Systems Engineering explained in 52 seconds
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ANU lecturer Dr Nicolò Malagutti was recognised twice by the 2023 Vice-Chancellor’s Award for Educational Excellence, both as an individual and as part of the team behind the Systems Engineering core. Here, he explains Systems Engineering to a new starter at the ANU College Engineering, Computing & Cybernetics.
News that the Systems Engineering teaching team had received a 2023 Vice-Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Education was welcomed as an affirmation of a strategic pivot undertaken four years ago, which led to deeper engagement with industry, and a 13% improvement in student satisfaction.
In the industry, engineering projects are mapped across years; not semesters. The redesigned Systems Engineering core at the ANU College of Engineering, Computing and Cybernetics (CECC) features a sequence of courses across two years (four semesters), offering students a selection of industry hubs on which to focus, from design and implementation to maintenance and end-of-life practices.
“We scope authentic projects with external clients, usually focused on a specific capability within a larger system,” said Dr Jeremy Smith, one of the primary architects of the Systems Engineering redesign. “The student teams explore with their clients how to have a positive impact in areas like resilience or disaster response, food security, energy, transportation, or healthcare.”
Students might design a remote energy system and analyse its social, environmental, and economic impact across two semesters in Year 2. And if they stay with the same industry partner, they might focus on implementation, performance, maintenance, and sustainable decommissioning in Year 3.
Third-year student Charlotte Fell said the integration of real-world projects has afforded her “a harmony of conceptual and practical learning”.
“We’re creating a generation of engineers more aware of and focused on deeply understanding the context in which their system or design operates,” she said.
Students can switch between hubs to gain experience in numerous domains. Currently the project hubs are Agri-Technology, Energy Transitions, Healthcare, Humanitarian Engineering, Space, and Transportation. New project hubs can be added to respond to emerging industry demands, national priorities, and research opportunities.
The confluence between education and practice is continued in Year 4 with the Capstone project, where students self-select into year-long enterprises proposed by a diverse roster of industry clients, with students serving as engineering design consultants solving real-world problems.