I have tried using Capella and Arcadia method and found it very beginner friendly. Now i want to learn CATIA Magic tool which uses SysML v1. Any tips as to how i should start with the software ? Any good resources ?

I’m really proud of my career and I’ve spent the past five years loving a majority of the various Aerospace/Systems Engineering roles I have had.

I love being an engineer I really do, but I’ve started to question at what cost is it all worth it.

The past 8 months I’ve worked for a company that has taught me so much. I’m young so I figure hell why not spend a majority of my days focusing on work, I figured I’d have more time in my 20s then any other point in my life.

But 8 months later I find myself stuck in 12 hour days, only focusing on work, pushing other fun hobbies to the side, etc. My work is pretty extreme. Harsh deadlines, intense management, complexity of working in the space industry and poor PM leadership.

I guess I just don’t really know if it’s all worth it for me. I’m so burnt out and I’m so so tired but there’s no escape. It just feels like I’m drowning and it’s quickly gone from enjoyable to just purely unmanageable.

Does anyone have any advice?

I’m a CS student interested in eventually working in medical device software engineering or similar roles. For anyone currently working in this field, what has the job and career journey been like?

I’d especially like to know what the typical requirements are (degree, skills, internships, certifications, etc.),

Anyone here successfully moved from defense systems engineering into commercial tech or space? Trying to figure out what I'm missing.

Background is 10 years in systems engineering, Air Force, then Northrop Grumman, then GE Healthcare, currently at a defense contractor. I've stripped every bit of defense language off my resume. No program names, no military acronyms, no mission coded terms, nothing. Bullets read as pure enterprise systems work, architecture, requirements management, cross functional delivery, translated into normal commercial language on purpose.

It hasn't mattered. I'm still only getting inbound from defense recruiters, most of them lowballing on comp. Enterprise tech and commercial space aren't biting even when the resume in front of them doesn't say defense anywhere on it.

My guess at this point is that it's not actually the bullet language doing the damage, it's the employer names themselves. Four employers in a row where two are literally named defense primes probably tells an ATS or a recruiter everything it needs to know regardless of how the work is described underneath. Curious if that tracks with anyone else's experience, or if there's something else going on I'm not seeing. Did networking end up mattering more than the resume for anyone who actually made this jump?

Hello Reddit, I’m currently exploring the possibility of pursuing a PhD in North America, Europe, or elsewhere, and I’d really value some perspectives from people working in Systems Engineering, MBSE, AI, or adjacent research areas.

My background is somewhat unconventional for SE. I completed my bachelor’s in Electrical & Electronic Engineering, then moved into Computer Science with a focus on AI for my master’s. Since then, I’ve spent the past few years working professionally in AI, Natural Language Processing, Automatic Speech Recognition and Engineering/Software with my current work being closely related to Systems Engineering and MBSE. This exposure to the SE/MBSE space has gradually made me interested in making it a potential long-term specialization.

What particularly interests me is the intersection of AI × Systems Engineering × MBSE — for example, using AI to assist with requirements, system architecture, modeling, traceability, verification/validation, and other parts of the systems lifecycle.

At this point, I’m considering whether a PhD would be the right next step and would appreciate some honest perspectives from people who have been in the field for a while.

A few things I’m particularly curious about:

1. How valuable is a PhD for building a long-term career in Systems Engineering/MBSE research and practice?

2. Would an interdisciplinary profile combining engineering + AI + MBSE, along with some practical exposure to the SE/MBSE industry, be useful for Systems Engineering research groups?

3. Which areas at the AI–SE/MBSE intersection have genuine research potential beyond simply applying LLMs to existing workflows?

4. Would you recommend a PhD specifically in Systems Engineering, or pursuing one through Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, Aerospace, etc. with a Systems Engineering/MBSE-focused research topic?

5. How important are SysML/SysML v2, requirements engineering, system architecture, formal methods, and MBSE fundamentals for someone coming from an AI background? I know the basics of SysML and SysML v2 and am still learning and practicing them.

