Transcript No Slide Title

Engineering the End of
Technology
Domenico Grasso, Ph.D., P.E., DEE
Dean & Professor
[video clip from Jurassic Park unavailable, but for commentary, see http://benlast.livejournal.com/10690.html .
- Symposium organizers.]
The Power of Engineering Thought
300,000
Number of Graduates
250,000
200,000
China
United States
Need to
produce
for
2012
150,000
100,000
50,000
0
1985 1987 1989 1991 1993 1995 1997 1999 2000 2001 2002
Year
Grasso & Helble, IEEE 2007
Engineering
en·gi·neer·ing P Pronunciation Key ( n j -nîr ng)
n.
» The application of scientific and mathematical principles to
practical ends such as the design, manufacture, and
operation of efficient and economical structures, machines,
processes, and systems.
»Necessary but not sufficient
Public Perceptions of
Engineering
AAES/Harris Polls, 2003 Courtesy of Leah Jamieson
Engineer Scientist
Creates economic growth
Would make a strong leader
Cares about the community
Save lives
Sensitive to societal concerns
Protects the environment
Improves the quality of life
69%
56%
37%
14%
28%
17%
22%
25%
32%
51%
82%
61%
71%
71%
Traditional Engineering
Linear
Science
& Math
85%
Engineering
Humanity
15%
“If it weren’t for the people…always getting tangled up in
the machinery…the world would be an engineer’s paradise.”
Kurt Vonnegut
Bioengineering Feats
[listen to the podcast at
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=90014997
- Symposium organizers
US Bachelor’s degrees in engineering by year
Biotech/IT
120,000
Bachelor's degrees
100,000
Enivr./Energy
80,000
Sputnik
60,000
40,000
20,000
0
1940
1950
1960
1970
1980
1990
2000
2010
Year
Grasso & Helble, IEEE 2007
Traditional Education
Concept of equality
2+2=4
Satisfaction
13
-8
Algorithm Paralysis
1,000,003
-999,998
The traditional approach to technological
education starts when we are young
The real world is more like this
Without lifting pen from paper,
connect the dots with four lines
?!?!?
Algorithm Paralysis
http://www.prosoundweb.com/fun/Photofun/43_thinkoutofbox.jpg
Engineering Algorithm
Paralysis
Dimensions First
• 120 MIT ME Seniors
• Provide Units
Source: Woodie Flowers, “New Media’s Impact on Education Strategies”
http://www.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ffpiu016.pdf
“Anthropogenic Impact on
Global Geodynamics Due
to Reservoir Water
Impoundments”
Benjamin Fong Chao, NASA
Geophysical Research
Letters
22 (24): 3529-3532, 1995
Length of a day -8 x 10-6 sec
Austria
Germany
Japan
Netherlands
United States
Key Finding:
•Between 1/2 and 3/4 industrial inputs are
returned to the environment as waste
within 1 year!
Today’s problems come from yesterday’s
solutions.
Peter M. Senge, “The Fifth Discipline”
Corporate America Responding
The center of gravity for innovation is
shifting from solving narrow
problems focused primarily on
technology
to
issues and opportunities
confronting us at the societal level.
IBM
Click here to view the presentation:
https://umconnect.umn.edu/didyouknow/
- Symposium organizers
SSME: Service Science, Management, and Engineering
Shift to Services
.
Top Ten Nations by Labor Force Size
(about 50% of world labor in just 10 nations)
A = Agriculture, G = Goods, S = Services
Nation
% WW %
Labor A
%
G
%
S
25 yr %
delta S
China
21.0
50 15
35
191
India
17.0
60 17
23
28
U.S.
4.8
3 27
70
21
Indonesia
3.9
45 16
39
35
Brazil
3.0
23 24
53
20
Russia
2.5
12 23
65
38
Japan
2.4
5 25
70
40
Nigeria
2.2
70 10
20
30
Banglad.
2.2
63 11
26
30
Germany
1.4
3 33
64
44
2008
2008
United States
(A) Agriculture:
Value from
harvesting nature
(G) Goods:
Value from
making products
(S) Services:
Value from enhancing the
capabilities of things (customizing,
distributing, etc.) and interactions between things
The largest labor force migration
in human history is underway,
driven by global communications,
business and technology growth,
urbanization and low cost labor.
>50% (S) services, >33% (S) services
Courtesy of
IBM Research
© 2006 IBM Corporation
100.0
90.0
Percent Employed
80.0
Total Engineering
70.0
Aerospace, aeronautical, and astronautical
60.0
Chemical
Civil and architectural
50.0
Electrical and computer
40.0
Industrial
Mechanical
30.0
Other
20.0
10.0
0.0
1 to 5
6 to 10
11 to 15
16 to 20
21 to 25
26 to 30
31 to 35
over 36
Years Since Graduation
Employed individuals with engineering highest degrees whose
jobs are closely related to field of highest degree, by years
since degree: 2003
Grasso & Helble, IEEE 2007
What We Teach
What Students Learn
What Engineers Need
• MIT Mechanical Engineering Graduates
1992-1996 (10 years out)
• 676 email requests
• 308 completed the survey
• 46% response rate
Data source:
Kristen Wolfe, 2004,“Understanding the Careers of the Alumni of the MIT Mechanical Engineering Department”, SB Thesis, MIT
Adapted by Jun-Ki Choi – Center for Resilience, Ohio State University
Where did you learn what you know?
