Upcoming Chapter Meeting
From Operator to Engineer: A Nontraditional Path into Systems Engineering
October 15, 2026 • 6:00 PM – 8:15 PM CT
Join INCOSE Chicagoland and speaker Kathleen Ticer for a talk that explores how a military communications background can shape the way an engineer thinks about systems long before formal study begins. Kathleen shares the gap, and the overlap, between operational intuition and formal systems engineering frameworks, drawing on her experience applying an operational mindset to the requirements and acquisition of new systems.
Along the way she reflects on what academia gets right about systems engineering, and what it can miss, offering a perspective grounded in real operational experience.
Presented by
Kathleen Ticer
Requirements Manager
U.S. Air Force
Location
1501 E. Woodfield Rd., Suite 300E
Schaumburg, IL 60173
3rd Floor Conference Room
+ Online via Zoom
Agenda
About the Speaker
Kathleen Ticer is a seasoned communications, surveillance, and IT professional with 16 years of decorated service in the U.S. Air Force. She has performed flight communications operations for senior government leaders and applied systems engineering to meet the requirements and acquisitions of executive airlift missions. Kathleen is currently a graduate student at Florida State University, where she continues to study systems engineering from both an operational and academic perspective.
Registration link coming soon
We'll post the Eventbrite registration link here as soon as it's available.