Vision for INCOSE
I strongly believe that an organization’s strength is in its membership. Therefore membership needs must be understood and met in a reasonable time frame. My vision will be to create a stronger collaboration between different external and internal stakeholders of INCOSE, – regular & corporate members, chapters, commercial steering board and other like-minded organizations, to meet their needs. My mission is to be an instrument in the implementation of the INCOSE vision. I will also work on conducting regular Market Feedback Analysis (MFA) to make sure INCOSE stays on the right path of meeting its stakeholder’s needs.

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Ashok is an active member of INCOSE since 1998.  Currently he serves in Technical Leadership Team as Assistant director of Transportation Sector and was instrument is establishing systems engineering application sectors.   He is also a member of Commercial Steering Board.

He revived Central Arizona Chapter and served as its President from 2002-2004.  Before the reorganization of INCOSE, Ashok served at co-chair of Technical Board as Chapters Technical Liaison (2003-2004), Communication Mangers (2001-2003) and chair of Systems Engineering Application Technical Committee  (SEATC) and Joint Commercial Air Transportation Working Group. He also represented Honeywell in Corporate Advisory Board from 2001-2004.

Currently Ashok is a fellow of Systems Engineering and Integration at Pratt & Whitney, a unit of United Technology, Inc, where he is involved in systems engineering improvement activities, technology development and management and leading next generation engine/airframe integration projects.

Before joining P&W, Ashok served at Honeywell Aerospace where, he pioneered the establishment of Systems Engineering discipline at Engines Systems and Services, a business unit of Honeywell.   Ashok also held key positions at AlliedSignal/Garrett Engine Company.  He has great breadth and depth of experience in System Design and Integration, including leading teams for turbomachinery design, supersonic propulsion, Integrated Power Plant Systems, flight testing, technical problem resolution and customer support.

Ashok has Masters degrees in Aerospace Engineering from University of Cincinnati and Indian Institute of technology, Kanpur; and MBA degree form Arizona State University. He is a certified Systems Engineering Professional (CSEP), Program Management Professional (PMP) and Six-Sigma Blackbelt.

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Vision for INCOSE
I am standing for the position of INCOSE secretary because I believe in INCOSE’s mission, and strategic vision for systems engineering. I believe in a strong, competent organization and feel that I can make a contribution to INCOSE in the secretary position. I am committed to serving the Board of Directors and enabling them to serve the INCOSE membership. I am fully aligned with the new INCOSE Board of Directors governance structure and will work to make it fully functional. I’d like to help INCOSE be and be acknowledged as the authority for the discipline of systems engineering. In order to be the authority for the discipline of systems engineering we must reach out to those beyond INCOSE around the world and carefully listen to our membership and member companies. Personally, I’d like to see INCOSE become more engaged with the “soft science” side of systems engineering, i.e. how we behave as people as we implement our systems engineering job. I’d also like to see INCOSE expand our membership and influence beyond our traditional aerospace domain into quality of life topics such healthcare, food production and distribution and environmentally sustainable methods for power production and distribution.

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Ross Jones brings to the INCOSE 28 years of professional experience in systems engineering, technology development and management in the civilian space sector. At the Jet Propulsion Laboratory [JPL], Ross Jones has held various positions of increasing responsibility starting in the late 80’s as the Spacecraft Bus System Engineer for the Mars Observer project, responsible for monitoring the total spacecraft system design. In the 90’s, Ross was the Supervisor of the Advanced Flight Systems Group group which was responsible for spacecraft system engineering for all of JPL's future spacecraft projects. During these years, Ross led efforts to design and use small spacecraft using technology derived from DoD’s Strategic Defense Initiative. During the summer of 1996, Ross was a visiting professor at the Japanese Institute of Space and Astronautical Science [ISAS] involved in microspacecraft research and studies of future collaborative missions between ISAS and JPL. This summer experience led to the MUSES CN project where Ross was selected to be the project manager. MUSES CN was a $40M project responsible for all aspects of the collaboration between NASA and ISAS on the Japanese MUSES C asteroid sample return mission. After MUSES CN, Ross Jones became the Project Systems Engineer for the ~$500M Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter project, responsible for the top level systems engineering. Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has recently successfully entered in orbit around Mars.

