An initial "OAA Presence in Academia" was established during academic year 2010-11.  This elaborate initiative was pursued to recognize a few exemplary systems engineering doctoral programs worldwide.

Invitations were tendered to ten individuals at five institutions in four countries, involving five major professors and five Ph.D. scholars.  All have accepted.  The academic institutions and academicians are:

UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH AUSTRALIA

Stephen C. Cook (OAA Member) - Ph.D. 1991, City University of London. Director of the Defense and Systems Institute and DSTO Professor of Systems Engineering with over 25 years of experience in systems engineering research, education, and practice. Former Senior Principal Research Scientist at the Australian Defense Science and Technology Organization managing telecommunications systems research and also technical manager in the defense and telecommunications industries. Fellow in the UK Institution of Engineering and Technology and in the Institution of Engineers Australia. Past President of the Systems Engineering Society of Australia. Recipient of the Australian Department of Defense Secretary's Award for Achievement and High Commendation Award - National Engineering Excellence Awards, Engineers Australia.  Author of 130 papers and one book.

Martin S. Kew (OAA Student Associate Member) - B.Sc. 1981, B.E. (Hons) 1982, Grad Cert Mgmt 2003.  Systems and Software Engineer in Sonar Signal Processing, employed by BAE Systems consulting to the Australian DoD. INCOSE (Australia) committee member since 2005. Part-time systems engineering Ph.D. candidate in the Defense and Systems Institute (DASI) with a research focus on engineering decision analysis. Unlike natural systems, engineered systems are brought into being to meet multiple user needs. Evaluation of system designs alternatives against conflicting needs is difficult. A well structured and rigorous approach to decisions across all stages of a system’s life can have a profound beneficial effect on quality, cost, and system performance. A prime contribution of this research is to explicitly carry stakeholder value models through the SE process at a more fundamental level than in traditional decision analysis.

UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA

Barry W. Boehm (OAA Member) – Ph.D. 1964, UCLA and two honorary doctorates, one from the Chinese Academy of Sciences. TRW Professor in the Computer Sciences and the Industrial and Systems Engineering departments at USC. Founding Director, USC Center for Systems and Software Engineering. Formerly Director, DARPA Information Sciences and Technology Office. Thirty-four years of industrial experience at TRW, Rand Corporation, and General Dynamics. Over 20 awards, including the Simon Ramo Medal. Former Chair of the NASA Research and Technology Advisory Committee on Guidance, Control, and Information Processing; Chair of the USAF Scientific Advisory Board Information Technology Panel; and Chair of the CMU Software Engineering Institute Board of Visitors. Author or editor of 11 books and more than 400 publications. Boehm is a Fellow of ACM, AIAA, IEEE, INCOSE, and is a member of the National Academy of Engineering.

Jo Ann Lane (OAA Associate Member) – Ph.D. 2009, USC. Research Assistant Professor in Industrial and Systems Engineering at USC. After a 25 year systems engineering career in industry leading to Assistant Vice President, she transitioned to academia to conduct research and mentor systems and software engineering students. Extensive research and teaching experience in the areas of software-intensive system engineering, software-intensive system testing, and program management based upon years of systems engineering research and system development experience. Current research includes system-of-systems engineering and SoSE cost modeling, SoSE applications of lean principles, SoSE test and evaluation, system development feasibility assessments, and the evolution of system and software life-cycle models. Co-authored the 2008 DOD Systems Engineering Guide for Systems of Systems. Served as an INCOSE chapter president, IEEE member, and recipient of the 2007 INCOSE Foundation/Stevens Doctoral Award. 

MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY

Daniel E. Hastings (OAA Member) - Ph.D. 1978, MIT. As Professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics and Engineering Systems, Hastings taught courses and seminars in plasma physics, rocket propulsion, advanced space power and propulsion systems, aerospace policy, technology and policy, and space systems engineering. Served the Engineering Systems Division variously and as Director from 2001-05. Chief scientist to the U.S. Air Force from 1997 to 1999. Hastings’ recent research has concentrated on issues of space systems and space policy with published papers and a book in the field of spacecraft-environment interactions and several papers in space propulsion and space systems. He has led several national studies on government investment in space technology. Fellow of the AIAA and a member of the International Academy of Astronautics. He is serving as a member of the National Science Board, the Applied Physics Lab Science and Technology Advisory Panel, as well as the Chair of Air Force Scientific Advisory Board. Hastings has served on several national committees on issues in National Security Space and was named a Fellow of INCOSE in 2007.

