Ponder these statements: Managing complexity is one of the great challenges of our time. One of the fundamental tenets of systems engineering is that optimizing the components will not optimize the system. We as a society have a bias toward practicality. The goal of language is to give voice to …

The following is the story of one engineer who charted a clear course through the problems of communicating from her world to another. Suzanne opened her eyes that morning to a feeling of mixed anticipation and nervousness. The day was here! She looked forward to the challenge but at the …

Carolyn Elliott served as an intern at Vitech in the summer of 2017. Elliott majored in Industrial and Systems Engineering at Virginia Tech and graduated in May of 2019. Not every engineering undergrad gets a chance to help improve a process at a major, well-regarded company before they’re even …

Recently, I was asked a technical question regarding a workflow. I could offer a precise answer but fortunately had just enough context to know that in doing so I would set the project back rather than move it forward. In this case, the various players each had a slightly different …