As systems become increasingly global in nature, those involved in the conception, design, development, support, sustainment, and end of life of such systems must have a global perspective on both the operational context in which those systems will be used, and the challenges faced by the development, production, deployment, and support teams involved in their creation and sustainment. To build a pathway to systems focused education, the foundations of systems knowledge and skills should be instilled in engineering students early in their education, starting with systems thinking in K-12 and building on more advanced system concepts through undergraduate education and beyond. This paper describes how societal needs combined with global trends produce systems challenges that must be addressed by engineers who are systems thinkers. After analyzing three separate undergraduate engineering education research efforts in process, the authors propose a pathway to support engineering education to mature systems engineering knowledge and skills in the engineering profession.
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