“Place Two Wheels on One Chariot”-Proposing “ Engineering Cybernetics”

2015年09月28日

In his early days, Qian Xuesen placed more attention over the study of natural science, starting from railway mechanical engineering, gradually entering fields of engineering technology and technical science step by step, and at last innovatively opening up a path for studying engineering cybernetics and physical mechanics.

From 1956 to 1978, Qian Xuesen put his heart and soul into the construction work of Chinese aerospace undertaking. He worked together with all the scientific workers to develop and produce missiles and satellites of our own under extremely tough conditions. In the process of one miracle after another coming up in China, Qian Xuesen also welcomed his personal second innovation summit.

In the 1980s, due to his old age, Qian Xuesen gradually retreated from the leading position of the front line of national defense scientific research, and put more energy into carrying out scientific research. Compared with his early work, Qian Xuesen dipped into a vast range of disciplines, with much more active academic thoughts and a stronger sense of innovation. He travelled across all aspects of the scientific field, embracing his third innovation summit. 

Besides, what Qian Xuesen valued particularly and made special efforts for was systems engineering and systems science. When establishing “Engineering Cybernetics” in the United States, he had had a preliminary knowledge of relevant explorations over systems engineering and systems science. After his retirement from the front line of Chinese aerospace undertakings, Qian Xuesen spent most of his energy on the two fields once again.

In the early spring of 1978, Qian Xuesen delivered a series of academic speeches in Beijing, Chengdu, Kunming, and Changsha, advancing the application of systems engineering into all the fields of China. At the same time, he made much effort to extend that theory from aerospace to military application, agriculture, forestry and the whole social and economic fields.

On September 27, 1978, Qian Xuesen, together with Xu Guozhi and Wang Shouyun, published an academic article named “The Technologies of Organization and Management-Systems Engineering” in the Shanghai Wen Hui Newspaper, which was the first article to describe the functions, theoretical basis, and research method of the system engineering, and was regarded as the second milestone of the development of systems engineering.

Background Story:

For a while, the word “system” became very famous and popular among the public, and “systems engineering” became two words many people and media often mentioned. Researchers showed high interest in systems engineering, and many colleges, scientific institutes and large enterprises invited Qian Xuesen to deliver reports or speeches.

In 1979, at the invitation of the Modern Military Science and Technology Knowledge Teaching Research Forum of the Army Commanding Institutes, Qian Xuesen gave a lecture about “Military Systems Engineering” on the Leaders Learning Conference of the PLA Headquarters on July 24.

Qian Xuesen spoke frankly with assurance on the report conference, “in fact, tactics simulation technology provides a ‘military operation experiment’.”

“In this experiment room, we can use the simulated operational environments to perform tests on military strategies and plans, check their defects, and predict their effects, and even evaluate the efficiency of weapons systems to inspire innovative operational thoughts.”

“Doing operation experiments under the simulated controllable operational conditions deepen our understanding of the complex relations between troops and uses of weapons from the viewpoint of quantity. Operation experiments are the epoch-making reform of military science research methods.”

This forward-looking speech profoundly enlightened several thousand audience members attending the conference.  Qian Xuesen’ s thoughts over the military systems engineering were widely accepted by the Chinese military circle, and greatly advanced the development of Chinese national defense system analysis. 

In November, 1982, the book “Discussion of Systems Engineering” was published, consisting of thirteen papers by Qian Xuesen, six papers by Qian Xuesen co-writing with other fellows, and one paper by operational research experts Xu Guozhi and Gu Jifa, forming a set of overall comprehension and profound insight over systems engineering and systems science. 

Based on the successful experience of Chinese aerospace, Qian Xuesen incorporated the operation research, management, systems analysis, and system study and effect analysis into the scope of systems engineering, and brought up the precise definition of the systems engineering, “systems engineering is a kind of technology about organization and management, and belongs to the engineering technology level in the system science architecture.”

Under his support, the domestic system engineering research gradually spread, and Qian Xusen did not stop his steps, but instead walked toward the next summit of systems science.