Vision Statement
I’ve been involved with INCOSE for over 20 years. Over these years, INCOSE has matured as a professional society, enhanced its impact and increased its services to its membership. As a society of dedicated professionals, we must continue to aggressively create the future of INCOSE and our profession at a time when society needs systems engineering more than ever.
As we move into the future, we must:
- Provide increasing value to our individual members—through education, certification, publications, conferences and networking opportunities and by establishing the value of systems engineering to employers and society at large
- Enhance our value to our corporate members—through improvements to our standards and practices, building the workforce, and celebrating excellent systems engineering and its impact
- Increase support for our chapters and our global community—through workshops and symposia, virtual products and innovative programs to spread INCOSE to regions and disciplines where INCOSE is not well represented
- Strengthen support to our technical committees and volunteers—through enhanced IT and other support services.
I am currently running for one of the Director-at-large positions on the INCOSE Board. Boards have broad responsibilities for the strategic direction and governance of organizations. I’ve served on boards for both commercial and nonprofit organizations. Over the years, the responsibilities for nonprofit boards have drawn closer to the demanding roles of commercial boards—assessing risks, measuring performance, establishing policies and programs, hiring chief executives, keeping focus on the mission and the future, ensuring compliance with financial, legal and ethical standards.
I am retiring from my current position as Director and CEO of the Software Engineering Institute, a research organization that focuses on software engineering, cyber security and AI engineering. I would like to bring my experience and energy to the INCOSE board to represent INCOSE’s diverse membership, to solidify the gains we have made internally over these first 30+ years of NCOSE/INCOSE, and to focus more on the external tasks we have ahead of us to more firmly establish the value of systems engineering to our members’ employers, governments and the many communities in which we work.
BIO
Dr. Paul D. Nielsen is the Director and Chief Executive Officer of Carnegie Mellon University’s Software Engineering Institute, a U.S. Department of Defense federally funded research and development center. The SEI is a global leader in advancing software, cybersecurity, and artificial intelligence to support the nation by advancing the science, technologies and practices needed to acquire, develop, operate, and sustain complex systems that are innovative, affordable, trustworthy, and enduring.
Prior to joining the SEI in 2004, Nielsen served in the U. S. Air Force, retiring as a major general and commander of the Air Force Research Laboratory. During his Air Force career, Gen Nielsen served in research, engineering, and managerial positions in space, C3I, and science and technology. In addition, he had several joint assignments serving at the National Security Agency, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, the National Reconnaissance Office, the Office of the Secretary of Defense, and NORAD.
Nielsen is a member of the U. S. National Academy of Engineering and a Fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, the Institute for Electrical and Electronic Engineers and the International Council on Systems Engineering. He was a member of the Air Force Scientific Advisory Board (2006-2010) and the Defense Science Board (2013-2021).