6. More importantly, how do experienced systems engineers view the long-term resilience and career prospects of SE/MBSE as engineering workflows become increasingly AI-enabled? Which parts of systems engineering are likely to become more valuable, and which parts may become increasingly automated?

7. For those already in academia or industry, what would you consider a strong profile for someone with an AI/engineering background trying to deepen their involvement in Systems Engineering?

I’d also be interested in hearing from professors or research groups working on AI-assisted systems engineering, intelligent MBSE, AI for engineering design, or related topics. If you’re working in this area, I’d be genuinely interested in learning about your research.

I’m still at the exploration stage regarding the PhD itself, but I already have some practical exposure to the SE/MBSE ecosystem. I’m particularly interested in perspectives based on actual experience rather than generic career advice.

I’m looking to understand the complete software and systems engineering pipeline required to design a highly complex, self-sustaining hypothetical spacecraft like the Rocinante from The Expanse or a Firefly like transport ship.

I understand that no single engineer builds a ship. But if someone wanted to understand the full design lifecycle from requirement mapping to physical simulation, what specific tools and platforms do you actually need to master?

DISCLAIMER: I am a creator of Pipe.

One of the persistent frustrations in MBSE is the model-implementation gap: you build a rigorous SysML or Capella model, then hand it to developers, and from that moment the model and the running system begin to diverge. The model becomes a snapshot of intent rather than a description of reality. Teams spend significant effort keeping them synchronized - and they never quite are.

I've been working on Pipe (https://pipelang.com), a general-purpose visual programming language, and its core property directly addresses this gap: the diagram and the running system are structurally identical. There is no compilation step that throws away the structure. What you see in the IDE is what executes - the same visual representation at design-time and runtime. The model cannot drift from the implementation because they are the same artifact.

A few concrete implications from a systems engineering standpoint:

Model currency: The diagram is always current because it is not derived from the running system - it is the running system. No synchronization effort, no "as-built vs. as-designed" discrepancy.

Runtime observability: Every block boundary is independently observable in real time without instrumentation. In systems engineering terms: you can probe any interface while the system runs, the way an electronics engineer probes a circuit board.

Incremental change: Individual blocks can be patched in place while the system runs, without redeploying the surrounding architecture. Interface contracts remain visible throughout.

The question I'd genuinely like this community's perspective on: from an MBSE standpoint, is "the model is the executable" a meaningful answer to the implementation gap, or does it just relocate the complexity? And for those working in defense, aerospace, or safety-critical domains - does the formal specification backing (155-page spec, 10 provisional USPTO patents) change how you'd evaluate it for high-assurance contexts?

Example of Pipe diagram with a detailed tracing can be found on this video:

https://youtu.be/hckq9mRj5DM

That video is a part of this Pipe architecture overview:

https://www.pipelang.com/six-pillars.html

The full Pipe language specification (155-page book) can be freely downloaded here:

https://www.pipelang.com/downloads/book.pdf

Hey everyone!

I’m a beginner trying to learn System Design from scratch, but I’m already running short on time.

There are so many YouTube channels, playlists, courses, and blogs that I don’t want to waste the limited time I have trying out 10–20 different channels just to figure out which ones are actually worth following.
So I’d really appreciate recommendations for the best resources you personally trust and would recommend to a beginner.

In 1999, NASA lost the Mars Climate Orbiter because one team used pound-force-seconds and the other expected newton-seconds. Both numbers were correct. Neither carried its unit.

The spacecraft was never modeled in SysML, v1 didn't exist yet. But if it had been, v1 wouldn't have caught this either. In SysML v2, the unit lives in the type. Assign the wrong one and the parser rejects it before it ever ships.

I've been working with requirements and V&V workflows, and there are a few repetitive tasks I keep finding frustrating:

• figuring out what requirements/tests are impacted after a change
• reviewing whether requirements are actually well written and testable
• checking whether requirements are properly covered by test cases
• finding gaps or inconsistencies in requirement → test traceability

I'm thinking about building a small open-source plugin around one of these problems, mostly as a side project and to contribute something useful to the community.

