Eric Belle’s Vision Statement for 2025-2026 INCOSE Secretary
VISION STATEMENT
Like many professionals who find themselves serving in a systems engineering capacity, my path toward the role of being a systems engineering was one that started out in a related discipline. After graduating with my bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering, I yearned to follow in my father’s footsteps by becoming a hands-on engineer who traveled the world. I accepted a position as a field service engineer and found myself starting my career at the back end of the system life cycle, operations, maintenance & repair of radar systems. I enjoyed applying much of my education in several challenging situations in numerous countries, especially those which required thinking out-of-the-box thinking (applying my part-time campus job skills of fixing video and pinball machines to repair my wine-growing neighbor’s grape press in Zell, Germany, was particularly satisfying). What struck me was the apparent lack of considerations of the back end of the system life cycle in the decisions made in the design phase. I continued to encounter designs that did not always take the concerns and issues of other phases of the system life cycle into consideration (e.g. manufacturing as an electronics manufacturing lead for a German automotive parts company in Spain; integration, test & requirements verification & validation at major aerospace & defense companies and avionics certification at a rocket manufacturer). In my present role, I now realize that the knowledge that I have accumulated in my career is what helps to define me as a systems engineer and influence design decisions just as much as any degree or title. I believe there are many technical individuals with similar backgrounds who would be just as attracted to our chosen field and would be outstanding members of INCOSE if we could find the right way to reach out to them. My vision is to find a way to appeal to these persons and showing them how INCOSE would be an excellent career choice for them while expanding our coverage of the entire system life cycle.
Much in the way that one grasps the meaning of systems engineering by experiencing and understanding the engineering life cycle, the many years spent in the service of INCOSE have helped me understand this organization and how the various parts of it serve critical functions in its overall operation and growth. These include leadership roles at the Board of Directors, Americas Sector and Los Angeles and chapter levels, support of international, regional and chapter levels events at the and within Technical Operations organization. I believe my considerable range of knowledge and activities would serve me well as the Secretary of INCOSE and help me once again to contribute to its success and goal as being the leading global organization in the promotion of systems engineering.
Biography
Eric Belle currently works as a Senior Project Engineer in space sensor programs at The Aerospace Corporation. Previous engineering related experience include roles in the entire system life cycle in both the aerospace and automotive industries at SpaceX, General Atomics Electromagnetic Systems, Raytheon Space & Airborne Systems, Mannesmann VDO Spain & Hughes Aircraft Company. He has a Master’s degree in Systems Architecting & Engineering from the University of Southern California (USC), a double degree in Master in Business Administration (MBA)/Diplom Kaufmann from the University of Texas, Austin/Wissenschaftliche Hochschule for Unternehmensfuehrung (WHU-Koblenz, Germany) and a Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering (BSEE) from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA).
Included among the many positions he has served during his 20+ years as a member of INCOSE are an earlier role on the INCOSE Board of Directors as a Member Board representative, the President of the Los Angeles chapter (twice), assistant director roles with the Americas Sector and Technical Operations, Conference Manager of the 2020 Conference on Systems Engineering Research (CSER 2020), many years as an evaluator of Chapter Circle Awards submissions and as a member of both the Events and Technical Operations Committees.