Some of the ideas students encountered in the Systems option will already be familiar, such as graphics, the use of images to communicate complex ideas between people and machines; control, the modelling, analysis and regulation of complex systems; CAD/CAM, the transformation of an idea in the engineer's mind into the tool motions that create a finished product; robotics, the design of machines that see, feel, grasp and manipulate their environment; and mechatronic systems. Mechatronics is the fusion of mechanical and electrical disciplines in the modern engineering process. It is a relatively new concept combining electronics, mechanical design, computer hardware and software aimed at optimally balancing basic mechanical structure in overall control.
The Systems option prepares students for careers involving the design and integration of computer-controlled machines and devices, and provides a foundation for graduate study in robotics and intelligent systems. Students will acquire the capability to integrate knowledge from Electronic, Mechanical and Computer Engineering into the design process. Systems is a focused program that includes the study of mechanical structures, robotics, electromechanical sensors and actuators, control, software development and real-time systems. Students can use electives and Directed Studies courses to tailor their curriculum to specific interests and goals.
In summary, students graduating from the Systems option will be able to:
If we look at the traditional divisions of engineering (Figure 1), Systems is nowhere to be seen. But remember that these divisions were created more than a century ago. They've remained unchanged because they're embedded in institutions -- universities and professional licensing boards -- that have a great deal of inertia. But engineering itself has changed. One of the most significant changes has been the invention of the diode and its descendant, the transistor. By allowing the amplification of electrical signals, the transistor has made it possible to separate the processing of information from the traditional tasks of engineering, the movement of matter and the transformation of energy.
So an updated picture of engineering might look like this (Figure 2). We can locate the existing engineering disciplines on this diagram: civil and chemical engineering are concerned with the transformation of matter, in large and molecule-sized chunks respectively. Mechanical engineering handles both matter and energy. Electrical engineering can be split into the engineering of power systems, which is chiefly concerned with the transformation of energy; and electronic engineering, which, like communications and computer engineering, is concerned with the transformation of information.
Traditionally, mechanical systems have been controlled by mechanical devices. For example, the flow of fuel into a car engine has been controlled by a carburator, and the opening and closing of the valves in the cylinder head has been controlled by the shape of a cam turning on a cam shaft. But in recent decades, the falling cost of microelectronics has opened up an alternative means of control, namely, electronically controlled fuel injection and valve timing. This is one example of a general strategy: to control a physical system, we can use sensors to measure its state, electronically process the information describing its state to decide on the appropriate action, then use actuators to effect this action (Figure 3).
To implement this strategy we need engineers who understand both the physical system itself and the electronic software and hardware used to control it. These are systems engineers, and the Systems option gives them training in electronic engineering, computing, some grounding in mechanical engineering and materials, and a few project courses to tie it all together.
The field of Systems thus includes control engineering, robotics and mechatronics. We can also consider a slight modification to Figure 3: if the initial information comes, not from sensors, but from the head of a designer, we have a CAD/CAM system, whose purpose is to realise a thought in the designer's mind as a material object. Thus, CAD/CAM also forms part of the Systems option.
We now come to the second of the two problems mentioned above: when you graduate as a Systems engineer, who's going to hire you?
To answer this, it is necessary to dispel a common misconception about the way employers perceive newly graduated students. Although on graduation you may perceive yourself as a finished product, moulded to a precise shape and stamped with a descriptive label, the typical employer perceives you as an amorphous lump, slightly modified from the condition of total ignorance, perhaps capable of being turned into a useful employee after one or two probationary years. (Though local employers are coming to realise that SFU engineering grads can become useful in a slightly shorter time, according to what feedback we've received.) The initial interview process thus involves more than asking the name of your specialization and checking it against a list of vacancies; you can expect to be asked to describe your courses, co-op experience, project work, and ambitions. In the course of this interview, there will be ample opportunity to explain what it is you've been studying.
To illustrate the range of jobs that Systems prepares you for, we can follow some of our recent graduates. One of the earliest graduates of Systems went to Nova Scotia, where he supervised the conversion of a factory to Just-In-Time production. More recent graduates have gone on to design full-suspension mountainbikes, using a state-of-the-art CAD/CAM system; to work for the local company, Creo, on a terabyte optical tape-recorder; and to design, test and build autonomous submersible vehicles for International Submarine Engineering. Altogether, Systems graduates can look forward to a very diverse range of employment opportunities.