LO1 - Understand how the process of designing systems is distinct from the process of simply designing components and have some grasp of the major threads of system design.

(Bottom-up vs. top-down, diagrammatic representations of systems, requirements specs and performance indices, the concept that trade-offs are inevitable, the benefits of modularity and the rudiments of optimisation.)

LO2 - Appreciate the main concepts behind design of experiments for characterising system components.

The ideas that tests are expensive and that good heuristic/empirical models can be obtained by blending test outcomes with experience or intuition are central here.

LO3 - Understand and use the state-space representation for system dynamics.

LO4 - Assess the reliability of systems given a clear definition of what are the criteria for the system to be 'operational' and what are the reliabilities of the individual elements of the system.