Fundamentals of Systems Engineering
MIT OpenCourseWare offers this systems engineering course, cross-listed as MIT 16.842 and taught jointly with Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne. It covers the classical V-model alongside a newer Meta approach, walking through stakeholder analysis, requirements definition, system architecture and concept generation, trade-space exploration, design optimization, integration and interface management, safety, verification and validation, and commissioning. Readings draw on systems engineering standards and published papers, and the course weighs trade-offs between performance, lifecycle cost, and operability. Students apply these concepts to a cyber-electro-mechanical system, producing a Preliminary Design Review-level design for the Cansat competition. The course materials include lecture notes, readings, and assignments as published through MIT OpenCourseWare, which is free to access with no certificate offered. It suits students who already have some engineering background given its advanced, project-driven structure.