Arthur David Hall III was an American electrical engineer and a pioneer in the field of systems engineering

Systems engineering

Systems engineering is an interdisciplinary field of engineering that focuses on how complex engineering projects should be designed and managed over the life cycle of the project. Issues such as logistics, the coordination of different teams, and automatic control of machinery become more...

. He is known as author of a widely used engineering textbook "A Methodology for Systems Engineering" from 1962.

Biography

Hall attended Brookville High School

Brookville High School (Virginia)

Brookville High School is a high school in Lynchburg, Virginia, United States.The school was founded in 1926 with the first elementary classes beginning in November. The first high school classes began in 1927 with 2 teachers, and the first graduating class was 1930, with three graduates. The last...

 in Lynchburg, Virginia

Lynchburg, Virginia

Lynchburg is an independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia. The population was 75,568 as of 2010. Located in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains along the banks of the James River, Lynchburg is known as the "City of Seven Hills" or "The Hill City." Lynchburg was the only major city in...

. He served in the Army during World War II. After the war he studied electrical engineering

Electrical engineering

Electrical engineering is a field of engineering that generally deals with the study and application of electricity, electronics and electromagnetism. The field first became an identifiable occupation in the late nineteenth century after commercialization of the electric telegraph and electrical...

 at Princeton University

Princeton University

Princeton University is a private research university located in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. The school is one of the eight universities of the Ivy League, and is one of the nine Colonial Colleges founded before the American Revolution....

, graduating in 1949.

Hall worked for many years as an electrical engineer for Bell Labs

Bell Labs

Bell Laboratories is the research and development subsidiary of the French-owned Alcatel-Lucent and previously of the American Telephone & Telegraph Company , half-owned through its Western Electric manufacturing subsidiary.Bell Laboratories operates its...

 prior to forming his own consulting

Consultant

A consultant is a professional who provides professional or expert advice in a particular area such as management, accountancy, the environment, entertainment, technology, law , human resources, marketing, emergency management, food production, medicine, finance, life management, economics, public...

 business. In the 1960s, Hall also worked at the Moore School of Electrical Engineering at the University of Pennsylvania

University of Pennsylvania

The University of Pennsylvania is a private, Ivy League university located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. Penn is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States,Penn is the fourth-oldest using the founding dates claimed by each institution...

.

He was a founding member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers

Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers

The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers is a non-profit professional association headquartered in New York City that is dedicated to advancing technological innovation and excellence...

. In 1965, Hall was the first editor of the IEEE Transactions on Systems Science and Cybernetics. Hall later became a senior IEEE fellow.

He is listed in Who’s Who Men of Science as the father of the "picture telephone" and creator of the patented "Auto Farm System", which provides global positioning equipment for precision farming.

His further hobbies included flying, yachting

Yachting

Yachting refers to recreational sailing or boating, the specific act of sailing or using other water vessels for sporting purposes.-Competitive sailing:...

, photography, and gardening

Gardening

Gardening is the practice of growing and cultivating plants. Ornamental plants are normally grown for their flowers, foliage, or overall appearance; useful plants are grown for consumption , for their dyes, or for medicinal or cosmetic use...

.

Work

Hall made contributions to systems engineering methodology, and applications to telecommunications policy and practice.

Publications

Hall wrote several textbooks and articles on systems and systems engineering. Books:

• 1962, A Methodology for Systems Engineering.
• 1989, Metasystems Methodology, Oxford, England: Pergamon Press.

Articles, a selection:

• 1956, "Definition of System", with Robert E. Fagen, in: General Systems, 1 (1956), p. 18.
• 1965, "Systems Engineering from an Engineering Viewpoint" in: IEEE Transactions on Systems Science and Cybernetics, Nov. 1965, Volume: 1, Issue: 1. On page(s): 4-8
• 1969, "Three-Dimensional Morphology of Systems Engineering", in: IEEE Transactions on Systems Science and Cybernetics. 5(2) pp. 156–160.
• 1975, "Who Is Afraid of Systems Methodology?", in: IEEE: Systems, Man and Cybernetics Society Newsletter 4, 1 (March 1975) pp. 1–3.
• 1989, "The fractal architecture of the systems engineering method", in: Systems, Man and Cybernetics, Part C: Applications and Reviews, IEEE Transactions on Volume 28, Issue 4, Nov 1998 Page(s):565 - 572.

External links