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Chris Davis

Chinese University takes principle a step further by adding management practices

SYSTEMS ENGINEERING IS often compared to putting the pieces of a puzzle together. Depending on their particular industry, systems engineers interact with others in a variety of disciplines to ensure the individual parts of a system or business work together to perform a complete function.

The American Society for Engineering Education cites the famous Hubble Space Telescope as an example of the importance of systems engineering.

When the US$1.6 billion high-profile telescope was launched in April 1990, disappointment soon followed.

Due to a problem with its primary mirror, the telescope was capable of projecting images at only one-third of its anticipated resolution.

The society reported that 'before launching the Hubble, to save money Nasa decided not to conduct a total systems test, and the flaw was missed'.

The Chinese University of Hong Kong  takes the principle of systems engineering one step further by combining it with management practices in a Master of Science degree programme.

Its MSc in Systems Engineering and Engineering Management is a non-traditional engineering programme, emphasising the integration of engineering and management techniques.

The programme aims to provide a well-selected set of courses for those who would like to acquire up-to-date decision methodologies and information technologies for management.

Chinese University's systems engineering and engineering management programme, established in 1991, was the first of its kind in tertiary educational institutions in Hong Kong.

The programme is designed to offer students a well-rounded education so they acquire in-depth knowledge of cutting-edge technical skills and a broad perspective on systems and management principles.

Duan Li, chairman and professor at  Chinese University's department of systems engineering and engineering management  said the  Master of Science programme was able to draw on the best of the  university's research and industry practice.

With research programmes focused on finance, logistics, tourism and services for trade and industry, the programme is ideally positioned to help students develop the necessary skills to succeed in these sectors.

Professor Li said students learned the principles, methods, and technologies required for managing businesses and technology organisations.

The programme is specifically designed to provide advanced engineering management training for those interested in increasing their management responsibilities in their professions.

Students are taught the scientific tools to deal with problems that seem too difficult for other engineers without systems engineering  training or managers with limited understanding of information technology.

'Our students can use systems engineering methodologies to guide them to make scientifically sound decisions,' Professor Li said.

He said training in systems engineering provided students with optimal decision-making methodologies and information technology that were universally applicable.

This training would enable them to find employment in various industries, including government agencies.

'Our students have abilities to tackle technical and non-technical aspects of complicated systems and interdisciplinary problems, thus leading to career paths close to senior management,' Professor Li said.

The mainland's booming economy is creating a wide range of employment opportunities for Hong Kong-trained engineers.

'There are tremendous opportunities and challenges for decision makers at different levels in logistics and supply chain management in reliability optimisation and the trade-off between development and environmental protection,' Professor Li said.

Chinese University's  department of systems engineering and engineering management is ranked in the top 10 of similar programmes worldwide, comparing academic publications in top tier international journals.

The department carries out world-class educational and research programmes focused on information systems, operations research, optimisation and quantitative decision-making technologies, and their applications in e-commerce, engineering management, financial engineering and logistics and supply-chain management.



Systems engineering enters a new frontier