Adam M. Ross (OAA Associate Member) – Ph.D. 2006, MIT. Research scientist in the Engineering Systems Division at MIT. Ross is co-founder and lead research scientist for MIT’s Systems Engineering Advancement Initiative (SEAri). He has co-developed and teaches in two executive engineering courses in MIT’s Professional Institute, a program designed to combine MIT’s breakthrough research with insights from industry, government, and academic participants. In addition to his research in with industry and government leaders to transition advanced systems engineering methods, he has professional experience working with government, industry, and academia including NASA Goddard, JPL, Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, Boeing Satellite Systems, Draper Laboratories, US Air Force, selected US government agencies, Harvard University, and Florida State University. Ross has advised a dozen graduate students with now completed. Published over 50 papers in the area of space systems design, systems engineering, and trade space exploration.

TECHNICAL UNIVERSITY OF DELFT

Eberhard Gill (OAA Member) - Ph.D. 1988, Eberhard-Karls University. Gill holds the Chair of Space Systems Engineering of the Delft University of Technology. He has been serving as researcher at the German Aerospace Center (DLR) from 1989 to 2006 in the field of precise satellite orbit determination, autonomous navigation, and spacecraft formation flying. He has developed a GPS-based onboard navigation system which is operating on the BIRD microsatellite. Gill has been co-investigator on several international missions, including Mars 94-96, Mars-Express, Rosetta, Equator-S and Champ and acted as Principal Investigator on the PRISMA formation flying satellite mission. Dr. Gill has authored or co-authored more than 150 journal articles and conference papers. He has co-authored three textbooks and has been appointed program director of the SpaceTech post-graduate program of the Delft University of Technology. In 2009, he was appointed a corresponding member of the International Academy of Astronautics (IAA). 

Simone D’Amico (OAA Associate Member) – Ph.D. 2009. Received the NASA Group Achievement Awards for recognition of his achievements in the GRACE mission operations team. After his graduation, in July 2003, he took on a position as young member of the scientific staff at the Flight Dynamics Division of the Space Flight Technology Department of DLR/GSOC. D’Amico has over 40 scientific publications including conference proceeding and peer-reviewed journal research articles. He is peer reviewer for various AIAA and IEEE journals and he has recently been nominated as Excellent Reviewer for the AIAA Journal of Guidance, Control, and Dynamics from October 1, 2007 through September 30, 2008. Additionally, he has been a Programmed Committee Member of the ESA 3rd International Symposium on Formation Flying Missions and Technologies, April 2008, in Noordwijk, The Netherlands. 

TECHNICAL UNIVERSITY OF MUNICH

Ulrich Walter (OAA Member) – Ph.D. 1986, University of Cologne. Member of the academic staff at the University of Cologne in the field of solid state physics. Post-doctoral position at the University of California at Berkley with research fellowship sponsored by the Deutsche Physikalische Gesellschaft (German Physical Society), 1986-87. Author of two "Bericht der KFA Jülich" (Reports of the National Research Laboratory at Julich, Germany). Physical Science in the fields of Neutron Scattering Techniques, Rare Earth Magnetism, High-Temperature Superconductivity, and Scanning Tunneling Microscopy. Held a post-doctoral position at Argonne National Laboratory, Chicago, Illinois, 1986-1987. Nominated as a German Science Astronaut with Basic Astronaut Training at DLR. In 1990 Walter was assigned to the German D-2 Mission. He authored five books, including the textbook “Astronautics” on space science and technology and published about 70 scientific and numerous popular science articles in various interna­tional journals. Dr. Walter hosted the scientific program "MaxQ" on Bavarian TV from 1998 to 2003. 

Andreas Hein (OAA Student Associate Member) - Diploma in A.E. (equivalent to Master), TUM. Semester abroad for Institut Supérieur de l’Aeronautique et de l’Espace (ISAE) in Toulouse, France. Scientific staff of Lehrstuhl für Raumfahrttechnik (LRT) at TUM with research activities in the area of systems and concurrent engineering. Introduction of object-oriented languages (UML, SysML, UPDM) into the concept and design phase of spacecraft development. Internship at ESA - ESTEC in Noordwijk, Netherlands Strategy and Architecture Office. Working on the future European space exploration architecture in stakeholder analysis. Participation in the Concurrent Design Facility activities. Internship at the Carl Stahl GmbH Munich drilling, welding, and lathing of parts for lifting gears. Design of Electrical Prototype Subsystems for the Pico-Satellite “MOVE”. Civil Service Ambulant care for mentally ill people since 2009. Produced several journal and conference publications from international presentations.