Professor Michael Wilkinson

Pronouns: He/him
  • Visiting Professor
  • Systems Engineering and Complexity
    • headshot of Michael Wilkinson in black and white

    Following the award of a BSc and PhD in physics from King’s College London, Professor Wilkinson had a brief early career in theoretical physics research at King’s, then moved into a technical consultancy role with Smith Systems Engineering (now BAE Systems DI). His interest in systems continued and developed through a variety of business and technical leadership roles, including founding Director of Reference Information Systems, Business Area Leader within Advantage Technical Consulting, Professional Head of Discipline for Systems Engineering within Atkins Defence, and Technical Director of the Niteworks partnership. He is currently Chief Technologist and Chief Systems Engineer with BAE Systems Submarines. He is also a BAE Systems Global Engineering Fellow in Systems Engineering.

    Professor Wilkinson has had a long association with the professionalisation of Systems Engineering, taking on various roles for the International Council on Systems Engineering, including President of the UK Chapter and UK Academic Director, as well as Chair/Co-Chair for both the International and UK Architecture Working Groups. He has also served on several advisory boards to systems engineering departments in UK universities.

    Qualifications and Awards:

    • BSc: Special Physics, King’s College London. Awarded Sembrooke Exhibition.
    • PhD: “Lattice generating functions: dilute branched polymers and polymer gels”, King’s College London. Awarded Tadion-Rideal Prize for Molecular Physics.
    • Received four Chairman’s Awards in BAE Systems.

    Outline of main research and interests

    My primary research interest is in maturing systems engineering and its practical application so that it benefits from similar mathematical underpinnings as do more traditional engineering disciplines and the sciences. In this endeavour I work collaboratively with colleagues in the Wolfson School. Recent publications have addressed mathematical approaches for complex system design, including model theory for architecture definition, structure preserving transformations for MBSE and model synchronisation for requirements definition.

    Another focus area for me is the development of methods and techniques for systems engineering professionals, and the promotion of good practice. I am co-author of the Don’t Panic Guide to Architecture and Architecting and have published numerous conference papers, white papers and guides aimed at practitioners.

    Currently delivering lectures on:

    •  WSP460/WSP760: Engineering and Managing Capability
    •  WSP072/WSP772/WSD572: System Architecture
    •  WSP066/WSP766/WSD566: Systems Design

    Publications

    Selected list of publications:

    • UK MOD’s ‘Perfect Storm’ – and the Need for Architectural Styles.
    • M. K. Wilkinson and D. Evans, SCI-254 Symposium on "Architecture Assessment for NEC”, Tallin, Estonia July 2013.
    • Interpreting “systems architecting”. Emes, M. R., Bryant, P. A., Wilkinson, M. K., King, P., James, A. M. and Arnold, S. (2012), Syst. Engin., 15: 369–395. doi: 10.1002/sys.21202
    • Towards analytical models of system properties – critical exponents and universality classes. Mike Wilkinson, INCOSE ASEC11, Warwick, November 2011.
    • System Architecture. Mike Wilkinson (lead author), INCOSE UK Chapter Z-Guide, Z8, October 2010.
    • Balancing Security and Other Concerns within a Systems Architectural Approach. INCOSE INSIGHT magazine, Mike Wilkinson and Paul King, July 2009.
    • The Architectural Epoch Methodology for Infrastructure Integration Architectures. M K Wilkinson, IET Forum on Capability Engineering - At Home and Abroad, London, 7 November 2006.
    • The engineering of complex software systems. M K Wilkinson and P J Byers, IEE Computing & Control Engineering Journal, 1993, Vol 4 No 4.
    • Lattice Models of Branched Polymers: Dynamics of Uniform Stars. M K Wilkinson, D S Gaunt, J E G Lipson, S G Whittington, Macromolecules, 21, 1988, 1818.
    • Multifractal properties of absorption probabilities. M K Wilkinson and R Brak, J Phys A: Math Gen, 21, 1988, 2131-2142.
    • Bi-partite percolation and gelation. M K Wilkinson, J Phys A: Math Gen, 20, 1987, 3011-3018.
    • Branched polymers: exact enumeration study of three-dimensional lattice animals classified by valence distribution. M K Wilkinson, J Phys A: Math Gen, 19, 1986, 3431-3441.
    • Local generating functions for the enumeration of connected embeddings in a lattice. M K Wilkinson, J Phys A: Math Gen, 19, 1986, 3425-3430.
    • Derivation of series expansions for a study of percolation processes. M F Sykes and M K Wilkinson, J Phys A: Math Gen, 19, 1986, 3415-3424.
    • Lattice models of branched polymers: statistics of uniform stars. M K Wilkinson, D S Gaunt, J E G Lipson, S G Whittington, J Phys A: Math Gen, 19, 1986, 789-796.