Hello, my name is Jonathan Mayhorn, and I'm adjunct faculty with the systems engineering
and engineering management program here at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte.
And today, I want to answer the question, "what is systems engineering?"
First of all, you have to start with what a system is.
And a system is a collection of different elements that work together to produce greater
results than each element can obtain alone.
Think of the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.
For example, an organization or company is a system.
It is made up of people, hardware, software, departments, documents, and policies.
An example would be Ford Motor Company.
You've got sales, marketing, engineering, all working together to produce an automobile
for the customer.
And that's just an example of a system.
So, what is systems engineering?
It's the application of science, math and business to meet the customer's needs throughout
the entire system lifecycle, or throughout the entire process.
And so how is systems engineering different from other engineering majors, or from business?
Well, it's made of three major components.
You've got engineering management, industrial engineering, and business administration.
Now, it's different from industrial engineering in that it has a wider perspective and covers
more management topics.
It's different from engineering management because it includes more math and science.
And it's also different from business administration alone because it solves more technical problems
and it brings engineering technology people together.
So, what would you do as a systems engineer?
Well, you would oversee engineering, business and management aspects of a project or a system
to make sure all of those parts are properly working together.
Think of the big picture.
You manage metrics, such as quality metrics or financial metrics, people, and the schedule;
it could be either the project or the people themselves.
You also solve a lot of complex problems that affect customers, suppliers, and you have
to present to upper leadership, as well.
You have to be able to sell your ideas and solutions within the process or project.
But, you would also work on improving existing processes, or designing new processes.
And, some of the sample occupations within systems engineering, there's a lot of them
out there if you were to go onto Career Builder and apply for a job.
Just know that they are all under the umbrella of systems engineering.
So, you could be a systems analyst, manufacturing engineer, or, you could also work in a service-based
industry and you could be a solution architect, project manager, process engineer, quality
engineer, reducing defects and improving the quality of the process, and you could be a
reliability engineer, making sure that process or product is reliable for the customer.
And, you could be a design or development engineer as well.
One hot topic out there or title out there is Six Sigma Black Belt, which is basically
a process improvement expert.
They reduce the defects in a process to save the organization millions of dollars.
So, why would companies hire systems engineers?
Well, because the truth is, industry really needs them.
Technology has gotten very complex in the last 30 years, and the employees that work
in those companies are struggling to keep up.
So, industry is really hiring individuals that can work on the business side and the
technological side.
Can they manage people and technology together?
So, there's also more challenging customer requirements.
Just think, your customer requires your products to be very intuitive, and up-to-date nowadays,
like iPads, and iPhones.
So, industry has to keep up with these challenges and they need the right people on board.
There's also increased process and product complexity.
Things are a lot more complex than they were 20 or 30 years ago.
And, like I said, they need to be able to manage that rapidly changing technology for
other people.
And, the world is going global.
There's a lot of competition out there, and you need the right people to be able to handle
global teams and global technology.
So, as you can see, systems engineering is needed in all types of industry.
Just think of Charlotte, for example, there's a lot of manufacturing, telecommunications,
banking, transportation, healthcare is improving every year, they need more and more people
in that industry.
Automotive, agriculture, aerospace, where systems engineering started, with the government,
construction, criminal justice, retail, environmental systems.
But systems are not just within the organizations themselves, but can be environmental as well.
And urban planning and homeland security is a big one in the last ten years or so.
So you can see, just about every industry needs systems engineering.
So, what are the advantages of becoming a systems engineer?
There's quite a few, actually.
You can learn more than a typical engineer would.
You can get a lot of project management expertise, which is much-needed in industry.
You can learn how to control the processes and improve the quality.
And, you never get bored.
Every day is a challenge, I've been doing this for 15 years, and I never get bored.
It requires you to be a lifelong learner; you always have to keep up with the latest
technology and the latest certifications.
And, you expand your creative side.
Typical engineers use their mathematical, organized side of the brain, but this challenges
you to use the other side of the brain, which is more creative, holistic, imaginative...
the design side.
But you also make a difference.
You impact the bottom line of the company.
So, they're not going to cut the person who saves the company millions of dollars or improves
the processes, or completing the projects.
And, you are a change agent.
You really do lead change.
Which is not easy to do, but you get that training within this program and within this
industry.
Don't just take my word for it.
CNN Money, in November 2009, did a study of all of jobs out there, all the different careers.
And they weighted a lot of different factors, but the number one at that time was systems
engineering.
It has a median salary of $88,000, which is pretty good.
And the top ten percent made $130,000 or more.
That's with two to seven years of experience, not just right out of college but a couple
of years later.
But it wasn't just the money that was important to everyone.
It was the high job satisfaction, they love what they do, they're making an impact on
the bottom line.
Low stress levels, because you are making that impact and people leave you alone if
you're doing a good job.
And you have good job security.
They're not going to cut you, like I said, if you're saving the organization money.
And it is challenging.
Every day is a challenge, and people like challenges.
So, is it right for you?
Ask yourself these questions.
Do you like dealing with people and technology, like I mentioned?
Do you like to communicate a lot?
Do you like working in teams?
Just about everything we do here in the systems engineering program is team-based.
And, would you like to combine that engineering and business knowledge together?
Do you like to solve problems?
You have got to be a good problem-solver.
And, do you enjoy using computers to help make those decisions.
You also use people, picking the brains of everyone on your team to make decisions, but
you also use computers to help you reach data-driven decisions.
And, would you like to be a strong communicator?
You develop that skill constantly, every day.
And, would you like to develop yourself as an effective leader, to be able to move up
into the ranks of management some day?
And, would you like to climb the career ladder?
You'll definitely do that, rise above the ranks of the engineers and be able to manage
engineers and the technology together.
And, be able to talk to leadership.
It's basically almost like a leadership development program.
So, what would you learn if you came to UNC Charlotte for systems engineering?
Well, we use systems modeling and optimization.
Say, Ford Motor Company wanted to test an engine, or rather than producing a bunch of
pilots or a bunch of engines, within those test they might model it on the computer to
save millions of dollars to see if that engine really works for that car.
We also teach design planning and analysis, decision risk analysis, you have to mitigate
or lower the risk before you roll out new solutions or products.
And, project management like I mentioned before.
Engineering management, be able to manage those engineers and technology.
Supply chains and logistics are going global; you need to be able to manage those end-to-end,
nowadays.
And being an effective presenter or communicator.
You learn that in just about every class.
And of course we put some global dynamics in there so that every project has a little
bit of a global aspect in it, since the world is a lot smaller than it used to be.
So if you're interested, please visit our website at seem dot uncc dot edu.
And you can take a brief survey once you're there, and it is about six questions that
ask you typical things about math and science and business to see if this would be a good
fit for you or not.
And you can always contact us through email at uncc hyphen seem at uncc dot edu.
Someone will be in touch with you to give you some more information about the program.
Thank you and have a wonderful day.