Research Seminar in Engineering Systems

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Research Seminar in Engineering Systems

Weekly Syllabus

Fall, 2001

 

I.         September 11: Introduction and Background

II.         September 18: No Class

III.      September 25: What is systems thinking

William Cronon, Nature’s Metropolis, Chapter 3, "Pricing the Future: Grain"

Manuel Castells, The Network Society, Chapter 6, "The Space of Flows"

IV.            October 2: Early history of Systems Thinking

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

V.   October 9: No class [Columbus day]

VI.            October 16: World War II and the Cold War

            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

VII.        October 23: The Spread of the Systems Approach

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)

VIII.     October 30: Complex Systems

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

IX.         November 6: NO CLASS

X.           November 13: Manufacturing

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

XII.        November 20: Transportation

Reading: Joe Sussman, Introduction to Transportation Systems, selections 

XIII.     November 27: Accidents

Readings: Leveson, Safeware (selections)

            Perrow, Normal Accidents

XIV.     December 4: Nature and Environment

Readings:TBA

Guest: David Marks, Civil and Environmental Engineering, Engineering Systems Division

XV.         December 11: Conclusion