Currently Ross Jones is the Assistant Division Manager for systems engineering in the Systems and Software division which has more than 800 systems and software engineers. In this position, Ross Jones has the responsibility for the development and maintenance of the strategic vision for systems engineering at JPL and leading the day-to-day implementation of the vision. This effort includes work in training/personnel development, process/procedure development and deployment, and planning/development for model based systems engineering. Ross Jones also serves as the spokesperson and point of contact for systems engineering at JPL to external organizations, including NASA HQ.

Ross Jones holds a bachelor’s degree in Aeronautical and Aerospace Engineering from Purdue University and a master’s degree in Aerospace Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Ross also has attended numerous NASA and JPL management and leadership training events.

Ross Jones was the technical editor of  the chapter on “Planetary Exploration Spacecraft Design”, in the Encyclopedia of Space Science and Technology,  Copyright © 2002 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Ross also authored close to forty papers on various aspects of mission design and spacecraft systems for space exploration.

Ross Jones is the JPL member of the INCOSE Corporate Advisory Board.

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Vision for INCOSE
INCOSE has a bright future as the driving force enhancing systems engineering throughout academia, industry, and government.  My vision for INCOSE focuses on improving the competitive advantage of our members in the market place.

Ties between INCOSE and academia will ensure that education and training is relevant to the current needs in industry, and that academic research better anticipates and meets industry needs, while also expanding the depth and breadth of systems engineering application.  INCOSE's efforts to date to host three levels of interchange among academics - deans, department heads, and faculty - are a major breakthrough that places us on that trajectory. 

Efforts to strengthen the Corporate Advisory Board (CAB) should continue to the point where the CAB representatives no longer have a second thought about whether they are "getting their money's worth" out of INCOSE, but are firmly convinced that INCOSE is one of the most cost-effective ways to champion and improve the practice of systems engineering in their organizations.  CAB representatives will be among the “movers and shakers” in their companies with the ability to ensure that INCOSE has adequate resources to carry out its mission.  This can take various forms such as: more corporate funding for member participation in INCOSE events and product development efforts; and establishing INCOSE as the lead organization with adequate budget and authority for cooperative international and national efforts that require substantial systems engineering expertise.  This transition will have occurred when we see CAB companies competing to loan their best and brightest systems engineers to represent INCOSE on these community endeavors.

Our current government members tend to be acquisition professionals for systems that are deployed to provide for defense, transportation, and other public goods.  INCOSE needs to expand its interaction with governments worldwide to establish the contacts and levels of trust to attract national resources that provide for education, training, and research in systems engineering that will advance the state of the art.  INCOSE has hosted executive summits that have fostered interaction of high-level members of industry and academia.  As a follow-up, we will have to engage key players from national research funding agencies to increase research, training, and scholarship funding in systems engineering programs that are identified with INCOSE.

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Bob Kenley has been member of INCOSE since 1994.  In 1999, he was appointed Chair of the Ways and Means Committee.  After taking on this position, he has participated in all INCOSE Board meetings.  During his tenure as Ways and Means Chair, he has advised the Board on the necessary bylaws and policy changes to meet the needs of INCOSE as it has matured as an organization.

He also is serving as the treasurer of the INCOSE Foundation, a charitable organization with the goal of advancing the development and image of systems engineering through funded scholarships, research, and international forums.

He presented his first INCOSE paper at the 1994 Symposium and has attended all Symposia since 1998. He has authored or co-authored papers published in INCOSE International Symposia proceedings, the Conference on Systems Engineering Research proceedings, and Systems Engineering.

He currently is Chief Editor of INSIGHT, a quarterly publication of INCOSE.

