By Matthew Chin
The Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at the UCLA Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science will hold a distinguished speaker seminar on March 3, featuring Paul G. Kaminski, Chairman and CEO of Technovation, Inc, an advanced technology consulting company.
Kaminiski will deliver a lecture titled “System Engineering: A Critical National Need” at 4:15 p.m., March 3 in room 2101 of Engineering V.
Kaminski previously served as Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Technology at the Department of Defense. He also spent 20 years as an officer in the U.S. Air Force where he directed major development programs including advanced reconnaissance and the stealth program.
Today’s engineered systems are increasingly advanced and more complex than their predecessors – both in the elements that they are made from and the number and nature of their interconnections. This rise in complexity has the Air Force and Department of Defense concerned about the costs of fielding new systems, and the loss of agility to respond to emerging threats.
In response to these concerns, a National Research Council panel was formed to look at how systems engineering can address the root cause of associated problems. Kaminski will discuss the findings of that panel, and highlight particular examples of systems engineering as applied to the F-117 fighter jet program.
Kaminski is also a senior partner at Global Technology Partners. He is a member of the National Academy of Engineering; a fellow of IEEE and AIAA; and a senior fellow and past Chairman of the Defense Sciences Board. Kaminski received his PhD in aeronautics and astronautics from Stanford University, his MS from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and his BS the United States Air Force Academy.