Frameworks and models in engineering systems/engineering system design

This MIT OpenCourseWare offers selected lecture notes, details of assignments and exams (both without solutions), and a reading list taken from the Frameworks and Models in Engineering Systems/Engineering System Design undergraduate course that was taught in the spring of 2007.

This class provides an introduction to quantitative models and qualitative frameworks for studying complex engineering systems. Also taught is the art of abstracting a complex system into a model for purposes of analysis and design while dealing with complexity, emergent behavior, stochasticity, non-linearities and the requirements of many stakeholders with divergent objectives.

The class project for Spring 2007 is concerned with designing a system for transporting and storing spent nuclear fuel (SNF). This is an important problem in contemporary society. Nuclear power plants and research facilities around the United States have been producing SNF – as a byproduct of the production of electric power – a quite toxic substance, for some years. Until now, most SNF has been “temporarily” stored on site at the nuclear facilities. The nuclear power plant operators want that material removed. The current plan is to relocate it from about 130 sites around the country to a below-ground repository, thought to be geologically stable, at Yucca Mountain, Nevada, about 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas.

The course will address the many complex system design questions, moving towards developing design alternatives using systems thinking principles, which are critical for understanding and approaching complex sociotechnical systems of the type described here.

Special software is required to use some of the files in this course: .xls.

[Description and screenshot taken from MIT OCW page for this course. (c) MIT used under the terms of their CC-NC-SA license.]

Link: http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/engineering-systems-division/esd-04j-frameworks-and-models-in-engineering-systems-engineering-system-design-spring-2007/index.htm
Author: Joseph Sussman
Publication Date: 2007-05
Source: http://ocw.mit.edu/
License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/us/
Rights: Copyright MIT. Use subject to a Creative Commons non-commercial share-alike License and other terms of use. For full details see http://ocw.mit.edu/terms/