Master of Engineering in Systems Engineering :

The Systems Engineering option is unavailable for the Graduate Certificate in Engineering.

Academic Advisor :
Dr. George Syrmos , Executive Director
Office of Advanced Engineering Education
2123 J.M. Patterson Bldg.
301-405-3633
Email: syrmos@umd.edu
This option, offered by the Institute for Systems Research , requires three courses from the systems engineering core, three courses from the management core, and four electives.

Systems Engineering Core

ENPM 641 Systems Concepts, Issues and Processes (3) Prerequisite: permission of department. This course (along with ENPM 642) is an introduction to the professional and academic aspects of systems engineering. Topics include models of system lifecycle development, synthesis and design of engineering systems, abstract system representations, visual modeling and unified modeling language (UML), introduction to requirements engineering, systems performance assessment, issues in synthesis and design, design for system lifecycle, approaches to system redesign in response to changes in requirements, reliability, trade-off analysis, and optimization-based design.

ENPM 642 Systems Requirements, Design and Trade-Off Analysis (3) Prerequisite: ENPM 641 and permission of department. This course builds on material covered in ENPM 641, emphasizing the topics of requirements engineering and design and trade-off analysis. The pair of courses serves as an introduction to the professional and academic aspects of systems engineering. Liberal use will be made of concepts from the first course, ENPM641, including models of system lifecycle development, synthesis and design of engineering systems, visual modeling and unified modeling language (UML), requirements engineering, systems performance assessment, issues in synthesis and design, design for system lifecycle, approaches to system redesign in response to changes in requirements, reliability, trade-off analysis, and optimization-based design.

ENPM 643 Systems Projects, Validation, and Verification (3) Prerequisite: ENPM 642 and permission of department. This course builds on material covered in ENPM 641 and ENPM 642. Students will work in teams on semester-long projects in systems engineering design, using the modeling framework developed in the preceding two courses in the sequence to explore system designs that are subjected to various forms of testing. Students will be using all of the concepts from prior courses, as well as topics introduced in this class including validation and verification, model checking, testing, and integration.

Management Core

ENPM 644 Human Factors in Systems Engineering (3) Prerequisite: permission of department. This course covers the general principles of human factors, or ergonomics as it is sometimes called. Human Factors (HF) is an interdisciplinary approach toward dealing with issues related to people in systems. It focuses on consideration of the characteristics of human beings in the design of systems and devices of all kinds. It concerns itself with the assignment of appropriate functions for humans and machines - whether the people serve as operators, maintainers, or users of the system or device. The goal of HFs is to achieve compatibility in the design of interactive systems of people, machines, and environments to ensure their effectiveness, safety and ease of use.

ENPM 646 Systems Life Cycle Cost Analysis and Risk Management (3) Prerequisite: permission of department. This course covers topics related to estimating the costs and risks incurred through the lifetimes of projects, products and systems. In addition, treatment is given to methods that determine the drivers of costs and risks and then propose the most effective alternatives to reducing them. The course covers relevant analytic tools from probability and statistics and also important managerial and organizational concepts. Extensive use will be made of case studies and examples from industry and government.

ENPM 647 System Quality and Robustness Analysis (3) Prerequisite: permission of department. This course covers systems engineering approaches for creating optimal and robust engineering systems and for quality assurance. It provides an overview of the important tools for quality analysis and quality management of engineering systems. These tools are commonly used in companies and organizations. Focus will be placed on the Baldrige National Quality Program, ISO 9000 certification, 6-sigma systems, and Deming total quality management to examine how high quality standards are sustained and customer requirements and satisfactions are ensured. The Taguchi method for robust analysis and design is covered and applied to case studies. Issues of flexible design over the system life cycle are addressed. Statistical process control, international standards of sampling, and design experimentation are also studied.

Technical Electives

The three elective courses are to be chosen from among the following specialization areas: project management, software engineering, information systems , computer and software systems , communication and networking systems , signal processing systems , control systems , process systems , manufacturing systems , and operations research. A list of approved courses is provided below. The list includes courses from the ENPM program as well as from the regular departmental offerings.

Project Management

Software Engineering

Information Systems

Computer and Software Systems

Communication and Networking Systems

Signal Processing Systems

Control Systems

Process Systems

Manufacturing Systems

Operations Research