Research Seminar in Engineering Systems
Research
Seminar in Engineering Systems
Weekly
Syllabus
Fall,
2001
William Cronon, Nature’s Metropolis, Chapter 3, "Pricing the Future: Grain"
Manuel Castells, The Network Society, Chapter 6, "The Space of Flows"
Thomas P. Hughes, Networks of Power, Introduction.
David A. Mindell, “Opening Black’s Box: Rethinking Feedback’s Myth of Origin.”
Student presentations: Scientific management, Control Theory
Book Reviews: Hughes, Networks of Power
Wildes
and Lindgren, 100 Years of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at MIT
Mindell, Feedback, Control, and Computing before Cybernetics
Israel, Edison: A Life of Invention
Fagan,
ed., A History of Engineering and Science in the Bell System
Kline,
Steinmetz
Yates,
Control through Communication: The rise of System in American Management
Thomas P. Hughes Rescuing Prometheus Chapter 1, "Introduction: Technology’s nation"
Chapter 2, "MIT as a system builder: SAGE"
Chapter 3, "Managing a military-industrial complex: Atlas"
Chapter 7, "Epilogue: Presiding over change"
Thomas Hughes and Agatha Hughes eds., Systems, Experts, and Computers
Chapter 2, David Mindell, "Automation’s Finest Hour: Radar and System Integration in World War II"
Chapter 3, Erik Rau, "The Adoption of Operations Research in the United States During World War II,"
Student presentations: System Engineering, Systems Analysis, Cybernetics
Book Reviews: Hughes, Rescuing Prometheus,
Wiener,
Cybernetics, The Human Use of Human Beings
Zachary, Endless Frontier
Leslie, The Cold War and American Science
Edwards,
The Closed World
Abatte,
Inventing the Internet
Thomas Hughes and Agatha Hughes eds., Systems, Experts, and Computers
Chapter 10, David Jardini, "Out of the Blue Yonder: The Transfer of Systems Thinking from the Pentagon to the Great Society, 1961-1965"
Chapter 11, Davis Dyer, "The
Limits of Technology Transfer: Civil Systems at TRW
Book Reviews: Meadows and Meadows, The
Limits to Growth
Forrester, World Dynamics,
Industrial Dynamics
Heims, The Cybernetics
Group
Sterman, Business
Dynamics
Student presentations: Cybernetics, Systems Dynamics, General Systems Theory, World Systems Theory (plus others)
Readings: TBA
Student Presentations: Complex Adaptive Systems
Book Reviews:
Murray Gell-Mann, The Quark and
the Jaguar Part I
Kelley,
Out of Control
Kauffman,
At Home in the Universe
Readings:
Roos et. al., The Machine that Changed the World
Womack & Jones, Lean Thinking, Chapter 3, "Flow"
Chapter 8, "The Acid Test"
XI. November 20: Product Design
Readings: Ulrich & Eppinger, Product Design & Development, selections
Reading: Joe Sussman, Introduction to Transportation Systems, selections
Readings: Leveson, Safeware (selections)
Perrow, Normal Accidents
Readings:TBA
Guest: David Marks, Civil and Environmental Engineering, Engineering Systems Division