DISTINGUISHED LECTURE: How to think about AI like a systems engineer
Special
Engineering Management Division (EMD), Multidisciplinary Engineering Division (MULTI) , Engineering Economy Division (EED), and Systems Engineering Division (SYS)
Tue. June 23, 2026 1:30 PM to 3:00 PM
Westin - Grand Ballroom A, Westin
There are currently 17 registrants interested in attending
For those interested in Academia-Industry Connections, Advocacy and Policy, Broadening Participation in Engineering and Engineering Technology, and New Members
Description
Society depends in an essential way on modern engineered systems – for example, ambulance dispatch, air traffic control, hospital operations, process control at factories and refineries, and so forth – and therefore, it is of vital importance to reduce (in both frequency and magnitude of impact) to some pre-determined acceptable level the incidence of unplanned adverse dynamic behavior that occurs in such systems after deployment.
In this lecture, Dr. Siegel examines how the systems-engineering techniques used on these types of large, complex, mission-critical engineered systems can be extended to be applied to the next-generation of such systems: those that will employ various forms of artificial intelligence, machine learning, and large language models. He demonstrates that such use of artificial intelligence, machine learning, and large language models is almost certain to increase significantly the incidence of such unplanned adverse dynamic behavior in those systems. He goes on to discuss the increased importance of the role of systems engineering in these next-generation systems, because systems engineering (and in particular, the set of methods that he describes) provide one of the few existing methods that have proven effective for reducing unplanned adverse behavior to acceptable levels of frequency and magnitude.
Dr. Siegel's webpage: https://viterbi.usc.edu/directory/faculty/Siegel/Neil
Speakers
Neil Siegel
USC - Viterbi School of Engineering
USC - Viterbi School of Engineering
Dr. Neil Siegel's Webpage: https://viterbi.usc.edu/directory/faculty/Siegel/Neil
Neil Siegel is the IBM Professor of Engineering Management, a Professor of Industrial and Systems Engineering Practice with Distinction in the Epstein Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering, and is also a Professor of Computer Science Practice with Distinction, all within the Viterbi School of Engineering at the University of Southern California. He is a recognized expert in the design and development of large, complex systems that serve important societal needs, both as a practitioner at the largest scales, and as a researcher.
Until his retirement at the end of 2015, he held the position of sector vice-president and chief technology officer at Northrop Grumman, for the Mission Systems and Information Systems sectors. He led the sector’s research portfolio ($600M / year), and oversaw the development of technical solutions for their customers’ most-important problems. He also oversaw the sector’s 12,000-plus scientists and engineers, directed engineering process improvements, and activities to develop the company’s technical talent.
Previously, Dr. Siegel served as vice-president and general manager of the company’s Tactical Systems division, and a director of the company’s U.K. subsidiary. He has been responsible for engineering projects in many portions of the world, including the United States, the U.K., NATO, the Middle East, etc. In all, he served as a vice-president of the company for nearly 18 years.
Dr. Siegel led the engineering on a large number of successful fielded military, intelligence, and commercial systems, including the U.S. Blue-Force Tracker; the Army’s first unmanned aerial vehicle; the Forward-Area Air Defense system; the Integrated Battle Command System; the fire-control segment of the world’s first complete laser weapon system; and played important roles for many other systems for ground, sea, space, intelligence, and cyber-space. These systems have repeatedly been cited as model programs and important national capabilities. He also led work for the steel industry, the movie industry, the healthcare industry, and the electric power industry. He helped to invent techniques to reduce unintended adverse interactions between drugs prescribed by different doctors; these techniques are now used almost universally in the U.S. and Europe, saving thousands of lives each year. He led the team that created many of the patented techniques that transitioned the internet from wired to fully-routed wireless operations; these are used in almost every smart phone and tablet computer in existence. He is a recognized expert in network management, wireless networks, and networks of mobile devices. He has made contributions in the field of improving development methodology for large-scale systems, through the identification of novel root-causes of system-development failures, new methods to correct those root-causes, and application of those new techniques to problem domains such as health, energy, and Government information systems. He holds nearly 50 issued and pending patents worldwide.
Among his many honors are the following:
U.S. National Medal of Technology and Innovation (photo)
Election to the U.S. National Academy of Engineering
Selection as a Fellow of the U.S. National Academy of Inventors
The IEEE Simon Ramo Medal for systems engineering and systems science
The TRW Chairman’s Award for Innovation (three times)
The Army’s Order of Saint Barbara
The iCMG award for system architecture
The Northern Virginia Technology Council CTO-of-the-year award
Election as a Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE)
Selection as a Fellow of the International Congress on Systems Engineering (INCOSE)
Selection as a Fellow of the Asia-Pacific Artificial Intelligence Association (AIAA)
Election as a Fellow of the Artificial Intelligence Industry Alliance (AIIA)
The Albert Nelson Marquis Lifetime Achievement Award
The Crosstalk Award for the best-managed software project across the entire U.S. Government
Recent publications include 3 textbooks, as well as a chapter in a book on ethics in engineering. Public service includes board positions for 4 charitable organizations, 10 years as an elected public official (California Hazard Abatement District board), and former membership on the Defense Science Board, the Army Science Board, and the board of the research foundation of the State University of New York. He also has served as an expert witness in a small number of patent and trade-mark disputes.