Baras Gives Lecture on Model Based Systems Engineering at NIST

Professor John S. Baras (ECE/ISR) recently gave an invited lecture on the significance of Model Based Systems Engineering (MBSE) to the Manufacturing Systems Integration Division (MSID) of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). The lecture, which took place on May 12, 2010, was titled “A Compositional Approach to Complex Systems Synthesis (COMPASS).”

In his lecture, Dr. Baras described MBSE as the next frontier in research and education for many fields of science, technology and engineering. He justified this characterization from the perspective of system complexity and the challenge to develop quantitative methods and toolset frameworks for system synthesis so as to meet requirements. He described and gave examples of the major challenges ahead in this area: Architecture, Requirements and their Management, Formalization of the constraints imposed by the physical layer (physics and chemistry at the appropriate scale), Physical - cyber interface and boundary. Dr. Baras then presented a formal, quantitative methodology for MBSE that he has developed and is teaching (with Dr. Mark Austin) at the Institute for Systems Research. He described the critical role of Information Technology, and specifically of networked embedded systems for making certain advances possible today, and introduced the term he is using for the resulting methodology and framework: “A Compositional Approach to complex Systems Synthesis” or COMPASS. He described several applications areas from his own research, citing two specific areas he has worked on: component based networking and computer integrated manufacturing. He closed his lecture with a description of future directions of research in several areas including security, health care and systems biology.

Dr. Baras' talk followed a visit and lecture by Dr. Vijay Srinivasan, Chief of MSID, to the University of Maryland's Institute for Systems Research (ISR) on April 9, 2010, which explored collaborative opportunities between ISR and MSID researchers on Model Based Systems Engineering and related areas.

Published September 7, 2010