Sponsor: Coastal Los Angeles Section Chapter, SYS45
Speaker: Dr. Haifeng Zhu

Date: 02 Feb 2026
Time: 04:00 PM PST to 05:00 PM PST
Cost:
Location:
Reservations: IEEE
Summary:
Modern systems are increasingly developed and deployed in complex, volatile, uncertain, and ambiguous contexts, and often result in significantly overrun costs, delayed delivery schedules, and other complications—especially for safety-critical systems such as aerospace products. Examples can be found in both commercial and military systems.

In industry, changes in missions and requirements generally occur throughout a systems engineering (SE) lifecycle. Rigid architectures result in exorbitant rework to make operational capabilities and commercial effort evolve, with follow-on costs and repeated delivery delays. Adaptable architecture enables design adaptation that reduces costs and schedule delays when facing changes.

In addition, a systematic renovation of the V-process development is required to allow efficient reuse of previous designs with fewer errors, leading to the development of Model-Based Reuse-Based Systems Engineering as a branch of Adaptable and Adaptive Systems Engineering (ASE).

During operations, complex missions and environments also require real-time adaptations. Due to progress in AI, more intelligence is being built into systems; thus, systems of systems and self-adaptive systems are becoming more common. All these are ASE capabilities, which are considered a fundamental part of systems engineering practice in the INCOSE SE Vision 2035.

This talk will introduce basic concepts, methods, and procedures for building smart and adaptive systems, as well as building systems using adaptive engineering methods. It will also summarize the past 15 years of research and development, as well as industrial applications in aircraft, aircraft engines, and HVAC systems, and its support to other SE disciplines.

Bio: Dr. Haifeng Zhu (IEEE Fellow) is a Technical Director for Model-Based Engineering (MBE) and Digital Engineering (DE), including AI, at BAE Systems, and the chair of the INCOSE Adaptable and Adaptive Systems Engineering and Management (AdaptSEM) Working Group. He has 20 years of experience primarily in aircraft systems, as well as space systems, HVAC, and elevator systems, and has received high recognition from industry, government agencies, and academia.

His work has been used in well-known aerospace products, including Pratt & Whitney GTF engines, Boeing 777X aircraft electrical systems, and the International Space Station. His work has also been incorporated into the IEEE/INCOSE Systems Engineering Body of Knowledge (SEBoK) and applied in industry, including at Boeing and Raytheon.