Chris Watkins

Chris Watkins, Principal Engineer Model-Based Systems Engineering, Gulfstream Aerospace Corporation and Fellow in the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics

Chris Watkins is the Principal Engineer of Model-Based Systems Engineering (MBSE) at Gulfstream Aerospace Corporation (Gulfstream), a leading business jet manufacturer. He helped establish Gulfstream’s first system engineering organization and is now leading Gulfstream's transformation to MBSE workflows. He serves as Gulfstream’s representative on the Aerospace & Defense PLM Action Group (AD PAG), an association of major aerospace & defense companies. He has over 25 years of engineering experience in the Aerospace sector and is a 20-year pioneer of avionics computing systems known as open Integrated Modular Avionics (IMA), now standard in most aircraft. IMA serves to reduce size/weight/power and greatly increases system integration flexibility, but demands rigorous, collaborative systems engineering efforts. This propelled Chris to find better solutions to manage the aircraft systems integration through a collaborative MBSE approach. Chris has an M.S. in Systems Engineering from the Missouri University of Science and Technology and a Systems Engineering Fundamentals Graduate Certificate from the California Institute of Technology (Caltech). He was recently inducted as a Fellow in the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) and serves as Vice Chairman of the AIAA Digital Avionics Technical Committee (DATC).