A New System at MIT

Continued from page 1

By Erika Jonietz

01/01/2001

Although the Institute had been developing such an understanding for some time, seven years ago a committee chaired by Tom Eagar '72, ScD '75, then head of materials science and engineering, found that to be positioned as a leading center of engineering for the 21st century, MIT's School of Engineering would need to double the size of its faculty involved in integrative-engineering systems activities.

So Eagar's committee recommended that the Institute create a division of engineering systems to coordinate and initiate such activities. Having a division, says Daniel Hastings SM '78, PhD '80, associate director and professor of aeronautics and astronautics, "is a way for MIT to plant a stake in the ground and say we're going to be serious about creating a way of conceptualizing, planning, and constructing large-scale systems."

To do this, the Engineering Systems Division incorporates faculty from the schools of engineering and the Sloan School of Management. Already, faculty have created several new courses in engineering systems. Members are working together to create master's and doctoral programs focused on engineering systems and are exploring an undergraduate minor. "Our objective is to create a new field of study," says Roos, explaining that they intend "to define engineering systems and to influence and change both engineering education and engineering practice." The goal is not to replace the existing science-based practice of engineering, says Hastings, but to supplement it. "There's a need for an expansion of the way engineers think and act and practice their art. There needs to be an emphasis in universities on this more holistic approach to engineering," he says. A small number of students started a pilot version of the doctoral program in September.

The division hosts several preexisting interdisciplinary master's and doctoral programs that were designed to help engineers understand management issues, as well as the social, economic, and environmental impact of their projects. The programs include Leaders for Manufacturing; System Design and Management; Technology and Policy; Transportation; Logistics; and Technology, Management, and Policy. Four cross-departmental research centers have also found homes within the division: the Center for Technology, Policy, and Industrial Development; the Industrial Performance Center; the Center for Transportation Studies and Logistics; and the Center for Innovation in Product Development. Each of these centers links partners from academia, industry, and government in efforts that aim to create sustainable global development: that is, economic growth that will consume no more natural resources than the earth can supply indefinitely.

Several research projects have also been launched under the aegis of the division. The Lean Aerospace Initiative is an effort to examine significant changes in the aerospace industry, and a program on sustainable mobility aims to ensure our ability to move around the globe without injuring the environment. This fall the division launched a major program that examines homeland security, assembling faculty from the aeronautics and astronautics, nuclear engineering, civil engineering, political science, and mechanical engineering departments, as well as the Sloan School, and the Program in Science, Technology, and Society. For example, one project undertaken in cooperation with Sandia National Laboratories aims to develop ways to protect or rapidly restore systems of the nation's infrastructure, such as water and electrical systems, in the face of an attack.

Establishing an educational unit that crosses MIT's departmental lines and school boundaries has proved complicated at times, Roos says. "It took a long time to get ESD approved because it is unconventional," he says. The key to its success in creating new research and educational programs, he adds, has been the people involved. "There's a common vision and common understanding of what we're trying to accomplish."