Description
Projects Used in This Book
Throughout this book, two projects will be examined to emphasize elements of importance to you. Not every example will use these two projects, but the vast majority of them will. Some examples may not fit the following two projects, but they will be invoked whenever it is most appropriate.
This book, as is used in the SE industry, follows the convention related to abbreviations and acronyms. In the previous sentence, you have seen the abbreviation SE for systems engineering. The convention dictates the first time an abbreviation or an acronym is used, you must spell it out and show its abbreviation or acronym in parentheses after it—like systems engineering (SE) in the first paragraph of this chapter. Then the next time you use systems engineering , you only need to write SE. This is a shorthand method that is used extensively in the industry, and you need to become proficient in it
FBI Record Management Project
The first project mentioned earlier is the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Records Management System for the primary software-based project in this book. The federal government has to follow the dictates of the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), which spells out the rules for how long temporary records are maintained.
You will see various requirements dealing with the FBI’s records management that expand on this project.
Remember, in most software-based projects, there may be some hardware aspects related to this system. That said, the primary hardware-based project in this book comes next.
Radiation Dosimetry Project
The second project will be a radiation dosimetry project for the United States Army.
The purpose of dosimetry is to measure the radiation a person is exposed to, either in a laboratory, in a nuclear power plant, or in a nuclear battle field. The primary emphasis here is to examine radiation exposures to U.S. Army soldiers in a nuclear battlefield. There are five basic devices that make up the entirety of the system. They are the following:
• Individual radiation dosimeter
• Unit radiation dosimeter
• Dosimeter archive laptop
• Radiation dose rate meter
• Radiation dose rate mapping laptop
The Individual Radiation Dosimeter will be a small, portable device that will capture what one person, a soldier, is exposed to while in a nuclear environment. This device will be like a small watch that the person wears all the time and that stays with them regardless of what unit they are assigned to during their career .
The Unit Radiation Dosimeter is the device that will read the individual soldiers’ Individual Radiation Dosimeters to collect all the readings. This can then be used to determine the effectiveness of the unit based on how much radiation they have been exposed to collectively.
The Dosimeter Archive Laptop collects all the information from the various Unit Radiation Dosimeters and consolidates them for archive/backup purposes as well as allowing higher-level roll-up of information reporting.
The Radiation Dose Rate Meter collects all the radiation information from various vehicles in a unit. Unlike an Individual Radiation Dosimeter, which collects what radiation that soldier experiences, whether or not shielded in a vehicle or shelter, the Radiation Dose Rate Meter collects the raw, unshielded radiation exposure. This can be the raw data to collect the dangerous areas for military operations. This is a snapshot in time, where the dosimeter captures the total exposure.
The Radiation Dose Rate Mapping Laptop collects all the information from the various Radiation Dose Rate Meters, plots the radiation data onto a map, and displays the designated radiation contours as an overlay. This allows commanders to modify their military operations based on the radiation remaining in their areas of operations.