NCSOSE CONTRACT PRODUCES SPECIALIZED NAVAL ENGINEERS - AND A SPECIAL ISSUE OF SYSTEM OF SYSTEMS ENGINEERING JOURNAL

Engineering faculty members at Old Dominion University's National Centers for System of Systems Engineering (NCSOSE) have worked for more than a year with the U.S. Navy on training and application of a methodology to explore radio frequency information exchange in an aircraft carrier strike group.

The system of systems (SoS) engineering work has produced 16 naval engineers and technicians certified in SoS engineering and a real-world application, with recommendations for improving the conduct of readiness evaluations for carrier strike groups. The training and application are consistent with the NCSOSE approach of finding systemic answers to complex SoS problems.

The Navy is very satisfied with the work, the result of one of several contracts awarded to NCSOSE, an enterprise center of ODU's Batten College of Engineering and Technology. One of those contracts is a $2.4 million, sole-source award to conduct hands-on SoS engineering certification training in Norfolk and Charleston, S.C., with the Navy's Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center Atlantic (SSC-LANT).

The work done for the carrier strike group by the Old Dominion researchers, in conjunction with the SSC-LANT class, has found its own academic audience as well. NCSOSE researchers, SSC-LANT class members and ODU students have authored a special issue of the International Journal of System of Systems Engineering (IJSSE), a publication of Inderscience Publishers.

"This is a significant accomplishment for our researchers, and for NCSOSE," said Chuck Keating, professor of engineering management and NCSOSE director. "It's a recognition of the research expertise here, and of our desire to be at the forefront of the emerging SoS engineering."

Coordinated by Kevin Adams, principal research scientist at NCSOSE, the special issue features 10 articles written by participants in the ODU-U.S. Navy carrier strike group project. They range from introducing the reader to a Navy strike group and defining it as anSoS, to outlining an SoS approach to improve communications methodology, to lessons learned during the study.

The final paper is a summary of the SoS engineering field, and presents the prospects and challenges facing the emerging field of system of systems engineering. To access the special issue, clickhere.

The work continues with SSC-LANT as well. A new cohort of naval engineers, technologists and technicians - half in Norfolk, half in Charleston - is working its way through NCSOSE training seminars, in keeping with the ongoing goal of providing more Navy employees versed in SoS engineering principles and applications.