A Decade of Teaching Systems Engineering to Bachelor Students G.Maarten Bonnema, Faculty of Engineering Technology, Department of Design, Production and Management University of Twente, Enschede, The Netherlands; and Norwegian Institute of Systems Engineering, University College of Southeast Norway, Kongsberg, Norway g.m.bonnema@utwente.nl Ilanit F. Lutters-Weustink, Juan Jauregui-Becker Faculty of Engineering Technology, Department of Design, Production and Management University of Twente, Enschede, The Netherlands Abstract—The paper treats a setup for introducing systems engineering to undergraduate (Bachelor) students. The teaching module challenges students, and provides them with ample opportunity to employ the systems engineering process, tools and thinking. Through reflection, the students make the learning outcomes explicit. Based on the setup we recommend to teach a technically challenging subject adjacent to the systems engineering course. By having the students work in large groups on a challenging, open and vague problem statement, they learn to appreciate the systems engineering way of working. Keywords—systems engineering; education; project; Bachelor; undergraduate I. INTRODUCTION The present conference focuses on the young field of systems of systems engineering (SoSE). A System of Systems (SoS) is a gathering together of individual systems [1]. This gathering can be in various forms like collaborative or virtual. While there are differences with systems engineering (SE), a considerable part of the body of knowledge in SE also applies to SoSE. Even more so, education of SoS Engineers starts with educating Systems Engineers. This paper will look mostly at the latter. Ten years ago, we presented a paper on an introductory systems engineering education project, with hands-on experience [2]. Since then, the project has been a cornerstone of the Industrial Design Engineering (IDE) curriculum at the University of Twente. Notwithstanding smaller and larger changes in the IDE program, this project has remained relatively stable. Its effect has been recognized across the engineering disciplines at our institution, and beyond. This has resulted in spin-offs and expansion of the reach of the project. In this paper we will summarize the project set-up, its fundamental elements, and the experiences. We will also look at developments inside and outside the University. The goal is to derive principles for teaching systems engineering to undergraduate students that can be applied at other institutes. We will recapitulate the original Sensors, Actuators and Systems project in section II. Recent developments in teaching; both at the University of Twente, and general Systems Engineering education, are treated in section III. Section IV treats the Systems in Context module for Industrial Design Engineering Students. Based on this setup, there are several spin-off modules that will be presented in section V. Our experiences and intentions can be generalized into principles for SE education. This is the subject of section VI. The final section VII contains the conclusions. II. ORIGINAL SAS PROJECT Industrial Design Engineering at the University of Twente started in 2001. The setup has been from the outset a three years Bachelor and two years Master to conform to the Bologna agreements. The first year gives students an introduction to the field of industrial design engineering, with courses in design, construction and smart products in addition to general subjects like math and mechanics. The second and third year provided a deepening of the individual disciplines, in combination with integration. The latter subject is one of the focal points for the Sensors, Actuators and Systems (SAS) project. Industrial Design Engineering (IDE) has been based on the paradigms of project-led education, as was Mechanical Engineering (ME), its sister program within the faculty of Engineering Technology. In project-led education [3-5], material that is taught in lectures or other teaching forms, has to be applied in a project setting. Students work together in groups to create a design, analyze a problem, etc. The final marks in such a project depend both on the quality of the project work and the results of tests. This way, learning by doing stimulates processing and internalizing new knowledge and competences. In other words, the project amplifies the teaching and vice versa. The original implementation of project-led education in IDE was that during most of the three years of the program, students work on projects, in parallel to the teaching (also see [2]).