<p>I've been doing some research on systems engineering and don't understand exactly what a systems engineer does day to day. I've seen 'management of large and complex systems' but am confused at what that could actually mean.</p>
<p>So, what exactly does a systems engineer do? What kind of projects do they work on? How exactly does being educated in that field work? I know MIT has a engineering systems division, but I don't think many other colleges have a systems engineering department.</p>
<p>From what I understand of systems engineering is that it is the application of a specific process to break down large complex engineering problems into smaller manageable pieces.</p>
<p>Some engineering problems are so large that simply breaking down the problem and distributing the sub-problems to teams and engineers is an entire role(s) by itself. They make sure that requirements are met, deadlines are hit, and dependencies are resolved. For example, one product team may have a program manager (who is involved with interfacing with people outside the team and creates the “project vision”), a system engineer (who makes sure work is distributed and everything internal to the team is going), and a few engineers (who make the sub-components).</p>
<p>Many universities place systems engineering research and courses within the Industrial Engineering department. In fact, some schools even call the department “Industrial & Systems Engineering”.</p>
<p>Although some schools offer a B.S. in Systems Engineering most programs in Systems Engineering are M.S./MEng degrees. The cool thing about many graduate systems engineering programs is that they will admit science, math or engineering students and usually there is no GRE to take.</p>
<p>Systems engineers concern themselves primarily with structures and interfaces. For example, when you design a car, you start out with a blue print that is basically a series of boxes (with labels like “Engine”, “Driver Controls”, “Environmental systems”, “Seat Restraints”, etc.) connected by lines. The boxes themselves are the work of specialists in those fields - mechanical engineers, electrical engineers, etc. - but the systems engineers are responsible for the rest.</p>
<p>At a junior level, you are handling interfaces - the mechanical steering assembly from steering wheel to front tires is designed by several different teams, and the systems engineers make sure that everything fits together and work as a whole.</p>
<p>At a senior level, you are taking care of conflicts between major systems and creating and maintaining system performance standards. For example, you may have a requirement that your car survive a 50mph crash test, something that falls outside the purview of any particular subsystem - that puts the systems engineers in charge.</p>
<p>At a very senior level, you are responsible for general design and management of the system. Where does the engine go, what type will it be, how much weight and cost are alloting for it, etc. This is often called “system architecture”.</p>
<p>So it looks like a systems engineer is the guy who puts the final produt together and assures that all the different parts of the product operate.</p>
<p>Now, what kind of projects do they usually work on? I would image a car could be handled by a high level mechanical engineer, a plane could (obviously) be handled by a aerospace engineer. So, what’s left?</p>
<p>I’m currently a grad student working on a joint Mechanical Engineering and Systems Engineering project. We’re split about 75/25 ME to SE. I’m a bit biased, but the guys in the SE program like to sit around, think lofty thoughts, and do about zero calculations. They make a lot of diagrams and do a bunch of hand waving. I took a intro to SE course in my Engineering Management program prior to this, and it was a lot of the same thing and not one single engineering calculation. I dont know if maybe I just got a bad sampling of what SE is, but I dont think it’s nearly as “engineering” like as the other engineering disciplines.</p>
My personal opinion would be that outside the defense companies, most folks would not know what a systems engineer does. In the defense company world, they are a huge asset because they are ensuring that the proper engineering approaches are being done.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Again, you are equating engineering to doing calculations. Outside of scientific software, software engineers do not conduct engineering calculations either. The REASON, those systems engineers are producing diagrams is to spell out all of the detailed requirements for a system (or subsystem). They perform the trade-off analysis and set the standards for the design, testing and implementation.</p>