Systems engineering of cyber-physical systems: An integrated education program

Mark Andreessen "Software is eating the world".^[1] Elon Musk: "We really designed the Model S to be a very sophisticated computer on wheels,"⋯. "Tesla is a software company as much as it is a hardware company. A huge part of what Tesla is, is a Silicon Valley software company. We view this the same as updating your phone or your laptop."^[2] Increasingly, products, systems, and infrastructure in sectors that include transportation (aviation, automotive, rail, and marine), health care, manufacturing, and electrical power generation and distribution are cyber-physical systems (CPS). These systems use integrations of computation, networking, and physical processes to provide key functionality and value. The effective development of these systems often will depend on engineers skilled in cyber-physical systems engineering - trained in the analysis, modeling, implementation and testing of systems in which collaborating computational elements control physical entities and real-time processing plays a critical role. In this paper, we describe an experiential program for graduate studies that provides engineers with the critically important knowledge and skills needed for the design and development of Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS).