Keynotes
The Nectise Research Programme
Michael Henshaw and David Gunton
Professor Michael Henshaw is Director of the NECTISE research programme and Professor of Systems Engineering in the Electronic and Electrical Engineering Department of Loughborough University.
He graduated with a first class BSc. and then a PhD in Applied Physics from the University of Hull and after three years researching in plasma physics at the University of York, joined British Aerospace (now BAE Systems) in 1989 as an aerodynamics engineer. He worked on a number of research programmes in aeronautical engineering specialising in unsteady aerodynamics, in which he was awarded a BAE Systems Chairman’s silver award for innovation and four bronze awards. He studied part-time and was awarded a MBA (distinction) from the University of Lincolnshire and Humberside in 1998. In 1999 he set up and led the successful PUMA DARP research programme (unsteady aerodynamics) that involved six universities and four industries. He subsequently developed integrated, multi-disciplinary research programmes including FLAVIIR and NECTISE.
Michael Henshaw joined Loughborough University to lead NECTISE in August 2006. He has also developed other research activities in integration of complex systems; system of systems engineering; multi-disciplinary teams, projects, and experimentation; engineering management; autonomous systems; and engineering for enduring capability. He is a member of RAeSoc, AIAA, and INCOSE and serves in an advisory role as a member at large of the NATO RTO Systems Concepts Integration Panel and the NDIC working group on systems engineering and open architectures.
Dr. David Gunton gained a first class BSc in Applied Physics from Durham University in 1970 and a PhD in Metal Physics from the same university in 1974.
At the Royal Signals and Radar Establishment he carried out research in microwave electronics and acoustics, signal processing and millimetre wave imaging detectors. From 1983, while with British Gas, he developed and demonstrated novel ground probing radar equipment for detection of buried objects. He moved to Marconi Electronic Systems (now BAE Systems) in 1991 and led teams developing and demonstrating millimetric communication systems, transport telematics applications, land mine detection techniques and spacecraft telemetry equipment.
Since 2005 he has been the Programme Manager of NECTISE. A significant part of this role is liaising between BAE Systems sponsors and the university researchers. He is a Member of the Institute of Physics, a Chartered Engineer and a Fellow of the IET.
Delivering Tomorrow's Capability
Simon Jewell
The desire to dominate the battlefield through information superiority is every military commander's ambition. Whether it takes the form of a bonfire on a hilltop, semaphore or an invisible flow of zeros and ones the intent has been the same - to know more than your enemy. Yet despite the centuries of recognition it sometimes feels that every generation has felt the need to re-invent the principles as if they were the first to have stumbled upon the idea. Why is the challenge so enduring, elusive and seemingly intractable?
Delivering a Network Enabled Capability presents a panoptic challenge that required a multi-faceted approach. Inevitably this leads to complex solutions that are potentially impenetrable and difficult to convey. The result is that they struggle to gain traction and build momentum. Place all this into a decision-making environment that is inherently cautious, against a rapidly evolving technological context, it is little surprise that progress is frustratingly slow.
So much for problems, what about solutions! These fall into one of two categories - firstly, how can I use what I've already got better and secondly, what do I need for the future. This speech will argue that more can be made of the existing capability if greater effort is placed on the organisational, cultural and behavioural aspects of change. Such characteristics are enduring features applicable to both the near and long-term."
Simon Jewell is Managing Director of BAE Systems’ Strategic Capability Solutions business. In this role he is responsible for transformational, pan-company new business opportunities. Strategic Capability Solutions comprises the consultancy company CORDA, Capability Development and NITEworks, a unique partnership between the UK MOD and the defence industry. In addition it also funds and manages BAE Systems’ centrally funded research and technology programme to develop new technology and capability for the company. Simon is Chairman of the Systems Engineering for Autonomous Systems Defence Technology Centre and the Steering Board for the Autonomous Systems Technology Related Airborne Evaluation and Assessment programme. He is also Chairman of the Typhoon Phase Review team, an internal governance role in support of the Company’s Typhoon programme activities.
Simon has extensive international experience, including a two-year tour in Washington DC. His former senior positions include Managing Director Future Systems, Director for UK Government Business, Vice President European Marketing, and Sales and Customer Support Director for the guided weapons company, British Aerospace Dynamics Limited. In 1998, he attended the prestigious Royal College of Defence Studies (RCDS) and undertook post-graduate studies in International Relations. Before joining BAE Systems (then British Aerospace) in 1985, Simon served in the British Infantry and Royal Artillery (1976-1982) spending four years in Germany before leaving and serving a further two years in the Sultan of Oman’s Air Force, operating from Thumrait, Seeb and Masirah.
Model Driven Architecture for Future NECTISE Research
Charles Dickerson
Future research in the NECTISE Programme will continue to advance the innovations and frontiers of systems engineering for network enabled capabilities (NEC). This presentation will show how the concepts of system of systems engineering (SoSE) and NEC are deeply intertwined.
Over the past decade Model Driven Architecture (MDATM) has been applied in the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) to the enablement of military systems of systems (SoS). The concept of applying MDATM to an information intensive SoS can be applied to NEC.
