Book : Advanced Systems Thinking, Engineering, and Management (2003)

Summary

From the publisher:

No matter what field you are working in or studying, Advanced Systems Thinking, Engineering, and Management offers you a comprehensive understanding of systems ideas and methods to help you achieve unmatched success with your challenging projects. This unique resource helps you add a systems-scientific grounding to systems engineering enterprises, showing you how to solve intractable problems, design systems to accommodate complex environments, and manage both creative and operational systems. You learn how to conceive, design and manage a systems engineering process for optimal results.

The book is filled with examples and case studies from a wide range of areas, from integrated transport systems, security systems, and defense procurement, to missile defense architectures, famine relief, and managing markets. This innovative reference introduces a generic systems lifecycle theory that helps you understand how systems form, persist and decay, and presents a 5-layer classification for systems engineering. You discover how to use a generic reference model that allows systems of all types to be addressed within a common framework. Moreover, the book reveals how architecture is used to create system emergent properties, capabilities and behaviors.

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Book : Aircraft Systems: Mechanical, Electrical and Avionics Subsystems Integration, 3rd Edition (2008)

Summary

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This third edition of Aircraft Systems represents a timely update of the Aerospace Series’ successful and widely acclaimed flagship title. Moir and Seabridge present an in-depth study of the general systems of an aircraft – electronics, hydraulics, pneumatics, emergency systems and flight control to name but a few - that transform an aircraft shell into a living, functioning and communicating flying machine. Advances in systems technology continue to alloy systems and avionics, with aircraft support and flight systems increasingly controlled and monitored by electronics; the authors handle the complexities of these overlaps and interactions in a straightforward and accessible manner that also enhances synergy with the book’s two sister volumes, Civil Avionics Systems and Military Avionics Systems.

Aircraft Systems, 3rd Edition is thoroughly revised and expanded from the last edition in 2001, reflecting the significant technological and procedural changes that have occurred in the interim – new aircraft types, increased electronic implementation, developing   markets, increased environmental pressures and the emergence of UAVs. Every chapter is updated, and the latest technologies depicted. It offers an essential reference tool for aerospace industry researchers and practitioners such as aircraft designers, fuel specialists, engine specialists, and ground crew maintenance providers, as well as a textbook for senior undergraduate and postgraduate students in systems engineering, aerospace and engineering avionics.

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Book : Bionomics: Economy as Ecosystem (1995)

Summary

Capitalism, or the market economy, or the free enterprise system—whatever you choose to label it—was not planned. Like life on earth, it did not need to be. Capitalism just happened, and it will keep on happening. Quite spontaneously. Capitalism flourishes whenever it is not suppressed, because it is a naturally occurring phenomenon. It is the way human society organizes itself for survival in a world of limited resources.

A capitalist economy can best be comprehended as a living ecosystem. Key phenomena observed in nature: competition, specialization, cooperation, exploitation, learning, growth, and several others—are also central to business life. Moreover, the evolution of the global ecosystem and the emergence of modern industrial society are studded with striking parallels.

Briefly stated, information is the essence of both systems. In the biologic environment, genetic information, recorded in the DNA molecule, is the basis of all life. In the economic environment, technological information, captured in books, blueprints, scientific journals, databases, and the know-how of millions of individuals, is the ultimate source of all economic life.

Bionomics is not a new "theory"—some new doctrine or ideology.There’s already been entirely too much of that. Instead, this book offers a fresh new perspective, a new way of observing the facts before us. When you adjust the focus on a microscope, blurry images pop into vivid detail. In all its marvelous complexity and beauty, a world invisible to the naked eye suddenly becomes intelligible.

In a way, the bionomic perspective is an infinitely adjustable macroscope—an instrument for the mind’s eye—able to scan the panorama of the global economy or zoom in on its finest details. It is an observational technique that, once learned, comes easily. Complexities that confound traditional approaches yield to its insights. At a time of stunning change in the world, when the inadequacies of long-accepted points of view have become obvious, a new way of looking at old problems may be just what is needed.

