Dennis M. Buede

Systems Engineering and Engineering Management: Keys to the Efficient Development of Products and Services

This publication contains reprint articles for which IEEE does not hold copyright. Full text is not available on IEEE Xplore for these articles.

Dynamic decision networks: an alternative to dynamic programming

This paper explores the validity and usefulness of dynamic decision networks (DDNs) in approximating dynamic programming (DP). An approach for comparing the optimal policies of the DDNs and DP was developed and utilised to determine how well DDNs perform under different conditions. Computation times were also compared to determine if the time the DDN saves was worth any inaccuracy obtained. It was found that DDNs are exponentially faster than DP. However, an increase in the values of some of the parameters investigated, such as the number of time slices and objectives, improved the DDNs computational time advantage but reduced its ability to approximate DP optimal policies. A significant finding of this research concerned how close the expected values of the DDN optimal policies were to those of DP in the cases examined. It is shown that in the cases studies, when the DDNs optimal policies disagreed with the DP optimal policies, the expected values of the policies selected by the DDN were always quite close to those of DP. Thus, the DDN appears to be a very useful approximation technique for DP because of its accuracy and efficiency.

Systems engineering and engineering management: keys to the efficient development of products and services

Because of globalization and technology, the roles of the traditional engineering manager are changing. All practicing engineering managers must be able to understand the tools available in order t...

Air traffic management design considerations

An air traffic management system (ATMS) is a network-centric system being used to manage another network-centric system, namely, an air transportation system. We are developing a design language for network-centric systems and design guidelines for the development system of engineers and domain specialists involved in designing and integrating systems. Note: this development system with todays technology is also a network-centric system. An outline of the design language under construction and the design guidelines being studied is provided. Specifically we discuss ATMS mission objectives (e.g., average yearly throughput of people and freight for a high demand scenario); ATMS sample usage scenarios (e.g., ATMS reroutes air traffic in time and space in reaction to major weather deviation along the northeast coast); and system objectives for an ATMS (e.g., timelines of a specific high volume of messages from aircraft, weather sensors, and airports). We lay out some key design decisions associated with both the development system of engineers and domain specialists and the operational ATMS. Examples of key design decisions for the engineering system are: 1) appropriate partitioning of functional/physical architectures of the engineering system; 2) appropriate degree to telecollaboration and collaboration among design/integration groups; 3) appropriate incremental delivery packages for an incremental delivery schedule of ATMS elements; and 4) appropriate levels and thrusts of the risk management program. Examples of key design decisions for the operational ATMS are: 1) throughput and security trades of the ATMS and 2) throughput and resiliency to weather changes. Finally, we relate network-centric architecture issues to both of the above sets of design decisions.

Considerations in the design of an air traffic management system

The ATMS (air traffic management system) is a network-centric system of people, computer systems, and communication systems that manages en route flights and flight operations at airports. It is a network-centric system being used to manage another network-centric system, namely an air transportation system. At Stevens Institute of Technology we are developing a design language for network-centric systems and design guidelines for the development system of engineers and domain specialists involved in designing and integrating systems. This paper provides an outline of the design language under construction and the design guidelines being studied. Specifically, we discuss the ATMS mission objectives, ATMS sample usage scenarios, and system objectives for an ATMS.