MDATM as an engineering practice has also reached a sufficient level of maturity that its key concepts from can begin to be infused into a model based approach to systems architecture and systems engineering. In the domain of software engineering MDATM has demonstrated the utility of shifting from a document based approach to architecture to a model based approach. It will be seen in this presentation that model transforms, which are at the heart of software system design in MDATM, can be applied to SoSE. Architecture and networks will be seen as integrating functions for SoS
Professor Dickerson is the Royal Academy of Engineering Chair of Systems Engineering at Loughborough University in the U.K. His research programme at the University is focused on model driven architecture and systems engineering. He has authored numerous papers as well as an internationally recognised book on military systems architecture, and has co-authored key government reports. As a member of the IEEE and the OMG, and as the Chair of the INCOSE Architecture Working Group, he works with the systems engineering community on systems architecture practice and standards.
Before joining Loughborough University, he was a Technical Fellow at BAE Systems, providing corporate leadership for architecture-based and system of systems engineering. Previously, as a member of MIT Lincoln Laboratory, he conducted tests and research on electromagnetic scattering. As an MIT IPA, he served as Aegis Systems Engineer for the U.S. Navy Theater Wide Program and then as the Director of Architecture for the Chief Engineer of the U.S. Navy. His aerospace experience includes air vehicle survivability and avionics design at the Lockheed Skunk Works in the Burbank facility and the Northrop Advanced Systems Division, and operations analysis at the Center for Naval Analyses. He received the Ph.D. from Purdue University in 1980.
Service Oriented Architecture in the context of the DoD’s network-centric operations initiative
Dr. Raymond A. Paul
Dr. Raymond A. Paul has been a professional electronics engineer, software architect, developer, tester, and evaluator for the past 24 years, Dr. Paul has held many positions in the field of software engineering. Currently, he serves the as the technical director for command and control (C2) policy. In this position, he supervises command and control systems engineering development for objective, quantitative and qualitative measurements concerning the status of software/systems engineering resources and evaluating project outcomes to support major investment decisions. This measurement data is required to meet various Congressional mandates, most notably the Clinger-Cohen Act.
Paul holds a doctorate in software engineering and is an active senior member of the IEEE Computer Society. He has published more than 57 articles on software engineering in various technical journals and symposia proceedings, primarily under DoD and IEEE sponsorship.
Service Oriented Acquisition
Professor Chris Gunderson
DoD has been pursuing its “netcentric” strategic vision and enabling “service oriented architecture” (SOA) paradigm for ten years now. Likewise all the federal agencies have pursued various enlightened “e-Gov” initiatives aimed at implementing best commercial IT practices, e.g. SOA, into federal acquisition projects for years. Despite the hundreds of $B spent in the federal IT budget over those years, progress – per a constant stream of GAO reports and media exposés –has been disappointing to say the least. Why is that?
The SOA paradigm emphasizes rapid, adaptive, collaborative, and iterative development. Hence, successful SOA deployment requires a rapid, adaptive, collaborative and iterative Service Oriented Acquisition paradigm. Despite policy statements to the contrary, government IT acquisition process artifacts favor long, serial, rigid, risk-averse, stove-piped process.
Government/industry ecosystems tend to be successful when government furnishes affordable, safe, useful & interoperable infrastructure upon which industry may competitively innovate, e.g. Global Positioning System, Interstate highways, the Internet, etc. To date government investment in SOA has been focused on specialized applications associated with a particular sponsor’s mission.
Professional engineers and architects need “assurance” models, i.e. “predictability”, to optimize any system for targeted benefits vs. cost. Such assurance is largely absent for information system engineering wherein “Information Assurance” is generally interpreted to mean “protect information,” i.e. lock it down. Successful SOA deployment requires an IA model to enable “predictable balance between need-to-protect and need-to-share information”.
A program manager’s task is to efficiently manage risk associated with the multiple options associated with deploying a new capability. A PM who hopes to close the “knowing/doing gaps” identified above should employ a Service Oriented Acquisition Strategy that manages risk with respect to: Cost & schedule by continuous competition and frequent deliveries; Interoperability by measurable/testable “logo” criteria; Performance by use cases; Safety, i.e.security, by certified, reusable, high assurance government-off-the-shelf (GOTS) components
Professor Gunderson is a Research Associate Professor of Information Science at the Naval Post Graduate School. He is on a special assignment in Reston VA sponsored by the Defense Information System Agency (DISA) Joint Interoperability Test Command (JITC) to establish a Netcentric Certification Office (NCO). The NCO will link distributed DoD laboratories in partnership with industry to create a public/private e-Business portal for delivery of government certified “net-ready” software products and services. Prior to this assignment, Professor Gunderson managed an initiative sponsored by the Office of the Secretary of Defense to create the World Wide Consortium for the Grid (W2COG), a global network of collaborative experts committed to rapidly fielding network centric tools for enhancing global security and peaceful commerce.
Gunderson retired from the US Navy in October 2004 as a Captain following 27 years’ service. His last assignment in the Navy was as Commanding Officer of Fleet Numerical Oceanographic & Meteorological Center, a super computer network operation center in Monterey, Calif.
Prior to command of Fleet Numerical Meteorology and Oceanography Center, Gunderson served as Deputy Oceanographer of the Navy, and helped develop Department of Defense policy for enhancing information system interoperability. He holds a BS from the U.S. Naval Academy, an MS (with honors) from the Naval Postgraduate School, and is a Fellow of the American Meteorology Society.
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