Shoal announces visiting scholar program with leading, international universities

Updated 23 March 2020 – please note that the secondments will proceed at a later date due to COVID-19.

Shoal Group is proud to announce that two team members have been accepted as visiting scholars with internationally renowned universities. Duane Jusaitis and Lam-Thien Vu have received their letters of offer for visiting scholar positions at, Purdue University and John Hopkins University. Both of these universities are world-leaders in advancing Systems Engineering, so the 12 week visiting scholar program provides perfect alignment with Shoal’s own expertise and the pursuit of excellence in the systems engineering profession.

“At Shoal, we focus on finding the right development opportunities and experiences for each of our team members,” says Kevin Robinson, Chief Engineer. Some companies offer their employees a dollar value, professional development fund to attend external training programs or conferences, whereby Shoal is all about collaboration.

“We complement our personal, professional and industry development program by creating relationships with leading institutions by way of building knowledge and sharing it together for the advancement of the profession of systems engineering overall,” he explains.

Lam-Thien and Duane will work with their new university colleagues to deliver Systems Engineering research outcomes that will help development them as individuals and, more broadly, contribute to programs for the benefit of the broader community. John Hopkins University, in Maryland USA, has a 140 history of research and teaching, born from the philosophy of its first president, Daniel Coit Gilman, in 1876. Guilman was passionate about “the encouragement of research . . . and the advancement of individual scholars, who by their excellence will advance the sciences they pursue, and the society where they dwell.”

“It’s a philosophy we share at Shoal,” says Kevin Robinson, Chief Engineer. Kevin has built the relationship with the University and, together, they orchestrated a Visiting Scholar program to invest and share in research together.

Lam-Thien is looking forward to commencing her research project. “By working closely with Johns Hopkins University, I am seeking to further develop my understanding of systems engineering best practice and the benefits of applying these approaches to complex healthcare problems,” she says. “I am very excited for this great opportunity and look forward to joining JHU in May.”

Duane’s visiting scholar program with will commence with the Purdue University Center for Integrated Systems in Aerospace in the Spring. “I am looking to gain a new perspective on complex system and system-of-systems simulation,” says Duane. He’ll be learning and applying the Modular Open Systems Approach and the Purdue developed Analytical Work Bench for support of trade studies and decision makers. “It is my hope that this appointment will be the start of a productive relationship between Shoal and Purdue and serve to inform new and innovative system and system-of-system approaches for the unique context of Australian Defence.”

Congratulations to both Duane and Lam-Thien.