Some Perspectives on Engineering Systems: Initiatives in Research and Education

1. Some Perspectives on Engineering Systems:Initiatives in Research and Education University of Arizona Tucson, AR February 29, 2008 Joseph M Sussman JR East Professor of Civil & Acknowledgement: Professor Joel Moses Environmental Engineering and Institute Professor MIT Engineering Systems, MIT

2. Engineering Science  ENGINEERING SYSTEMS • Viewed as a distinct approach from the engineering science revolution of the late 1950s and early 1960s. Engineering science built on the physical sciences: physics, mathematics, chemistry, etc., to build a stronger quantitative base for engineering, as opposed to the empirical base of years past. • This approach, while extraordinarily valuable, tends to be very micro in scale, and focuses on mechanics as the underlying discipline. Engineering Systems • Now engineering systems takes a step back from the immediacy of the technology and is concerned with how the system in its entirety behaves, for example, emergent behavior of complex systems.

3. Social Sciences Management Engineering ENGINEERING SYSTEMS(at the interface of Engineering, Management and Social Science) Engineering Systems

4. Definition of Engineering Systems • Engineering Systems are • Technologically enabled Networks & Meta-systems which transform, transport, exchange and regulate Mass, Energy and Information • Large-scale • large number of interconnections and components • Socio-technical aspects • social, political and economic aspects that influence them • Nested complexity • within technical system and social/political system • Dynamic • involving multiple time scales,uncertainty & lifecycle issues • Likely to have emergent properties

5. Understanding Engineering Systems Requires… • Interdisciplinary Perspective – technology, management science and social science • Incorporation of system properties such as sustainability, safety and flexibility in the design process. • Enterprise Perspective • Different Stakeholder Perspectives • Examples are • Automobile Production Systems, Aerospace enterprise systems, Air and Ground Transportation Systems, Global Communication Systems, the World Wide Web, the National electric power grid, health care systems These systems are “complex” in several ways

6. Engineering Systems Requires a Different Way of Thinking Engineering SystemsCharacteristics and Perspectives • Multidimensional Complexity/Emergent Properties • Technical Complexity – “Illities” – Flexibility, Robustness, Sustainability, Maintainability, Quality, etc. • Organizational Complexity – The Extended Enterprise • Contextual Complexity – Societal Perspective, Qualitative As Well As Quantitative Analysis • Evaluative Complexity – Multiple Stakeholders, Life Cycle Analysis • System Architecture is a Starting Point – Holistic, Enterprise Perspective • Context in the Design Process – Internalize the Externalities • Uncertainty Management in Design

7. ESD Mission Statement ESD is establishing Engineering Systems as a field of study in order to transform macro scale engineering systems in society. It will do so by educating engineering leaders in, and developing principles and methods for, engineering systems that cut across the boundaries of engineering, management and social science.

8. ESD Goals & Objectives • Create An Intellectual Home for Faculty From Engineering, Management, and the Social Sciences, Committed to Integrative, Interdisciplinary Engineering Systems Programs. • Develop Concepts, Frameworks, and Methodologies that Codify Knowledge and Define Engineering Systems as a Field of Study. • Educate Engineering Students To Be Tomorrow’s Leaders, Via Innovative Academic and Research Programs. These Leaders Will Plan, Design and Develop Systems That are Technically Excellent, Socially Responsive and Are Implemented On Time and Budget. • Introduce Engineering Systems Into The Mainstream of Engineering Education, By Working With the MIT Engineering Departments, the Institute As a Whole, and Other Engineering Schools Worldwide. • Initiate Research on Engineering Systems of National and International Importance, Working in Partnership With Government and Industry.

9. ESD Academic and Research Units TPP – Technology & Policy Program CTL – Center for Transportation & Logistics LFM* – Leaders For Manufacturing CTPID – Center For Technology, Policy, and Industrial Development SDM* – Systems Design and Management Center for Engineering Systems Fundamentals MLOG – Master of Engineering in Logistics (Supply Chains Lab for Energy and Environment PhD * Joint with MIT Sloan School of Management

10. Intellectual Structure of ESD Degrees Engineering Practice TPP ESD SM SDM LFM MLOG Engineering Systems Scholarship (ESD PhD)

11. The Future of Engineering SystemsThe Realities • Engineering Systems in the Real World Will Continue To Increase in Size, Scope and Complexity • Engineering Systems Thinking Is Necessary to Address the Realities of the 21st Century and “Critical Contemporary Issues” and “Messy Complexity”: Unanticipated Events, Globalization, Rapid Rate of Change, Societal Concerns, International Competition, Overcapacity, Rising Consumer Expectations • By addressing such issues, Engineering Systems is a pathway for relevance of universities (in a society where relevance is demanded for all institutions)