He is an independent systems engineering consultant for advanced technology development efforts sponsored by the U.S. Departments of Defense and Energy.  He was employed as a systems engineer by Lockheed Martin from 1981 to 1998, working on space and nuclear systems.  His assignments were in Sunnyvale, California, and in Washington, D.C. as a systems engineering fellow of the Idaho National Laboratory on detail to Department of Energy Headquarters.

Bob received an S.B. in Management from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1975, an M.S. in Statistics from Purdue University in 1979, an M.S. in Engineering-Economic Systems from Stanford University in 1984, and a Ph.D. in Engineering-Economic Systems from Stanford University in 1986.  His doctoral dissertation, "Influence Diagram Models with Continuous Variables" was one of the seminal works in the field that is now known as Bayes Nets.

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Vision for INCOSE
I see three levels to communication.  The first is external.  There is a tremendous untapped reservoir of energetic and willing practitioners.  Many of these practitioners are not yet members of INCOSE and many more still may not even be aware that they are Systems Engineering practitioners at all.  I would like to expand INCOSE’s presence even more through a combination of marketing and cooperation with other local and international organizations. 

The second level is vertically internal.  I will continue to leverage the existing vehicles such as the Website, Journal, Insight, and e-notes to get information to our membership.   I know that if we let the membership know what is going on, we will continue to become a more active, energetic organization.

The third level of communication is horizontally internal.  I see in INCOSE Connect and in the discussion forums an unprecedented potential for peer to peer contact.  I will encourage and enable a self-organizing structure by allowing unfettered communications amongst peers and maximizing information sharing.  We may very well be on the verge of shedding geography as our major defining structure.  The first step was the formation of Technical Matrix.  Whatever direction we may be heading, I hope to enable it.

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Christian Tulodieski is the current Head of Technical Communications for INCOSE.  At the International Workshop in Tampa, 2005, Christian accepted the role and soon tackled his first task to communicate the organization of the Technical Leadership Team and to introduce the Technical Matrix to INCOSE membership.  He is also a participating member in INCOSE’s Communications Committee. Christian graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1993, earning a degree in Naval Architecture.  He led the systems integration for the two ships of the US Coast Guard’s Deepwater Program and managed several other projects with the Navy.  Christian now works for Northrop Grumman Integrated Systems and is gaining valuable shipyard experience while integrating aspects of the Navy’s next generation destroyer.  He hopes this experience will give him a bigger, better picture of the entire system.

Christian’s first introduction to Systems Engineering came when he attended the 5-day Systems Engineering Course in 2001 held by SAIC.  Up until that moment he had been performing Systems Engineering functions, but hadn’t known it.  He joined INCOSE shortly thereafter and he spends every moment since then in a constant quest for further enlightenment.  Because of this, he is keenly aware of the need to get information to those who demand it.  He is an active member, attending workshops and symposia since 2003.  He is even organizing a local start-up chapter in the Mississippi coast area and by IW 2007 expects to have it fully chartered.

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Vision for INCOSE
As I reflect upon my 13 years with INCOSE, I see an ever-growing and maturing organization built through the exceptional contributions of committed volunteers at the chapter and international levels.  Through chapter events, international conferences and symposia, technical products, strong publications, and a welcoming community of international systems engineering experts, INCOSE offers tremendous value to our members and our community. We must preserve this foundation and build upon it as we strive to advance the practice of systems engineering across industry and international boundaries.

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David Long is the founder and president of Vitech Corporation, a leading provider of system engineering tools, where he has led the development of the CORE® family of tools since 1992. In addition, Mr. Long has played a key role in the advancement of model-driven, object-oriented technology and processes for systems engineering. He has been associated with advanced systems engineering concepts since 1988. As a system engineer, he has broad experience ranging from business process engineering to advanced military and aerospace systems.

An INCOSE member since 1992, Mr. Long has been active at the international, regional, and chapter levels. He previously served as co-chair of the first Mid-Atlantic Regional Conference on Systems Engineering, president of the Washington Metropolitan Area Chapter, and the first elected Member Board chair. Mr. Long is currently the INCOSE Director for Communications.

