Systems Engineering for the Digital Age

Chapter 41Evolving University Programs for the Other 95% of Engineers: A Capstone Marketplace

William Shepherd

Stevens Institute of Technology, Hoboken, NJ, USA

Introduction to the Capstone Marketplace

In 2011, US Department of Defense's (DoD's) System Engineering Research Center (SERC) started an initiative to give undergraduate students opportunities to exercise basic system engineering (SE) principles in project‐based coursework. DoD's then Undersecretary for Research and Acquisition¹ had expressed concerns that the rising complexity of defense systems would require increasing numbers of engineers and program managers trained in SE to create more individuals who could make effective trades between cost, schedule, risk, and technical performance in the next generation of advanced defense developments. DoD leaders felt that for SE to be effective, key aspects of it had to be introduced earlier in engineering education programs.

SERC was established to promote better tools and methods for SE and to promote human capital development in the SE domain. SERC proposed an effort to introduce undergraduate students to SE using a web‐based “Capstone Marketplace” to enhance their senior engineering design courses. This Marketplace would identify valuable research topics from government and military organizations, market these needs and problems to universities, and attract academics and student teams to work on solutions. The Office of the Undersecretary of Defense for Research and ...