Systems Engineering asan Undergraduate Degree
Federal University of Minas Gerais - UFMG
School of Engineering
Oriane Magela Neto
Associate Professor of the Department ofElectrical Engineering
• Systems Engineering is a multidisciplinary fieldof engineering which focuses on developing andintegrating complex systems.
• It concentrates on the design and application ofthe whole system as distinct from the parts.Technical and social aspects of the system designand application should be related.
Systems Engineering
1. Brief History
2. The Structure of the Course
3. Facilities
4. The System Engineering Profession in Brazil
5. Progress
Summary
1. Brief History
1.1 The School of Engineering of UFMG
11 undergraduate courses;
09 graduate courses;
approximately 5,500 students;
One hundred years of history.
1.2 The REUNI Program
It was launched in 2008;
Special budgets for undergraduate courses.
1.3 The Systems Engineering Course
It was proposed in the Department ofElectrical Engineering in 2008, approved in theUniversity Council in 2009 and started in 2010;
It was proposed by professors involved in theElectrical Engineering Graduate Program whobelong to the research groups of Optimisationand Computational Intelligence;
It is an evening hours Course with 12 terms(semesters).
• The Systems Engineering UndergraduateCourse is basically structured in two main routes;
•a technical and scientific route;
•a route of Humanities.
•Each route is divided into 03 stages and theyare integrated among themselves.
2. The Structure of the Course
2.1 The Technical and Scientific Route
Basic stage: mathematics, physics, statisticsand computing;
Intermediate stage: modelling and analysis ofengineering systems involving the subjects ofelectromagnetism, thermodynamics,aerodynamics, electric circuits, controlsystems, chemical processes etc . Theapproach here is computational;
Systems engineering stage: optimisation,computational intelligence (neural networks,fuzzy systems etc); theory of decision;reliability; software engineering, projectmanagement etc. This stage comes straightfrom the Graduate Course in ElectricalEngineering.
2.2 The route of Humanities
First stage – the fundaments of Humanities:philosophy, history, theories of society,psychoanalysis etc;
Second stage : languages, literature, music,theater, dancing, arts, team work;
Contact with society: social activity and/orsocial project. A project involving the studentsof the Systems Engineering Course andteenagers accomplishing educational and socialmeasures by law has been alreadyimplemented.
2.4 Project Laboratories
Particularly important in the Course structure:
five laboratories from the 5th to the 9th termand one multiphysics laboratory in the 8thterm;
General idea of practising engineering andinnovating in engineering;
The students should design, test and integratesoftwares, hardwares, instruments, equipmentsand devices.
Humanities will be also present in the ‘ProjectLaboratories’, observing and investigatingmatters such as ethics; scientific and technicalculture; politics; ergonomy; science,technology and society etc;
Motivation for the students become themselvesconsultants and/or entrepreneurs in SystemsEngineering.
2.4 Novelties
‘Tutorials’ have been already implemented: oneprofessor for a group of five students;
Flexibility and unconventional disciplines,mainly in the Humanities route;
The student may make his own route in a partof the Course. This route should be approvedin the System Engineering Course Council;
Systems Engineering Week every year startingfrom this year with lectures, seminars,workshops and an assessment of the Course.
3. Facilities
The Systems Engineering Course uses all thecomputational facilities of the School ofEngineering of UFMG;
The laboratories used by the SystemsEngineering Course are those of theDepartment of Electrical Engineering and theDepartment of Electronics Engineering. Thespecial budget of the Course has been mainlyspent in modernising those laboratories.
4. Systems Engineering as a Profession
The Brazilian Federal Council of Engineeringand Architecture has a Resolution datedAugust, the 22nd of 2005 in which the activitiesof a Systems Engineer are included in the ‘bigfield’ of Electrical Engineering:www.confea.org.br/serviços
5. Progress
We are finishing now the third term of theCourse;
In the two competitions for enrolling in theCourse the ratio of candidates per position was9/1;