SOARizona Systems Engineering Scholarship $1000 Towards Professional Development

The Southern Arizona chapter of the INternational Council On Systems Engineering (INCOSE) and University of Arizona Systems & Industrial Engineering Department are holding a graduate level systems engineering competition. Any graduate student from any UA department who has begun their thesis or report work is qualified to enter, understanding that the papers are focused on applying systems engineering methods to solve a real business problem. The competition is open on Sep 26, 2014 and will close on Oct 31, 2014 or when the first twenty qualified entries are received. There will be one submission per student. The panel, consisting of experienced practitioners at the systems engineering discipline, will score submissions based on criteria below and the SOARizona board will have final authority on the winning submission. The papers will be submitted with a password to protect your intellectual property, with agreement from the panel to protect it as such. While there is no exact template or page count, clear communication in a concise fashion is critical in the business world.

Criteria will include:

*Clear communication and originality on solving a real business problem
* Demonstrated use of graduate system engineering methods
* Descriptive application of broad systems context and interface understanding

The scholarship will be provided as a combination of recognition through the SIE Department and the SOARizona site, along with payment or reimbursement of professional system engineering expenses up to $1,000. These expenses could include symposium registration fees, travel and lodging expenses at event, professional membership fees, or publication and presentation costs for the submitted project.

Selection Panel:

* SOARizona Chapter board members (two out of active board)
* U of A SIE Dept. faculty members (two out of tenured or tenure track faculty)
* Commercial sector systems engineer (volunteer from INCOSE membership)

For specific submission instructions and any questions, contact the SOARizona Scholarship lead, J. Bryan Lail, at jblail42@gmail.com. We require a response with name, contact information and intent to submit by Sep 22, 2014, when we will provide final instructions on entering.