Alan Brown

Professor, Virginia Tech
“Integrating Mission Engineering with Systems Engineering to Enable Navy Ship Design”

Session Materials: Link

Session Recording: Link

Speaker Bio: 

Dr. Alan J. Brown, CAPT USN (ret), is NAVSEA Professor Emeritus of Ship Design in the Kevin T. Crofton Department of Aerospace and Ocean Engineering at Virginia Tech. He was NAVSEA Professor of Ship Design from 1998-2025.  From 2010-2015 he was Co-Director for Curriculum of the Naval Engineering Education Center for the US Navy. He created and coordinated the Naval Engineering Minor and Naval Engineering Graduate Certificate programs at Virginia Tech. His research is in naval ship design, marine systems, survivability, and underwater explosion effects. He has served as Northeast Regional Vice President of SNAME, as a member of the ASNE Council, as Chairman of the ASNE/SNAME Joint Education Committee, as chairman of the SNAME Ad Hoc Panel on Structural Design and Response in Collision and Grounding, and as Chairman of the New England Section of SNAME. He was the SNAME/ASNE Faculty Advisor at Virginia Tech for more than 25 years. He was Professor of Naval Architecture and directed the Naval Construction and Engineering Program at MIT from 1993 to 1997.  Dr. Brown was the 2025 recipient of the Academy of Aerospace and Ocean Engineering Excellence Distinguished Faculty Award, the 2021 recipient of the ASNE Harold E. Saunders Award (Lifetime Achievement), the 2015 recipient of the SNAME William H. Webb Medal for outstanding contributions to education in naval architecture, marine or ocean engineering, and the 2007 recipient of the ASNE Solberg Award (Research).  At Virginia Tech, he has earned multiple awards for teaching and service. As a US Navy Engineering Duty Officer from 1971 to 1998, he served in ships, fleet staffs, shipyards, NAVSEA, OPNAV and at MIT.  He received a PhD in Marine Engineering Systems in 1986, an MS in Ocean Engineering in 1973, an MS in Shipping and Shipbuilding Management in 1973 and a BS in Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering in 1971, all from MIT.  He was a professional mechanical engineer registered in the State of California. He is a member of ASNE and a fellow of SNAME.

Abstract: 

This presentation examines how the U.S. Navy Mission Engineering and Integration (MEI), integrated with model-based systems engineering (MBSE) and system-of-systems methods, can be applied to modern naval ship design to ensure alignment with operational objectives and evolving threats. Building on the Navy’s ME-to-SE strategy, it connects foundational MEI principles with contemporary ship design methodologies practiced within Virginia Tech’s Aerospace and Ocean Engineering Department, where multiple analytical tools are integrated to optimize performance, survivability, cost, and mission effectiveness. The presentation demonstrates that maturing MEI artifacts within a model-based digital environment strengthens traceability from mission need to architecture, requirements, and design decisions, extending a coherent digital thread within a Digital Engineering Ecosystem from mission analysis through design synthesis.