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Ariela Sofer, interim divisional dean for engineering at the College of Engineering and Computing has been named a Fellow of the International Council on Systems Engineering (INCOSE) for "significant contributions to systems engineering education and advancing the recognition of systems engineering in academia."
Sofer credits much of her contribution to INCOSE to her prior 16 years of service as chair of the Department of Systems Engineering and Operations Research (SEOR). The college’s department stands out as one of the very first departments in the nation to provide academic programs in systems engineering.
“I was lucky to have had a wonderfully talented and collaborative faculty,” she says. “Over the years we built a common vision for the role of systems engineers and for systems engineering education. I learned so much from the thoughts and perspectives of the SEOR faculty and from the collective SEOR mindset. This award would not have been possible without these.”
INCOSE Fellows are individuals with significant verifiable contributions to the art and practice of systems engineering in industry, government, or academia. The award recognizes practitioners from government and industry who apply knowledge and contribute to the practice of systems engineering in designing and acquiring systems, researchers developing new knowledge, and push the theory forward, as well as teachers who disseminate knowledge and develop the next generation of successful systems engineers.
“This is a tremendous honor. INCOSE has over 19,000 active members, and there are 90 current fellows,” says John Shortle, current chair of the SEOR Department at the College of Engineering and Computing. “Ariela's leadership in the approval of systems engineering criteria for ABET accreditation was particularly important. It enhanced the recognition of systems engineering and steered the direction of the discipline. The induction brings significant recognition to our department and to Mason.”