MODERN SYSTEMS ENGINEERING: Principles, Practice, and Digital Transformation for Complex Systems

A complete, classroom-ready guide to systems engineering from first principles to digital twins and AI-driven automation.

Complex systems rarely fail component by component. They fail at the interfaces between components that were each, individually, built correctly. This book teaches the discipline built specifically to catch that kind of failure before it happens.
Across sixteen chapters, Modern Systems Engineering follows a single, continuously-developed case study an EV charging network through the entire systems engineering lifecycle: stakeholder needs and requirements, architecture and trade studies, model-based systems engineering (SysML), verification and validation, risk and reliability engineering, configuration management, human systems integration, digital twins, and the emerging role of AI and automation in the discipline.

What's inside:

• Sixteen chapters covering the full systems engineering lifecycle, from foundational principles through digital transformation

• Dozens of original technical illustrations and diagrams throughout fault trees, SysML models, decision matrices, risk matrices, process flowcharts, and reference charts built specifically to make abstract systems engineering concepts visually concrete rather than left as text alone

• Extensive fully-worked examples with step-by-step reasoning, and hundreds of practice problems with worked answers

• A running, chapter-by-chapter case study showing how requirements, architecture, risk, and verification decisions actually connect in real practice, not as isolated exercises

• Full back matter: glossary, list of symbols and acronyms, subject index, and appendices including a SysML quick reference and a sample SEMP outline


Written for upper-level and graduate engineering students, and for practicing engineers moving into a systems engineering role, this book treats the discipline as a coherent, interconnected practice showing not just what each technique is, but why it exists and what specific class of failure it exists to prevent.