View Single Post
  #42   Spotlight this post!  
Unread 07-09-2013, 21:29
wireties's Avatar
wireties wireties is offline
Principal Engineer
AKA: Keith Buchanan
FRC #1296 (Full Metal Jackets)
Team Role: Mentor
 
Join Date: Jan 2006
Rookie Year: 2004
Location: Rockwall, TX
Posts: 1,171
wireties has a reputation beyond reputewireties has a reputation beyond reputewireties has a reputation beyond reputewireties has a reputation beyond reputewireties has a reputation beyond reputewireties has a reputation beyond reputewireties has a reputation beyond reputewireties has a reputation beyond reputewireties has a reputation beyond reputewireties has a reputation beyond reputewireties has a reputation beyond repute
Send a message via AIM to wireties
Re: Keeping an Eye on the Big Picture

Quote:
Originally Posted by ttldomination View Post
To talk about System Engineering in general, some documentation (read: wikipedia) seems to imply that the SE folks are involved in design and managing of complex projects. I suppose the specific role tends to vary from company to company.

Definitely so - I consult with a number of companies and my experience is that the SE roles are very different. In some companies, the SEs are the best and brightest. In other companies the SEs are folks the EE/ME leads did not want. SEs in some companies do nothing but track requirements and advise the PMs but in others the SEs drive the design and dictate to the EE/ME leads. I kinda like environments where the SEs are skilled and experienced big-picture experts - integration seems to go more smoothly.

Our team had a problem with too much input a few years ago. So we adopted a hybrid approach. Our team is very student-run and any student can (still) pitch a design (or a design change) but now they must convince a member of the "design committee" (instead of a single mentor or student) to get it considered. This design committee (a very small group of student SEs) make all key design decisions. I advise them as necessary but primarily I stick to making sure CAD makes sense before fabrication (so we don't tick off our sheet metal sponsors), spending sponsor monies wisely, double checking the physics etc. Some years are still tough but things seem better with a structured and focused decision-making process. I too got older and could not put in the crazy hours! Along with this decision making processs we now prioritize modularity in the design to make integration easier.

Now if we only had better tools and more money... <working on it>

Great thread!
__________________
Fast, cheap or working - pick any two!

Last edited by wireties : 07-09-2013 at 21:33.