Clergyman's

The purpose and real value of systems engineering is... to keep going around the loop; find inadequacies and make improvements.
- Robert E. Machol

The purpose and real value of systems engineering is... to keep going around the loop; find inadequacies and make improvements.
- Robert E. Machol

The purpose and real value of systems engineering is... to keep going around the loop; find inadequacies and make improvements.
- Robert E. Machol

The purpose and real value of systems engineering is... to keep going around the loop; find inadequacies and make improvements.
- Robert E. Machol

Sometimes, where a complex problem can be illuminated by many tools, one can be forgiven for applying the one he knows best.
- Robert E. Machol

Every large-scale system is an. The automatic factory, the vehicular-traffic system, any military system- in the design of all these systems, primary attention should be given to the flow of information about the elements of the system.
- Robert E. Machol

In April of 1959, ten of this country's leading scholars forgathered on the campus of Purdue University to discuss the nature of information and the nature of decision... What interests do these men have in common?... To answer these questions it is necessary to view the changing aspect of the scientific approach to epistemology, and the striking progress which has been wrought in the very recent past. The decade from 1940 to 1950 witnessed the operation of the first stored- program digital computer. The concept of information was quantified, and mathematical theories were developed for communication and decision . Known mathematical techniques were applied to new and important fields, as the techniques of complex- variable theory to the analysis of feedback systems and the techniques of matrix theory to the analysis of systems under multiple linear constraints. The word ""cybernetics"" was coined, and with it came the realization of the many analogies between control and communication in men and in automata. New terms like ""operations research"" and ""system engineering"" were introduced; despite their occasional use by charlatans, they have signified enormous progress in the solution of exceedingly complex problems, through the application of quantitative ness and objectivity.
- Robert E. Machol

We assert that it is possible to describe analytically any human function which can be reasonably defined in objective terms and we specifically include in such functions ""thinking"" insofar as that term is definable. If by ""thinking"" one means being able to do arithmetic, or play a good game of chess, or learn from experience, or make optimal decisions in exceedingly complex situations, then we assert that thinking can be described analytically. And there are two important corollaries: if It can be described analytically, it can be simulated; and if it can be simulated, it can be performed mechanically.
- Robert E. Machol

basic problem … of building a mathematical model of thought processes, and in particular of those aspects of thought which are concerned with information and decision processes. The perceptron is one type of model -- a set of memory devices connected in random fashion-- which has not yet achieved useful results but certainly seems to be a promising approach. The self-adaptive feedback control system which goes beyond the normal servo function of controlling its output, and in addition controls the parameters by which it controls its output is another which has already achieved pragmatic results in equipment control. It may be that the question of self-adaptation is a key to the whole question of how the human functions in a decisioning situation. For in many cases the ability of the human mind to adapt itself to a changing and complex environment is beyond our present aims in model construction.
- Robert E. Machol

A new concept and a new method were needed. The concept from the engineering standpoint is the evolution of the engineering scientist, i.e., the scientific generalist who maintains a broad outlook. The method is that of the team approach. On large-scale-system problems, teams of scientists and engineers, generalists as well as specialists, exert their joint efforts to find a solution and physically realize it.
We are led to the concept of the system-design team, a small group of engineers or scientists, to lead a large project and organize the system effort. Such men have been variously called engineering scientists, system engineers, system analysts, or large-scale-system designers. The technique has been variously called the systems approach or the team development method. It is toward this man and his teammates that these discussions are directed. With the realization that not enough can be learned in all the required fields to make him a specialist, enough is introduced to make him aware of the language and problems of the specialist. This generalist is a new quantity in the engineering world, and his education must be begun.
- Robert E. Machol