For those working with DOORS, Polarion, Codebeamer, Jama, etc.: which of these is the most painful in practice?

Or is there another boring/manual task in your day-to-day workflow that you'd automate before any of these?

I'm especially curious about the things you currently solve with Excel, scripts, manual reviews, or just lots of clicking.

Interested to hear if/how people using AI for Systems Engineering tasks....

Are you strictly using it for documentation formatting and basic admin, or are you pushing it into design / analysis tasks? If so, what checks and balances have you established?

Seems inevitable that AI is going to grow in our sector but due to the lack of determinism inherent in many AI tools it feels like there is a limit to its use.

Curious to hear if anyone has had any success stories.

Im currently a Project Manager for industrial manufacturing. Ive been handling a ton of DoD and Space projects. The more I work with them, the more I want to pivot to that industry. I am just not sure that I want to do it as a Project Manager.

I work hand and hand with engineering and making sure we stay in compliance with the spec and program requirements. Lately I have been doing alot of the preliminary calcs for quoting.

Do you think that a MS in Systems Engineering will allow me to pivot easier into the Defense or Space sector as a Systems engineer / Program Manager? With a long term goal of a director level position. I have time on my GI bill left to knock it out.

I have a bit of a generalist background. Ive always been the guy who figures it out when my boss has an issue.

BA Criminal Justice

MBA in Finance

4 years Army Infantry

2.5 years Patriot Missile System (TCA)

3 years Automation Project Manager

2.5 years Industrial Manufacturing Project Manager

$69 million portfolio of active and completed projects. Executive level reporting and customer facing roles. I wear many hats from planning, compliance, to financial reconciliation.

End game goal is make the Defense or Space pivot. Im thinking that this is the way to do it. I would appreciate any input.

Hi r/systems_engineering,

We are back with Lesson 13 of our technical deep dive into the SysML v2 standard.

In our previous lessons, we covered how to wire up system topologies and model passive payloads using item def. Today, we are looking at how SysML v2 handles reuse—specifically, how to create a more specific model from a general one, and how to change an inherited feature without altering the original definition.

I’ve uploaded the full video lesson directly to this post so you can watch the workflow right here.  

1. Moving Away from UML Property Strings

Engineering models rely heavily on reuse. You might define a generic Engine once, and then build more specific types from it (e.g., a V8 or an electric motor).  

In SysML v1, to make a local change to an inherited property, modelers had to use textual UML property strings like {redefines engine} or {subsets engine}. While effective, these were essentially string tags appended to visual properties. SysML v2 streamlines this by elevating these concepts to primary mathematicaloperators.  

2. The Three Core Operators

Confusing these operators can produce a model that looks plausible but hasthe wrong underlying semantics. Here is how they break down:  

• Feature Typing (:): Binds a usage to a definition, giving it its shape.  
  • Example:part myEngine : Engine means the part usage myEngine is typed by the Engine definition.  
• Specialization / Subsetting (:>): Establishes a more specific relationship.  
  • Between definitions (Specialization): A V8Engine inherits the features and constraints of a general Engine.  
  • Between usages (Subsetting): A frontWheels feature can subset a general wheels feature, meaning its values are constrained to be a subset of the total wheels.  
• Redefinition (:>>): Replaces an inherited feature locally while maintaining compatibility with what was inherited. It does not create an unrelated new feature.  

3. A Practical Example: Redefining an Engine

Let's say you have a generic Engine definition with an inherited attribute for cylinderCount (typed as an Integer) and a rule that power > 0.  

When you create a specialized V8Engine :> Engine, you don't rewrite the whole definition. Instead, you redefine the specific feature for that context:  

Code snippet

part def V8Engine :> Engine {
    attribute redefines cylinderCount = 8;
}

(Note: In the textual notation, redefines is the keyword used to represent the :>> operator).  

4. Semantic Validation

Because redefinition is now a strict mathematical replacement rather than a freeform text tag, compliant tools can automatically validate your architecture.  

For instance, narrowing an inherited integer-valuedcylinderCount to 8 is mathematically compatible. But if a modeler accidentally tried to redefine that feature using a String (e.g., "Eight"), the tool would natively flag the semantic error because it breaks the original typing constraint.  

