everything.study
ESD.04

Frameworks and Models in Engineering Systems / Engineering System Design

Undergraduate · Historical course

Spring 2007

Topics

  • Systems: Classes of systems (technical, sociotechnical, engineering systems)
  • Systems: Sociotechnical systems and introduction to complexity
  • Systems: Complexity and more, with focus on uncertainty
  • Project: Introduction to Spent Nuclear Fuel (SNF), the big issues and questions, introduction to resources
  • Systems: CLIOS process
  • Systems: CLIOS process (cont.)
  • Project: Review of P1 and instructor synthesis of P1; getting organized for the project work; at end of this class, students will have formed into working groups
  • Systems: Critical Contemporary Issues (CCI)
  • Systems: What is design? What do we mean by a system design?
  • Systems: More on system design, the design aspects of the CLIOS process
  • Project: Class discussion on design concepts for the SNF project, system review
  • Systems: Models and frameworks
  • Systems: Risk assessment (cont.)
  • Project: Team meetings to select strategic alternatives
  • Project: Team meeting with Department of Energy secretary to finalize strategic alternatives
  • Systems: CLIOS stage 3 — implementation
  • Systems: Scenario planning
  • Project: Team meetings with Department of Energy secretary to review progress and discuss final report outline
  • Systems: System dynamics 101
  • Project: Rehearsal of final presentations
  • Project final presentation
  • Class summary, systems recap, student evaluations

Readings

  • SES #: 2 · TOPICS: Systems: Classes of systems (technical, sociotechnical, engineering systems) · READINGS: Churchman, Charles West. “Thinking.” Chapter 1 in The Systems Approach . New York, NY: Delacorte Press, 1979. ISBN: 9780385289986.
    Reading assignment
  • Forrester, Jay W. “Counterintuitive Behavior of Social Systems.” Technology Review 73, no. 3 (1971): 52-68.
    Listed reading
  • “Nuclear Power: Half Life.” The Economist , November 11, 2006, pp. 81.
    Listed reading
  • Howe, Peter J. “Undersea Cable Could Bring ‘Green’ Power to Hub.” The Boston Globe , February 14, 2007.
    Listed reading
  • Baird, Andrew. “False Hopes and Natural Disasters.” The New York Times , December 26, 2006.
    Listed reading
  • Frank, Thomas. “TSA to Track Rail Shipments with Toxic Cargo.” USA Today , January 22, 2007.
    Listed reading
  • Emery, Theo, and Matthew L. Wald. “Chemical Train Derails in Kentucky, Evacuations Are Ordered.” The New York Times , January 17, 2007.
    Listed reading
  • Sussman, Joseph. “Models and Frameworks.” Chapter 10 in Introduction to Transportation Systems . Norwood, MA: Artech House Publishers, 2000. ISBN: 9781580531412.
    Listed reading
  • ———. “Modeling Concepts.” Chapter 11 in Introduction to Transportation Systems . Norwood, MA: Artech House Publishers, 2000. ISBN: 9781580531412.
    Listed reading
  • Morgan, Granger. “Risk Analysis and Management.” Scientific American 269, no. 1 (1993): 32-38.
    Listed reading
  • Bohnenblust, Hans. “Risk-based Decision Making in the Transportation Sector.” In Quantified Societal Risk and Policy Making . Edited by Richard Jorissen and P. J. Stallen. New York, NY: Springer, 1998. ISBN: 9780792349556.
    Listed reading
  • Perrow, Charles. “Complexity, Coupling, and Catastrophe.” Chapter 3 in Normal Accidents: Living with High-risk Technologies . Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1999. ISBN: 9780691004129.
    Recommended
  • 19 · Project: Team meeting with Department of Energy secretary to finalize strategic alternatives · Wald, Matthew L. “A New Vision for Nuclear Waste.” Technology Review 107, no. 10 (2004): 38-44.
    Recommended
  • 20 · Systems: CLIOS stage 3 — implementation · Freeman, R. Edward, Andrew C. Wicks, and Bidhan Parmar. “Stakeholder Theory and ‘The Corporate Objective Revisited.’” Organization Science 15, no. 3 (2004): 364-369.
    Recommended
  • “New York’s Transport: Tunnel Vision.” The Economist , April 19, 2007.
    Recommended
  • Holley, Joe. “Chauncey Starr; Physicist Wrote Noted Paper on Everyday Risks.” The Boston Globe , April 23, 2007.
    Recommended
  • “Government Renews Focus on Cross-Nevada Rail Line to Nuclear Dump.” Jackson Hole Star Tribune , April 27, 2007.
    Recommended
  • Wack, Pierre. “Scenarios: Uncharted Waters Ahead.” Harvard Business Review 63, no. 5 (1985): 73-89.
    Recommended
  • Drucker, Peter F. “Managing Oneself.” Harvard Business Review 77, no. 2 (1999): 64-74.
    Recommended
  • MIT Energy Research Council, Robert C. Armstrong, and Ernest J. Moniz. Report of the Energy Research Council . Cambridge, MA: MIT, 2006. ( PDF - 2.4 MB ) ↗
    Listed reading
  • Buy at MIT Press Nye, David E. Consuming Power: A Social History of American Energies . Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1999. ISBN: 9780262640381. ↗
    Listed reading
  • Buy at MIT Press Hoffman, Peter. Tomorrow’s Energy: Hydrogen, Fuel Cells, and the Prospects for a Cleaner Planet . Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2002. ISBN: 9780262582216. ↗
    Listed reading
  • National Research Council. Risk and Decisions: About Disposition of Transuranic and High-Level Radioactive Waste . Washington, DC: National Academies Press, 2005. ISBN: 9780309095495.
    Listed reading
  • MIT Nuclear Energy Study Advisory Committee. The Future of Nuclear Power: An Interdisciplinary MIT Study . Cambridge, MA: MIT, 2003. ( PDF ) ↗
    Listed reading
  • National Research Council. Nuclear Wastes: Technologies for Separations and Transmutation . Washington, DC: National Academies Press, 1996. ISBN: 9780309052269.
    Listed reading
  • Ackoff, Russell L. “The Art and Science of Mess Management.” Interfaces 11, no. 1 (1978): 20-26.
    Listed reading
  • Ritchey, Tom. “Wicked Problems: Structuring Social Messes with Morphological Analysis.” Swedish Morphological Society, 2005. ( PDF ) ↗
    Listed reading
Sources