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Book : Business Dynamics: Systems Thinking and Modelling for a Complex World (2000)

Summary

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Accelerating economic, technological, social, and environmental change challenge managers and policy makers to learn at increasing rates, while at the same time the complexity of the systems in which we live is growing.  Many of the problems we now face arise as unanticipated side effects of our own past actions.  All too often the policies we implement to solve important problems fail, make the problem worse, or create new problems.

Effective decision making and learning in a world of growing dynamic complexity requires us to become systems thinkers to expand the boundaries of our mental models and develop tools to understand how the structure of complex systems creates their behavior.

This book introduces you to system dynamics modeling for the analysis of policy and strategy, with a focus on business and public policy applications.  System dynamics is a perspective and set of conceptual tools that enable us to understand the structure and dynamics of complex systems.  System dynamics is also a rigorous modeling method that enables us to build formal computer simulations of complex systems and use them to design more effective policies and organizations.  Together, these tools allow us to create management flight simulators–microworlds where space and time can be compressed and slowed so we can experience the long-term side effects of decisions, speed learning, develop our understanding of complex systems, and design structures and strategies for greater success.

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Book : Emergence: The Connected Lives of Ants, Brains, Cities, and Software (2002)

Summary

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This book is about the mystery of why the whole is sometimes smarter than the sum of its parts.

Emergence is what happens when an interconnected system of relatively simple elements self-organizes to form more intelligent, more adaptive higher-level behavior. It’s a bottom-up model; rather than being engineered by a general or a master planner, emergence begins at the ground level. Systems that at first glance seem vastly different—ant colonies, human brains, cities, immune systems—all turn out to follow the rules of emergence. In each of these systems, agents residing on one scale start producing behavior that lies a scale above them: ants create colonies, urbanites create neighborhoods.

In the tradition of Being Digital and The Tipping Point, Steven Johnson, acclaimed as a “cultural critic with a poet’s heart” (The Village Voice), takes readers on an eye-opening intellectual journey from the discovery of emergence to its applications. He introduces us to our everyday surroundings, offering suprising examples of feedback, self-organization, and adaptive learning. How does a lively neighborhood evolve out of a disconnected association of shopkeepers, bartenders, and real estate developers? How does a media event take on a life of its own? How will new software programs create an intelligent World Wide Web?

Drawing upon evolutionary theory, urban studies, neuroscience, and computer games, Emergence is a guidebook to one of the key components of twenty-first-century culture. Until recently, Johnson explains, the disparate philosophers of emergence have worked to interpret the world. But today they are starting to change it. This book is the riveting story of that change and what it means for the future. If you’ve searched for information on the Web, played a recent video game, or accepted a collect call using voice recognition software, you’ve already encountered the new world of artificial emergence. Provocative, engaging, and sophisticated, Emergence puts you on the front lines of a sweeping revolution in science and thought.

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Book : Handbook of Systems Engineering and Management (1999)

Summary

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Systems engineering is the management technology that supports the planning, organizing, directing, and controlling of the total system development process to ensure evolution of a high-quality, trustworthy, and cost-effective system capable of meeting user needs.  Among the many applications of systems engineering and management are decision support systems, command and control systems, air traffic control systems, intelligent highway vehicle systems, process control systems, and enterprise systems. The factors associated with the engineering of large-scale systems include policy making, planning, decision making, resource allocation, and action deployment.The Handbook of Systems Engineering and Management is a comprehensive, single-volume reference to every aspect of systems engineering and management for fielding systems of all types, especially systems that are information-, technology-, and software-intensive.This volume guides professionals through every phase of the definition, design, implementation, and management of systems of large scale and scope, from identifying user needs and determining costs to ensuring system capabilities and maintaining smooth operations. The handbook will be of long-lasting value to those concerned with the technical direction, development, and management of complex projects of large scale and scope.

The first undertaking of its kind, the Handbook of Systems Engineering and Management presents a single, practical source covering the theory and practice of systems engineering and management.  Taking a multifaceted view of this interdisciplinary subject, the work begins with a comprehensive outline of systems engineering. The handbook then provides major sections on systems engineering methodology and processes, systems management, human factors in systems engineering,quality and standards in systems engineering, and system engineering methods.