12. Engineering Systems and The Engineering Profession • Developing Engineering Systems Requires Leaders that Understand Technology. • New Opportunities for Engineers Developing Engineering Systems • Those Engineering Leaders Need More Than Technical Knowledge – Broader Understanding of Organizations and Context. • The Challenge for Engineering Schools – Offer Engineering Systems Programs to Educate Future Engineering Leaders • A Long-Term Mission Is To Develop Engineering Systems As A Field of Study –The Journey Has Just Begun

13. CLIOS System Studied with the C L I O S Process • Complex • Large-scale • Interconnected • Open • Socio-technical

14. REPRESENTATION DESIGN, EVALUATION, SELECTION Implementation The C L I O S Process A 3-Stage, 12-step, iterative process used to study CLIOS Systems

15. CLIOS PROCESS STAGE CHARACTERISTICS

16. The Twelve Steps of the CLIOS Process

17. CLIOS System • Structuralcomplexity • The number of components in the system and the network of interconnections between them • Behavioralcomplexity • The type of behavior that emerges due to the manner in which sets of components interact • Evaluative complexity • The competing perspectives of stakeholders who have different views of “good” system performance • Nested Complexity - The interaction between a complex “physical” domain and a complex “institutional” sphere Complex

18. Institutional Sphere Physical System Nested Complexity • Physical system • More quantitative principles • Engineering & economic models • Institutional “sphere” • More qualitative in nature and often more participatory • Stakeholder evaluation and organizational analysis • Different methodologies are required • within the physical system • between the policy system and the physical system • within the policy system

19. Yucca Mountain CLIOS System for Subject in Engineering System Design 2006 and 2007 TRANSPORTING SPENT NUCLEAR FUEL Large-scale in • Geographic extent, and • Impact Complex Large-scale

20. CLIOS System TRANSPORTING SPENT NUCLEAR FUEL Transportation interconnected with: • Energy • Global Climate Change Complex Large-scale Interconnected

21. CLIOS System • Social Factors • Risk • Political Factors • Geopolitics • Economic Factors • Development Complex Large-scale Interconnected Open TRANSPORTING SPENT NUCLEAR FUEL

22. CLIOS System An Example of a Socio-technical System: Complex Large-scale Interconnected Open Socio-technical TRANSPORTING SPENT NUCLEAR FUEL • Complex Technology • Important Social Impacts

23. CLIOS System/ CLIOS Process Ideas • Sustainability as an overarching design principle for CLIOS Systems • Separate “organizations” from other components- CLIOS System world view • Distinguish between representation and modeling • Representation related to visualization • Think carefully about when to quantify--when to “model” • Recognize different kinds of complexity • Emphasis on dealing with uncertainty • Emphasis on stakeholder roles • Strategic alternatives • Robust bundles of strategic alternatives • Concern with implementation and monitoring of performance • Iteration-- not a one time-through process

24. What Engineering System Teaching Implies for Academia I • Reaching beyond engineering to management, social science, planning. • Recognizing the need for qualitative as well as quantitative analysis. • Eschewing narrow representations of complex systems that can be formally solved, but that have little relevance to real-world issues.

25. What Engineering System Teaching Implies for Academia II • Realizing that “optimal” solutions are often beyond the pale; a small set of feasible solutions is often all we can hope for because of evaluative complexity. • Learning to approach with considerable humility, our intervention in complex socio-technical domains – remember that behavioral complexity makes predictions extraordinarily difficult.

26. Some CLIOS Process Applications • Transportation and Air Quality in Mexico City • Strategic Alternatives for Congestion Reduction in the Bay Area • Cape Wind-- Off-shore Renewable Energy in Nantucket Sound • Organizational Infrastructure and Technology for Air Combat • Provision of Broadband Telecommunication Services by Municipal Electric Utilities (MEUs) • Regional Strategic Transportation Planning (RSTP) as Coupled to Supply Chain Management (SCM)

27. The CLIOS Process and the 24-Hour Knowledge Factory • How do we represent the domain? • Is the 24-hour Knowledge Factory a CLIOS System? What kinds of complexity are present? • What are the key design issues? • What are the strategic alternatives we should consider? • What methods should be applied? • What are the sources of uncertainties?

28. To close……. • Thanks for your attention! • QUESTIONS? • COMMENTS?