eye gaze; neural network optimization; risk
management of engineering and environmental systems; control of discrete event
systems; and quality control.
graduate student information
| department website
