-
What is Systems Engineering?
An Engineering Discipline Systems Engineering is a discipline whose practitioners design things that are complex and useful. The complex and useful things that we design are usually manufactured objects such as space probes, aircraft or medical devices. But we can also apply our skills to the design of social systems. To do our work, we…
-
Tulips and Stepping Stones
A careless gardener may place a stepping stone over a tulip bulb hidden dormant in the ground. As the tulip emerges from its bulb the next spring and grows upward toward the light, it encounters the stone. It expends extra energy to grow around the obstacle and eventually emerges, twisted and stunted, from the edge…