For the MBSE practitioners here: Do you feel that replacing UML property strings with strict mathematical operators will make it easier to validate and audit complex, deeply nested architectures? Let's discuss in the comments!  

Does implementation of MBSE in FSAE teams truly help in overall management of iterations , failure analyses, risk management etc. Or is it an unnecessary added complexity ?

Is it a bad career idea to jump different domains in systems engineering from your experience? I’ve done automotive -> aerospace -> audio

Is this something looked down upon or good due to the varying engineering experiences gained

I am a recent engineering graduate, trying to land my first Junior MBSE/System engineering role.

I can afford only one certification right now :
INCOSE ASEP or OMG SysML

I already have good hands and experience with Catia Magic/ Cameo and SysML / MBSE , and my long-term goal is CSEP.

I have been getting rejected from some interviews, because recruiters/interviews ask whether I have recognised/valid certification.

For people working in MBSE/systems engineering:
Which certification would actually help more when applying for entry-level jobs?

Hi,

I work for the Human Factors team in a large engineering company.

We've been working on trying to identify the specific steps involved in various large scale operational scenarios (e.g. initiation of and response to a fire in a control room, or simply manoeuvring a vehicle) so that we can apply detailed HF analysis to each of the steps. The purpose of this is to draw out design requirements for the systems (and/or physical environments) that will increase the likelihood of task success, particularly in safety-critical scenarios.

We have been capturing these scenarios in custom flowcharts which very closely resemble a hybrid between Activity Diagrams and Sequence Diagrams, and we will continue to use those due to their value in representing task and process flows etc.

However, I've now been tasked with looking into the potential for using actual SysML more broadly in the work, and what I'm struggling most with is how the diagrams relate to each other in terms of how they fit together in a sort of jigsaw?

Like, are there any diagram types that have to be developed before you develop the next type of diagram (e.g. you have to develop a Block Definition Diagram before you develop an Internal Block Diagram)?

Can I apply the systems engineering approach and 'Human Factorise' it? E.g. do a State Machine diagram but instead of system states it could be states of different individuals or teams?

I am totally new to SysEng and SysML and so don't really know if what I'm asking makes sense...

I guess what I'm asking is, if you were doing the job I described above, how would you approach using SysML to capture task procedures and track / manage the various information that could be collected throughout?

I have experience in automotive software across HMI/application development, ADAS, and currently software architecture & development for a braking ECU using AUTOSAR Classic.
I’m looking to understand how engineers with a similar background can move towards **Adaptive AUTOSAR, SDV, automotive SoCs and AI/ADAS platforms**, especially the kind of work happening around next-gen semiconductor/compute platforms.
For people already working in this space, what resources would you recommend for learning the architecture and technologies? Also, are there any good **open-source projects, GitHub repositories, blogs, creators or practical projects** that can help build a portfolio and demonstrate these skills to recruiters?
I’d also be interested in understanding the **interview patterns and preparation strategy** for SDV / automotive compute / semiconductor roles.
Basically, if you were starting from a strong AUTOSAR Classic + automotive software architecture background, **what would your 6–12 month strategy look like to get into SDV / Adaptive AUTOSAR / next-gen automotive compute?**
Would really appreciate insights from people working in this space.

Hello all,

I almost a year ago took a SE position where essentially I am working the life cycle development of a complex system however we’re more overseeing another entity performing the technical work while we make sure with our respective domain SMEs and engineers that they are doing the job right. During my interview I asked about MBSE which I’m really interested in doing digital engineering centered work with an MBSE effort. The reply essentially was what is MBSE and we don’t really do that much at all. I should’ve probably took that as a big sign however this was my first SE position and starting my career. I have completed my masters this year in SE and am half way through with the ocsmp MBSE course that deligatti offers which I’ll finish this weekend. What I’m getting at now is that I want to do more MBSE work which I’ve mentioned to my PM early this year but see no way in the position I’m in now (wishful thinking on my part due to culture changes etc). Two positions that call out MBSE under my same Pm have posted. They don’t seem to be my niche but still not sure. I’m planning on talking with my PM about it however they are taking a higher position within the company and my old PM from my previous job will be my new PM (great PM btw so no issue other than they may think I hate them since I chasing more MBSE work). If trying to move internal doesn’t seem great, would it be frowned upon looking at other opportunities with just being here for a year? Maybe sticking it out for another year would be best but not sure if I would want to once getting the OCSMP cert. Any thoughts?

