2009 Issue 1 - Raytheon

Events
2008 Summer Symposia
Raytheon’s Technology Networks transition to align with
Raytheon’s key strategic markets and mission-focused
technology in 2009
2008 Systems Engineering Symposium
The Systems Engineering Symposium, titled
“Achieving World-Class Program Capture
and Performance through Systems
Engineering,” was attended by more than
360 systems engineers on Aug. 4–8 in
Richardson, Texas.
The event was sponsored by the Systems
Engineering Technology Network; hosted by
Raytheon Intelligence and Information
Systems (IIS); and co-chaired by Paul
Benton, Frank Miville and Tom Jones. It
boasted representatives from each U.S.based
Raytheon facility and attendees from
12 states. The symposium featured presentations
on technology developments and
applications with a technical program consisting
of five super-tracks: Architecture,
Mission Systems Integration, Best Practices,
Modeling and Simulation, and
Specialty Engineering.
In his opening statements, co-chair Paul
Benton referred to the event as a “knowledge
buffet” and encouraged each participant
to go back to the serving line again
and again. “With 115 presentations,
there’s certainly a rich variety of knowledge
foods for your benefit, and I’d like to see
everyone leave here with a few extra
pounds of intellectual knowledge.”
The keynote speaker, IIS Vice President of
Engineering Sylvia Courtney, discussed the
theme selected for the symposium as well
as systems engineering’s relevance in driving
Raytheon’s business plan. She
presented four adjacent markets that will
be the cornerstone of our growth strategy
during the next five years and what
strengths we bring forward as we try to
move, grow and continue to evolve
the company.
“There are opportunities, but I’d say that
there are some real challenges,” she said.
40 2009 ISSUE 1 RAYTHEON TECHNOLOGY TODAY
According to Courtney, we have new missions
that we need to learn and we have
new customers. Ultimately, the final determinant
of whether we will succeed as a
company will be the relationships we build
with those customers. Do we deliver for
them? Do we understand their mission?
Do they trust us? We will have to become
world class in our ability to manage local
distributed teams. Gone is the day when
we as Raytheon would take on the entire
program and reach deep within our organization
and deliver the system. More and
more, the systems we deliver are dependant
on the supply chain of development
companies and academia, often from
around the world. As a systems engineering
team, we’re going to have to understand
that the timelines in our world have
changed. We’re working to counter an
adversary that moves in cyber speed, and
we have to be ready to move in cyber
speed as well.
“I believe Raytheon is responding
remarkably well to these challenges,”
Courtney said. “We are reinventing
ourselves. When I look at programs like
the Raytheon Certified Architect Program,
it’s one-of-a-kind in industry and it recognizes
that architecture is fundamental
and foundational to these large-scale
distributed systems.”
Courtney believes that one of Raytheon’s
greatest riches and strengths is the fact
that we build relationships. “As we move
forward as an engineering team, and try to
live to the challenge of this symposium, of
achieving world-class capture and performance
with system engineering, it’s critical
that we truly value the importance of the
relationships we build across the company.
And we take advantage of this opportunity
to network. Because our ability to excel in
the coming years, in the adjacent markets
and within our core markets, is dependent
on how rapidly we can synthesize new
knowledge and integrate that knowledge
into how we build and deliver systems.”
IIS Chief Technology Director Dr. J Smart
said, “We really do need that diverse integrated
team of vision, and we need some
robust solid engineers to bring it together.
It’s so important that we reach across the
company and get the best and brightest,
and actually, reach all across the industry,
all across academia, and all across the
world with our customers.”
The content was informative and the list
was rich with qualified, technical and
dynamic speakers such as Heidi Shyu,
Raytheon vice president of Technology &
Research; Terry Jaggers, deputy assistant
secretary of the Air Force for Science,