The request for multiple revisions to the BSSE program

Date: March 7, 2013
To: College of Engineering
From: Office of Academic Affairs
Approved On: January 29, 2013
Approved by: Undergraduate Course and Curriculum Committee
Implementation Date: Summer 2013

Note: Deletions are strikethroughs. Insertions are underlined.

Catalog Copy

The main objective of the undergraduate program in Systems Engineering is to equip graduates with the essential Systems Engineering skills that are needed in industry to enable them to perform in a global engineering environment. These skills include:

• Decision and Risk Analysis
• Systems Modeling and Optimization
• Systems Design, Planning, and Analysis
• Supply Chain and Logistics Engineering
• Quality Engineering
• Engineering Management
• Energy Systems Design and Planning
• Communication and Presentation
• Understanding of Global Business Dynamics

These objectives are accomplished through a flexible curriculum and through interactions with other departments and colleges of the University and with the professional community.

“Systems Engineering is an engineering discipline whose responsibility is creating and executing an interdisciplinary process to ensure that the customers’ and stakeholders’ needs are satisfied in a high quality, trustworthy, cost-efficient and schedule-compliant manner throughout a system’s entire life cycle.” (INCOSE, 2007)

Systems Engineering as an engineering field has very broad applications in a wide variety of industries including energy, telecommunications, construction, manufacturing, transportation and distribution, information technology, financial services, automotive, retail, healthcare and airlines, at all levels from an entry position to top management. This wide applicability, along with a very strong focus to model, analyze and manage complex engineered systems with proven tools and techniques are the primary strengths of SE. Practically every organization requires Systems Engineers to identify, characterize, and solve the right problems and to eliminate inefficiencies and root-causes that generate these problems.

The program offers a Bachelor of Science in Systems Engineering (BSSE) degree and a Master of Science in Engineering Management (MSEM) degree. For information about the master’s program, see the UNC Charlotte Graduate Catalog.

Concentrations and tracks, technical and liberal studies electives allow flexibility for study in specific areas. Each student may design a technical elective program with his or her advisor’s approval in order to achieve individual goals and follow a desired track.

Qualified students may apply for early-entry into the graduate program in Engineering Management during their junior or senior year. If accepted, students may take optional courses for graduate credit and begin work on their master’s degree while completing their undergraduate degree.

EARLY-ENTRY INTO MASTER’S PROGRAM IN ENGINEERING MANAGEMENT

1) A student may be accepted into the early-entry program at any time after completion of at least 75 semester hours of undergraduate work applicable to an appropriate degree. Admission must be approved by the Systems Engineering and Engineering Management program. Full admission to the graduate program is conditional pending the awarding of the undergraduate degree

2) In order to be accepted into the program a student must have at least a 3.2 overall grade point average and a 3.2 grade point average in the student’s major. The successful applicant must have taken the appropriate standardized test and earned acceptable scores.

3) While in the early-entry program, a student must maintain a 3.0 overall grade point average through completion of the baccalaureate degree in order to remain in the graduate program.

4) Students accepted into the early-entry program will be subject to the same policies that pertain to other matriculated graduate students. Early-entry students must finish their undergraduate degree before they complete l5 hours of graduate work.

BACHELOR OF SCIENCE IN SYSTEMS ENGINEERING (B.S.S.E.)

A major in Systems Engineering leading to the BSSE degree consists of 123 credit hours. Specific requirements are:

Social science and humanities electives must be chosen both to satisfy University General Education requirements and to meet the objectives of a broad education consistent with the educational goals of the profession. To avoid taking “extra” humanities/social science electives, students must select their electives carefully after consulting with their faculty advisor.

The science electives must be chosen from an approved list of physical, life, or earth sciences and must complement the student’s overall educational plan.

Each BSSE student needs to select one of the following concentration areas by the end of their freshman year:

1) Systems Engineering

2) Engineering Management

The courses that are marked as “track courses” in the study plan are determined on the basis of the concentration area as described.

SYSTEMS ENGINEERING TRACK

Students enrolled in the Systems Engineering track can take any three of the SE technical elective courses to fulfill their BSSE degree requirements.

ENGINEERING MANAGEMENT TRACK

The following track courses should be taken by each student specializing in Engineering Management:

1) SEGR 2111 Intro to Engineering Management

2) SEGR 3112 Value Engineering Management

3) OPER 3204 Mgmt of Service Operations

BSSE students can select one of the following optional concentrations areas by the end of their sophomore year:

1) Engineering Management

2) Energy Systems

The courses that are marked as “concentration courses” in the study plan are determined on the basis of the concentration area as described.

Engineering Management Concentration

The students need to take the following three required courses

• SEGR 2111 Introduction to Engineering Management (3)
• SEGR 3112 Value Engineering Management (3)
• SEGR 4150 Leadership Skills for Engineers (3)

Plus one of the following

• OPER 3100 Operations Management (3)
• OPER 3204 Management of Service Operations (3)
• OPER 3208 Supply Chain Management (3)

Energy Systems Concentration

The students need to take the following four courses

• SEGR 4961 Introduction to Energy Systems (3)
• SEGR 4962 Energy Markets (3)
• SEGR 4963 Energy Systems Planning (3)
• SEGR 4964 Case Studies in the Energy Industry (3)

Students who are not enrolled in a concentration can take any four of the systems engineering technical elective courses to fulfill their BSSE degree requirements.

Total Credit Hours = 123

*Contact the Program office for more information about the optional courses and their use for an undergraduate concentration or for the early-entry Master’s program.

SEGR 2105. Computational Methods for Systems Engineering I. (3) Prerequisite: Sophomore Standing with a grade of C or better in ENGR 1202, MATH 1241 and MATH 1242. Introduces programming languages and computational tools that are often used by Systems Engineers. Programming in C and Matlab will be emphasized. Spreadsheet-based modeling will be introduced. (Spring)

SEGR 3101. System Design and Deployment. (3) Prerequisite: SEGR 21052101 with a grade of C or above or permission of the department. Focuses on the basics of systems design, analysis, and implementation. It covers system design elements, system interface issues, system decomposition, and system integration. The emphasis is on the effective design and integration of system operations and successful deployment of systems design results. (Fall)

SEGR 3107. Decision and Risk Analysis. (3) Prerequisite: SEGR 2105 STAT 3128 with a grade of C or above or permission of the department. This course aims to provide some useful tools for analyzing difficult decisions and making the right choice. After introducing components and challenges of decision making, the course will proceed with the discussion of structuring decisions using decision trees and influence diagrams. Decisions under conflicting objectives and multiple criteria will be covered as well as sensitivity and risk analysis. (Fall)

SEGR 3111. Project Management. (3) (O, W) Prerequisite: STAT 3128 with a grade of C or above. Focuses on the study of various aspects of project management techniques and issues, and the use of conceptual, analytical, and systems approaches in managing engineering projects and activities. It includes the development and writing of project plans and -reports for engineering and business operations. (Fall)

SEGR 3290. Systems Design Project I. (1) (O, W) Prerequisite: SE Senior standing