Michigan Aerospace Showcases MBSE Lab at Siemens Innovation Leadership Summit

Earlier this month, Aerospace Engineering Professor of Practice George Halow and Aerospace Engineering Masters student Maria Reitz participated in the 2025 Siemens Innovation Leadership Summit (ILS) – the annual summit for Siemens’ key customer executives, held November 9 – 11 in Scottsdale, Arizona. The ILS event welcomed an esteemed list of invite only guests, gathering over 200 attendees from the world’s top industrial leaders.

While at the event, the pair delivered the closing keynote address, showcasing the innovative approach and educational impact found in the Model-Based Systems Engineering (MBSE) Lab and systems engineering leadership education x88 course series, and how the lab’s industry partners play a large role in students’ journey at U-M. With Siemens being one of the many industry partners to the lab, the Michigan Aerospace team attending the ILS event proudly represented the innovative and enthusiastic approach to engineering that the Department of Aerospace Engineering instills in its community.

Professor Halow joined the U-M Aerospace Engineering Department in 2019 and quickly began launching the MBSE and systems engineering leadership course series for undergraduate students. The MBSE Lab is a first-of-its-kind program and offers a flexible product development and teaming space where students collaborate in cross-campus projects to design, build, test and fly aircraft using MBSE and industry-proven systems engineering tools & processes. Since the program’s start, he has pulled in top industry leaders and partners to help collaborate on student projects, providing the MBSE students with hands-on, real-world experiences in their undergraduate educational careers.

Maria Reitz will be completing her Master’s degree in Aerospace Engineering this year through the Sequential Undergraduate/Graduate Study (SUGS) program while currently working in Professor Halow’s MBSE Lab. Additionally, Reitz was one of the Aviation Week Network’s 20 Twenties class of 2024, recognizing individuals who are on track to be leaders of the aerospace, aviation and defense industries.

Together, the team’s attendance at the event truly emphasizes the impact industry partnerships have on the various initiatives underway within the Department of Aerospace Engineering. While working together with leaders in the field, we are proud to continue innovating and advancing our curriculum to offer students the best educational opportunities and prepare them for their future careers.

Read more about the MBSE Advantage and the systems engineering leadership education x88 course series in this article from Michigan Engineering.

Images curtsey of Adam from Edin Studios