Embedded within interdisciplinary project teams, the Systems Engineering Group bridges scientific objectives and engineering execution, coordinating requirements, interfaces, and verification activities to deliver robust ground, high-altitude, and space instrumentation.

In 2025, the Systems Engineering Group completed its first structured competency assessment aligned with international standards and NASA/INCOSE frameworks. The assessment highlighted strong cohesion in integration, interface definition, V&V, and risk management — while identifying targeted opportunities for growth in MBSE adoption, project monitoring, and decision management.

Building on these findings, we are advancing our MBSE capabilities in line with ISO/IEC/IEEE 15288, the NASA Systems Engineering Handbook, and the INCOSE Systems Engineering Vision. Our long-term initiatives include:

• Expanding model-based requirements traceability from science goals to test procedures.

• Increasing use of parametric modeling to assess performance trade-offs early in design.

• Standardizing architecture modeling conventions across projects for improved interoperability.

• Integrating MBSE workflows into our proposal development process to ensure early alignment between science objectives and system design.

• Enhancing team training in Cameo Systems Modeler and related collaborative modeling tools.

We are using the results to shape our internal training, process refinement, and mentorship programs to better support CfA missions. The group conducts this assessment annually.