M.S. Candidate: Kaan Karataş
Program: Multimedia Informatics
Date: 26.11.2024
Place: A-212

Abstract: Systems Engineering is an interdisciplinary engineering field that focuses on the identification of the required components of a product and their specifications to achieve the purpose or objective. The emergence of Model-Based Systems Engineering (MBSE) has shown that the prominent approach, Document-Based Systems Engineering (DBSE), is prone to allow over engineering of problems, having to follow a set process reducing flexibility in iterative implementation and hinder effectiveness by having repeated redundant information in multiple documents. In MBSE, the systems design process where the engineer is responsible for defining the properties and interfaces of a system, is executed in digital workspaces. The focus of this thesis is to define a framework to perform systems design with MBSE approach in virtual reality (VR) or mixed reality (MR) environments and identify the benefits and drawbacks of adapting to such environments compared to desktop environments. System modeling language (SysML) is a general-purpose modeling language stated to be capable of encapsulating all required information. A prototype application, MRSysML, as a proof-of-concept for the framework is developed to support using SysML in VR or MR environments and another prototype for desktop environments, 2DSysML, is developed for comparison. User test sessions with 30 participants with equal number of participants from systems engineering background and interactive design background are executed. The outcomes of these sessions demonstrate that the VR or MR adaptation is a useful approach which increases the enjoyability and engagement of the user while having room for improvement regarding textual input and object manipulation.