Systems Thinking and STEM/Technical Training: How to use a Holistic View to Prevent End-to-End System Problems

I was challenged by Rocky Avvento and Eric Sudano at the 2019 IEEE ISEC conference to expand their discussion of Systems Thinking (targeting K-12 students) and mine regarding STEM Education to cover how these holistic design methodologies apply to Vocational - Technical Training. A holistic design process is utilized by engineers subconsciously, but is one of the most important things to teach to young technical students. This paper will present several operationally-relevant models of “systems” to help the reader understand the concept and, potentially, use it in his/her own designs. The Challenge is that there must be a way of looking at Systems that gives the Engineer/Technician a broad view of its overall working constraints and the interactions of its component parts. Systems Thinking is just that type of technique.