JCOSE Systems Conference 2026 (JS 2026)

Keynote : 

Engineering Elegant Systems: Principles of Systems Engineering

Systems Engineering strives to produce elegant systems: a system that is robust in application, fully meeting specified and unspecified intent, is well structured, and is graceful in operation.  Elegance requires a consideration of the full system scope and an organization committed to producing elegant solutions.  INCOSE has published a set of systems engineering principles which provide guidance in the approach to systems engineering of elegant systems and guidance on systems engineering functions within the organization seeking to produce elegant solutions. An overview of these systems engineering principles will be presented with the application of these principles to the production of elegant systems. 

Speaker: Dr. Michael D. Watson

Michael D. Watson is the International Council on Systems Engineering (INCOSE) President and the Senior Systems Engineering Director for the Leidos Defense Systems Sector. He is responsible for the application and execution of systems engineering across the Defense Systems Sector. He is focused on the advancement of systems engineering and the realization of more complex systems through the application of systems engineering. He previously served as INCOSE Chair of the Complex Systems Working Group. Dr. Watson retired from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC). He worked on SpaceLab, ISS, Ares I, and SLS, and led the NASA Systems Engineering Research Consortium defining advanced systems engineering approaches and basis. Dr. Watson graduated with a BSEE from the University of Kentucky in 1987. He obtained his MSE in Electrical and Computer Engineering (1996) and his Ph.D. in Electrical and Computer Engineering (2005) from the University of Alabama in Huntsville.