About

The purpose for Chapter Development is twofold:

• To continue the expansion of the Cleveland-Northern Ohio Chapter membership
• To retain existing membership and increase the membership’s active participation through continued focus on providing value. 

The expansion of the Chapter’s membership requires:

• Promoting an awareness and visibility of the Cleveland-Northern Ohio Chapter in the engineering community (locally, nationally, and internationally);
• Developing communication between academia, industry, and government with a focus on innovative professional training courses and academic curricula; and
• Solicitation of new members at all levels of experience, including students and faculty from academic institutions.

The Chapter’s development requires maintaining the existing membership’s support and participation. The mission is to continue to monitor the chapter’s membership needs and to provide interesting and challenging systems engineering discourse on relevant topics.

Of key importance is the continued need for effective communications within and outside the Cleveland-Northern Ohio Chapter, both for Chapter activities and for the latest advances in systems engineering.

The Cleveland-Northern Ohio Chapter stakeholders consist of people and organizations (private companies, government agencies, and educational institutions) with a common desire to more fully understand and apply systems engineering concepts/practices to their present and future work efforts.
They also want to obtain recognition for a unique ability to produce highly successful systems in a cost-effective manner.

The following defines each of the categories of our Stakeholders:

• People: The people that constitute the Cleveland-Northern Ohio Chapter membership/ future membership are individuals with a need for and interest in understanding systems engineering disciplines, practices, procedures, etc. and how to apply them in their present and future positions.
• Organizations: The organizations interested in systems engineering fall into three categories: private companies, government agencies or organizations, and educational institutions. Each of these organizations has unique and common requirements for systems engineering knowledge and applications.
• Private Companies: Private companies have a strong need to be on the leading edge of systems engineering concepts and applications. They also need to apply these concepts to their specific expertise/niche in their business lines. The companies must ensure that they have the knowledge and experience to be competitive in today’s dynamic and demanding market and new technologies in order to survive. They n need detailed information on systems engineering concepts, applications, tools, etc. in their specific work areas.
• Government Agencies: Government Agencies, both Federal and State, have needs similar to those of private organizations. Most government agencies are highly sensitive to the need to produce systems more effectively, efficiently, and at lower costs in today’s austere funding/manpower environment. They have a dual role to develop systems and software in-house and to direct contractors in systems engineering activities and developments. Both of these efforts require a good understanding of the systems engineering disciplines to assure that both in-house developers and contractors are designing and fabricating systems in a cost effective manner. This requires knowledgeable and experienced people in systems engineering concepts and applications, especially in the process of defining mission needs and requirements.
• Educational and Non-Profit Institutions: Educational institutions that offer engineering and related curricula must also be aware of systems engineering concepts. In some cases these institutions may lead the development of new systems engineering concepts and provide guidance to INCOSE. In other instances, the institutions may be attempting to provide up-to-date systems engineering information to its students. These activities will provide the basis for the institutions’ reputations for excellence in the systems engineering curriculum and for their students’ future capabilities. Their instructors must be aware of state-of-the-art systems engineering concepts and current/future applications to maintain and improve their department’s status and its curricula.

The chapter began organizing activities during the latter part of 2007 and received charter status from INCOSE in January 2008. As a result of our activities that first year, we received the Bronze-level Chapter Circle Award.  We have received a Chapter Circle Award every year since.