100%
80%
60%
Elsewhere/
Didn’t learn
at all
Job
40%
Grad
20%
Undergrad
0%
Frequency of use
100%
Pervasively
Frequently
80%
60%
Occasion
40%
20%
0%
Never
Hardly
ever
Click to view the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kO8x8eoU3L4
Source: “Tough Choices or Tough Times”
University
Education
“… a movement away from
subject matter toward to
intellectual capacities as an
organizing concept”
Carol Christ
Intellectual Power
Critical thinking
Reasoned judgment
Engage in the great debates that define our times
Unity of Knowledge
“…integration between
engineering and liberal arts
must take place at fundamental
intellectual levels”
Stephen Ainlay
The greatest enterprise of the mind has
always been and always will be the
attempted linkage of the sciences and
humanities
E.O. Wilson
Consilience, 1998
A New Holistic
Definition of
Engineering
The greatest enterprise of the mind
The linkage of the sciences and the humanities
Application of
quantitative methods
to serve humanity
Engineering Thought
Unity Vision Methods
• Unity of knowledge
(different modes of
thought and reason)
• Vision for making a
difference in the world
• Methods to make a
difference
“A cornerstone of any
undergraduate education should
be learning how to solve
problems”
Lance Schacheterle
SSME: Service Science, Management, and Engineering
SSME is an emerging multidisciplinary field
Science and Engineering
Industrial and Systems Engineering
Computer Science & Info. Systems
Humanities and Arts
Economics and Social Sciences
Business Anthropology
Organizational Change & Learning
Business and Management
© 2006 IBM Corporation
IBM Research
Adapted Courtesy of
Holistic Engineering
Science
& Math
Humanity
Engineering
Multiple Ways Forward
• Slim down ABET accredited degrees to
minimum technical requirements
• Create a BS in engineering science
• Create a BA in engineering
• Others???
Curriculum Evolution
Fitness Landscape
BA
BS
Adapted from classes.yale.edu/.../FitnessLandscape.gif
Engineering Practice and Research
Expand the Solution Space
http://www.nasa.gov/images/content/138784main_image_feature_460_ys_4.jpg
Complex System
“The greatest challenge today … is the
accurate and complete description of complex
systems.
Scientists have broken down many kinds of
systems…
The next task is to reassemble them, … that
capture the key properties of the entire
ensembles.”
Prof. E. O. Wilson, Harvard
Consilience
Research Analog to the Unity of Knowledge
Complex Systems
• System of Systems
• Emergent behavior:
– Behavior at a higher
level is the result of
many behaviors at
lower levels.
• Sometimes adaptive
• Cannot predict from
constitutive parts
Simple, Complicated, Complex
Simple
Complicated
Complex
Separation: steer to
avoid crowding local
flockmates
Alignment: steer
towards the average
heading of local
flockmates
Cohesion: steer to
move toward the
average position of
local flockmates
Holistic Engineering, Design, and
Innovation
HEDI
• “The next century will be the century of
complexity.”
Stephen Hawking
• “Chance favors the prepared mind.”
Louis Pasteur
Stockholm Traffic Problem
http://www.seedforum.org/userfiles/Stockholm(1).jpg
Another Bridge??
http://bridgepros.com/projects/TacomaNarrows/TacomaNarrows.htm
Holistic Solution
Results
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
Traffic at cordon points reduced
by 100,000 vehicle passages
per day or 25%
Train and transit passengers
increased by 40,000 per day
Congestion during peak hours
dramatically reduced
No major re-routed traffic
problem
Time tables for inner city bus
lines have to be redesigned due
to the increased average speed
Reduced pollution
Reduced energy consumption
Cities of the Future
http://arizona.sierraclub.org/rincon/images/trans91.jpg
http://img170.imageshack.us/img170/2342/15717938iu4.jpg
http://files.turbosquid.com/Preview/Content_on_1_6_2004_05_26_09/MegaCity1
Preview2.jpg4f2ad324-685b-432e-bf64-64c9f9024e4.jpgLarge.jpg
“The world we have created has problems
that cannot be solved thinking the way we
used to think when we created them”
Albert Einstein
“The future ain’t what it used to be.”
Yogi Berra
Engineering a
Liberal Education
Education is the instruction of the intellect in
the laws of nature, under which I include
not merely things and their forces, but men
[sic] and their ways, and a fashioning of the
affections and of the will into an earnest
and loving desire to move in harmony with
these laws.
Thomas Henry Huxley, 1868
Holistic Engineering,
Design and Innovation
(HEDI)
Thank God we are in the
hands of engineers!!