Honing MITRE's Edge in Systems Engineering
Janice Ziarko
August 2011
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Through her work with the MITRE Institute Technical Program and the Johns Hopkins University MSSE degree program, Janice Ziarko ensures that MITRE provides a robust curriculum for employees who want to maintain their edge. |
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Janice Ziarko says chance and circumstance put her on the path to the MITRE Institute, the company's in-house training and development arm.
"I came out of the era where you couldn't earn a systems engineering degree, so you could say I arrived here by accident," she says. With credentials in several other fields of study, including education, international studies, information systems and public administration, Ziarko was well prepared to tackle the social and technical side of systems engineering and promote MITRE's mission of delivering engineering excellence to its sponsors.
The assistant manager and lead systems engineer of the MITRE Institute's Technical Program is also the Partnership Program Manager for MITRE's Johns Hopkins University Master of Science in Systems Engineering (MSSE) Degree Program.
"Our focus is workforce development, and, specifically, improving our bench strength in systems engineering, which is our core business," Ziarko says.
This year, the MITRE Institute Technical Program will deliver more than 500 instructor-led courses for employees, mainly at the Bedford, Mass., and McLean, Va., campuses. In addition, Ziarko and her Institute colleagues maintain an extensive catalog of e-learning courses.
Broadening Service to MITRE Employees
Systems engineers focus on how complex projects can be designed and managed through their life cycles. The world's problems are becoming increasingly more complex, and MITRE engineers must consider the many technical and non-technical factors of any project to ensure that sponsors achieve their mission goals.
MITRE offers a university-based systems engineering program in conjunction with Johns Hopkins' Whiting School of Engineering. The program provides a comprehensive curriculum for engineers who want to pursue degrees in specialized areas such as technical management or information assurance. Six groups have completed programs in Bedford and McLean, and the Institute has launched three new groups in a distance-learning program to all MITRE sites in the United States, as well as several overseas locations.
Ziarko was also one of the main designers for SEworks, an internal program, based on a MITRE-specific Competency Model, that describes what a systems engineer needs to know at MITRE. A blueprint for outstanding performance, a competency model enables a company like MITRE to assess a systems engineer's skill set and outline a professional development program.
Ziarko is particularly proud of her role in managing MITRE's Federal Employee Fellowship Program. The fellowships last from four months to a year. Current fellows come from the Air Force, the Marine Corps, and various government health organizations. The government pays each fellow's salary, and the fellow completes a customized leadership program curriculum in systems engineering.
"The emphasis is on a high-quality experience," Ziarko says. "We take development of senior leadership on behalf of our government sponsor organizations very seriously."
Ziarko grew up with close associations with government agencies. Her father, a decorated veteran of the Korean conflict, worked for the Naval Research Laboratory fabricating glass components for early satellites and laser technology. His lab moved to NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., where he spent the balance of his career. Ziarko's family lived among military families in neighborhoods near Bolling and Andrews Air Force Bases.
"We were members of the Rocket Club at Goddard, and we used to build planes and rockets and shoot them off in a large field on Saturdays," Ziarko says.
Her early exposure to science and engineering communities fueled her appreciation for technical pursuits and the importance of developing those capabilities in the workforce for the future.
Using Data to Drive Results
Ziarko's work with computers and programming began during the punch-card era, using first- and second-generation programming languages. "My interest in receiving timely, accurate information for purposes of decision making led me from studies in international relations into information systems at the master's level," she says.
A Ph.D. in public administration came next. "After a lifetime of living in a government city, I wanted a better understanding of how government worked, and how government organizations and systems were evolving," she says.
In the workplace, she came to the realization that, while data and analytics are critical to any project's success, "it's the art of implementation that really counts. I like to view myself as becoming an expert in implementation, and since we have a lot of programs to implement at MITRE, I have a lot of work to do."
The combination of study, work experience, and life experience provided ample preparation for a position at MITRE that involved delivering a robust and evolving curriculum for employees who want to maintain their edge.
"There is so much available to you through MITRE's work programs, it's just an oasis of engineering work," she says.
MITRE hired Ziarko in 1999, first as an outcome leader for several projects in the Internal Revenue Service work program and general systems engineer in the Center for Enterprise Modernization FFRDC. A few years later, she joined the MITRE Institute to deliver training and development solutions to the company. Prior to coming to MITRE, she worked in a variety of DoD and civilian agency environments, including an internship with Congress on Capitol Hill.
"This whole body of experience has really given me the breadth I needed for this position," she says.
Keeping her Eye on the Skies
Outside the office, Ziarko tends to her pets, nurtures a small townhouse garden of flowers and herbs, and is a painter who has created landscapes, portraits and impressionist pieces. She and her husband, who is retired, also maintain a large collection of classics, jazz and music from around the world.
Their shared interests also include a passion for NASA's civilian space program which they have followed throughout their lifetime. "We've grown up with space exploration," she says. "We really believed that by this time in our lives, we'd have a space transportation system, a moon base, and be able to move through orbit and beyond.
"If we had the money, a way to get there and a place to stay, we would probably retire tomorrow to a condo on the moon with a nice Earth view," she says.
—by Molly Manchenton
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