With its main focus on the organization and management of complexity, rather than direct technological concerns that affect individual subsystems, it covers a vast number of ingredients associated with the engineering of trustworthy systems, and helps those involved in these large-scale projects with:

• Systematic measurement approaches and capability-assessment models
• A knowledge base of effective systems-engineering processes and systems-management strategies
• An understanding of the complex role of advanced information technologies in enhancing systems’ productivity and quality
• Detailed discussions of the tools and methods, life cycle processes, and systems management strategies available for the support of complex high-technology systems-engineering efforts

Supplemented with nearly 400 graphs and figures that help clarify difficult concepts and organize complex material, the Handbook of Systems Engineering and Management is an immensely helpful resource for systems engineers, human factors engineers, and systems and software development managers in industry and government.

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Book : Human Factors in Systems Engineering (1996)

Summary

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'Human Factors in Systems Engineering' shows how to integrate human factors into the design of tools, machines, and systems so that they match human abilities and limitations.

Unlike virtually all other books on human factors, which leave the implementation of general guidelines to engineers and designers with little or no human factors expertise, this unique book shows that the proper role of the human factors specialist is to translate general guidelines into project specific design requirements to which engineers can design.

Again, while other human factors books ignore the standards, specifications, requirements, and other work products that must be prepared by engineers, this book emphasises the methods used to generate the human factors inputs for engineering work products, and the points in the development process where these inputs are needed.

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Book : Industrial Dynamics (1992)

Summary

How do you design corporate structures and policies that are compatible with the growth objectives of your organization? This text addresses this crucial question and explains how managers’ actions shape the dynamic characteristics of a broad range of organizations. A reprint of the original text, Industrial Dynamics also contains numerous two-color graphs to help illustrate the concepts.

Here is the book that started the study of system dynamics! This classic work is for anyone in management, whether a student or seasoned professional. Forrester looks at a company as a dynamic system of interacting elements, gives a methodology on how to model them, and shows through simulation how the company will be affected by changes. The book covers industrial systems, managerial uses of industrial dynamics, models, systems of equations, flow diagrams, policies and decisions, production-distribution systems, and much more! If you’re interested in ithink, this book is an essential for your library. If you use Optima !iThink, this book will give you good advice on modeling your corporation.

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Book : Introduction to Radar Systems - Third Edition (2002)

Summary

From The Publisher

Since the publication of the second edition of 'Introduction to Radar Systems', there has been continual development of new radar capabilities and continual improvements to the technology and practice of radar.

This growth has necessitated the addition and updating of the following topics for the third edition:

• digital technology,
• automatic detection and tracking,
• doppler technology,airborne radar,
• and target recognition.

The topic coverage is one of the great strengths of the text. In addition to a thorough revision of topics,and deletion of obsolete material,the author has added end-of-chapter problems to enhance the "teachability" of this classic book in the classroom,as well as for self-study for practicing engineers.

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Book : Introduction to Systems Engineering (2000)

Summary

From the publisher:

Systems engineering (SE), or the engineering of large-scale systems, is key to achieving reliable, efficient, cost-effective products and services in diverse fields, including communication and network systems, software engineering, information systems, manufacturing, command and control, and defense systems acquisition and procurement.

This book offers a unique introduction to the world of systems engineering, focusing on analysis and problem-solving techniques that can be applied throughout the life cycle of product systems and service systems. While the authors provide a framework for the functional levels involved in systems engineering processes and system management, the bulk of the discussion is devoted to the practical application of formulation, analysis, and interpretation methods.

Through the use of real-world examples and useful graphs, readers will learn to:

• Choose the most appropriate methods and tools for a given project
• Apply issue formulation methods to assure that the right problem has been identified
• Work with formal analysis methods to assure that the problem is solved correctly
• Apply issue interpretation methods to insure that decisions reflect human values and technological realities, and thereby make interpretation work for them in the decision-making process
• Develop an appreciation for the engineering and troubleshooting of large systems

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