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Vision for INCOSE
INCOSE is a wonderful, family-type organization, as our Past President, Heinz Stoewer, is fond of saying. INCOSE is moving into several relatively new domains. I would like to do my part to encourage that as well as supporting the continuation of the systems engineering Vision 2020. I strongly believe that INCOSE can benefit from a broader definition of systems engineering that embraces trans-disciplinary (Andy Sage’s term) fields, such as organizational development, sociology, psychology, and biology, disciplines not usually associated with engineering, i.e., solving practical problems associated with human-made systems. As many others have said, both complexity and systems engineering can be thought of as continuums. The greatest difficulties (complexities) lie with those very large and important endeavors where key individuals, e.g., stakeholders with authority, resources, and power, act in self-serving ways. Developing strategies that help shape the environment of such complex systems which enable us to motivate individuals to think and act beyond their own immediate needs will positively benefit our projects, our organizations, and our world. Here the “enterprise systems engineer” is not in full control and often cannot effectively predict what will happen; instead, one can only hope to influence positive outcomes, while adopting agile management techniques to adapt as quickly as possible if things deteriorate. I would appreciate your vote to help INCOSE move more strongly and rapidly in this direction.

I have been a member of INCOSE since June, 2005, when I reengaged MITRE as a member of the Corporate Advisory Board [CAB] and subsequently, became MITRE’s CAB representative. Shortly after the 2005 International Workshop, Samantha Brown asked me to consider leading the Systems Science Enabler Group (SSEG) of the new Technical Matrix. In April 2005, I was officially approved as Assistant Director of Systems Science by the Board of Directors. Since then I have been a very active member of the Technical Leadership Team and have helped bring the SSEG to a membership of more than 50 in just over a year. We have had two lively SSEG meetings at every Workshop and International Symposium since the IS of 2005. Our SSEG members are quite active with the basic thrust to help inform the INCOSE membership about how systems science might improve the practice of systems engineering. The emphasis within the SSEG is on complexity theory, complex systems, and complex systems engineering. We will be publishing our first short essays in the next issue of INCOSE Insight, and we are planning a special Insight theme issue for the fall of 2007. I have also published and presented papers, chaired, organized sessions or participated in panels at INCOSE’s Symposia and several other systems engineering conferences in the past two years. When the opportunity to run for a Board of Directors Office arose, I became quite enthusiastic. There were two openings, Secretary and Director of Strategy. I chose to run for Director of Strategy because its duties would still allow me to continue my other INCOSE commitments. I intend to follow through with my Systems Science responsibilities until my Assistant Director term expires in January 2008 which will keep me in a position to better elicit input from more INCOSE members and concentrate on strategic ideas to strengthen INCOSE overall. I will try to build upon suggestions from previous, present (and perhaps a strategy-focused future) surveys of the membership, for example.

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Brian E. White received Ph.D. and M.S. degrees in Computer Sciences from the University of Wisconsin, and S.M. and S.B. degrees in Electrical Engineering from M.I.T. He served as an Air Force Intelligence Officer, and for 8 years was at M.I.T.’s Lincoln Laboratory. Dr. White spent 5 years as a principal engineering manager at Signatron, Inc. In his 24+ years at The MITRE Corporation, he has held a variety of senior technical staff and project/resource management positions. He is presently Director of MITRE’s Systems Engineering Process Office. He is an Assistant Director of INCOSE and is leading the Systems Science Enabler Group (SSEG). His recent conference publications depict 1) a regimen for complex systems engineering; 2) a study of enterprise-scale opportunity and risk; 3) a hybrid, systems dynamics and agent-based approach to modeling information sharing; and 4) an examination of engineers views of the relationship between enterprise and traditional systems engineering. During his professional 40-year career, Dr. White has published approximately 100 significant technical papers and reports.