Title: Towards digital engineering: the advent of digital systems engineering

Authors: Jingwei Huang; Adrian Gheorghe; Holly Handley; Pilar Pazos; Ariel Pinto; Samuel Kovacic; Andrew Collins; Charles Keating; Andres Sousa-Poza; Ghaith Rabadi; Resit Unal; Teddy Cotter; Rafael Landaeta; Charles Daniels

Addresses: Department of Engineering Management and Systems Engineering, Old Dominion University, 2101 Engineering Systems Building, Norfolk, VA, 23529, USA ' Department of Engineering Management and Systems Engineering, Old Dominion University, 2101 Engineering Systems Building, Norfolk, VA, 23529, USA ' Department of Engineering Management and Systems Engineering, Old Dominion University, 2101 Engineering Systems Building, Norfolk, VA, 23529, USA ' Department of Engineering Management and Systems Engineering, Old Dominion University, 2101 Engineering Systems Building, Norfolk, VA, 23529, USA ' Department of Engineering Management and Systems Engineering, Old Dominion University, 2101 Engineering Systems Building, Norfolk, VA, 23529, USA ' Department of Engineering Management and Systems Engineering, Old Dominion University, 2101 Engineering Systems Building, Norfolk, VA, 23529, USA ' Department of Engineering Management and Systems Engineering, Old Dominion University, 2101 Engineering Systems Building, Norfolk, VA, 23529, USA ' Department of Engineering Management and Systems Engineering, Old Dominion University, 2101 Engineering Systems Building, Norfolk, VA, 23529, USA ' Department of Engineering Management and Systems Engineering, Old Dominion University, 2101 Engineering Systems Building, Norfolk, VA, 23529, USA ' Department of Engineering Management and Systems Engineering, Old Dominion University, 2101 Engineering Systems Building, Norfolk, VA, 23529, USA ' Department of Engineering Management and Systems Engineering, Old Dominion University, 2101 Engineering Systems Building, Norfolk, VA, 23529, USA ' Department of Engineering Management and Systems Engineering, Old Dominion University, 2101 Engineering Systems Building, Norfolk, VA, 23529, USA ' Department of Engineering Management and Systems Engineering, Old Dominion University, 2101 Engineering Systems Building, Norfolk, VA, 23529, USA ' Department of Engineering Management and Systems Engineering, Old Dominion University, 2101 Engineering Systems Building, Norfolk, VA, 23529, USA

Abstract: Digital engineering, the digital transformation of engineering to leverage digital technologies, is coming globally. This paper explores digital systems engineering, which aims at developing theory, methods, models, and tools to support digital engineering practice. A critical task is to digitalise engineering artefacts, thus enabling information and model sharing, traceability, and accountability across platforms, across lifecycle, and across domains. We identify challenges and enabling digital technologies; analyse the transition from traditional engineering to digital engineering; define core concepts, including digitalisation, unique identification, digitalised artefacts, digital augmentation, and others; present a big picture of digital systems engineering in four levels: vision, strategy, action, and foundation; briefly discuss each of main areas of research. Digitalisation enables fast infusing and leveraging novel digital technologies; unique identification enables information traceability and accountability in lifecycle; provenance enables tracing dependency relations among engineering artefacts, supporting model reproducibility and replicability, and helping with trustworthiness evaluation of digital artefacts.

Keywords: digital engineering; digital systems engineering; industry 4.0; big data; digital transformation; digitalisation; unique identification; provenance; model of models; digital models; digital augmentation; digital trust.

DOI: 10.1504/IJSSE.2020.109737

International Journal of System of Systems Engineering, 2020 Vol.10 No.3, pp.234 - 261

Received: 09 Jan 2020
Accepted: 21 Feb 2020
Published online: 21 Sep 2020 *

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