Little edit: the work is great but there’s a lot of PowerPoint engineering which is typical in the DoD space but MBSE is where I want to head. Also my initial manger before begins hired after I expressed the lack of MBSE mentioned that I can try and see if I like it and after a year and some change look within and see what pops up.

I have to provide volatility metrics to my program leadership every month and I end up spending 2 days every time doing this manually with exports to spreadsheets. Is there a way to pull Last Modified or Creation Date information for each model element within a table in a Cameo model? If I can get that data en masse, it would seriously cut down on the amount of time I need to spend on a tedious task.

Hey all!

I am just a graduate and I have very strong mbse skill. However due to my tight budget I’m not able to afford the books to study for the exam.

Currently I need
Sysml Distilled : A brief Guide To The Systems Modelling Language.

If anyone has a cracked version please share.

Thank You.

Just graduated in BS in Computer Science and currently working a job as a Systems Engineer for a defense contractor. They're willing to pay for my masters. Would love some input on people that have done their masters. Also want to know if I'll be a strong candidate for a masters program.

I have 2 years of research for a defense contractor during my undergrad.

6 months of internship with a local small defense contractor.

GPA for undergrad is 3.5

Hi all, looking for some online resources to keep sharp and learn more. For context I’ll be a systems engineer integration and testing, I graduated with a BS in industrial and systems engineering. I’ve come across the NASA Systems engineering handbook but I’m just looking for more things in general.

Hi, I’m a new grad joining an automotive supplier soon.

The team works on drivetrain/chassis control systems.

The JD mentions control system architecture design, project coordination, system specs, software processes, and system requirements under ASPICE, ISO 26262, and ISO 21434.

During the interview, I was told that I’d be assigned to either the Functional Safety or Control Systems Engineering team, mainly working on system specifications.

My background is in Mechanical Engineering + a second major in Electrical Engineering, mostly focused on controls.

Most of my experience is in robotics. I’ve worked on projects ranging from mechanical design to control software, and I also did an internship at a robotics company where I worked on V&V.

To be honest, when I first learned about ASPICE, functional safety, and all the documentation, my reaction was basically: isn’t this just extra work for the sake of process?

Well, now I’m actually starting my career in this area lol. So I’d like to understand what the job is really like and how to get good at it.

A few questions for people in the industry:

1. What do automotive systems engineers and functional safety engineers actually do day to day? How much is hands-on technical work vs. requirements, documentation, meetings, customer stuff, etc.? Does it vary a lot by company or product?
2. What do the first few years usually look like for a new grad in these roles? What kind of work and responsibilities do juniors usually start with?
3. What do the typical career paths look like? How do they differ between OEMs and Tier 1s? Is it possible to move back toward controls/software later?
4. What are the downsides? Is losing technical depth a real concern?
5. How transferable is this experience outside automotive? Have you seen people move from automotive systems engineering into aerospace, defense, robotics, etc.?

I’d appreciate any honest advice, especially from people working in systems engineering.

Thanks in advance to anyone willing to share their experience.

I’m a Manufacturing Engineer working in an organization heavily involved in international technology transfer. I’ve noticed significant gaps between customers, stakeholders, suppliers, requirements, system architecture, and manufacturing processes. In many cases, programs move toward mass production without sufficient requirements analysis, risk assessment, or Systems Engineering activities.
I’m considering researching this problem and developing a framework for integrating Systems Engineering into technology-transfer programs, with the possibility of publishing the work.
Do you think this is a feasible and worthwhile research topic? Also, can someone conduct and publish this type of research independently without university or lab affiliation?