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Engineering Systems:The PhD Program
PhD Students MeetingMarch 7th, 2008
Yossi Sheffi
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The Challenge
-Charles M. Vest, Nov 2nd, 2007
“Imagine the excitement of working on the frontiers of macroscopic engineering--- the domain of larger and larger and more and more complex systems for energy, the environment, communications, health care, manufacturing, and logistics. Innovation and success here will be essential for meeting the daunting challenges of a world with a burgeoning population, limited resources, and justified demands for a better quality of life and more economic opportunity.”
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A New Century
With New Engineering Frontiers
NanoBioInfo
MacroEnergy
EnvironmentHealth care
ManufacturingCommunications
SecuritySupply chains
• Smaller• Faster• More complex
Engineering Science Engineering Systems
Source: C. Vest, NAE President, June 2007
• Larger• More complex• Involving people and services• Greater social impact
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A New Century
With New Engineering Frontiers
NanoBioInfo
MacroEnergy
EnvironmentHealth care
ManufacturingCommunications
SecuritySupply chains
Natural Science
EngineeringSocial ScienceManagement
Engineering Science Engineering Systems
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A New Century
With New Engineering Frontiers
NanoBioInfo
MacroEnergy
EnvironmentHealth care
ManufacturingCommunications
SecuritySupply chains
Natural Science
EngineeringSocial ScienceManagement
Engineering Science Engineering Systems
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Engineering Systems
*Used both as a verb and an adjective
Engineering* Systems: Large, complex systems involving technology, people and services
• Complex systems• Socio-technical systems• Context-sensitive (engineering)
ES extends the range of problems that universities define as engineering
ES defines the “design space” to include some constraints and boundaries as decision variables
ES solution approaches involve more representations and more communities in addition to the engineering perspective
ES adds new problem framing and modeling approaches to the current engineering arsenal
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Fundamental Engineering Systems Thinking
Methodology
Advanced Engineering Systems Thinking
Domain/Context
The PhD Program Engineering background Experience Valued
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Doctoral student in ESD should be able to build on fundamental and advanced engineering systems thinking knowledge to frame large scale complex problems in one or more domains/contexts of interest, apply an established methodology, or a combination of methodologies; uncover the principles and articulate the properties underlying such systems, thereby adding to the developing knowledge of engineering systems.
The PhD Program
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Fundamental Engineering Systems Thinking
- 3 subjects– This is the knowledge we expect all ESD PhD students to have,
regardless of their area of research:
1. ESD PhD seminar (ESD.83)2. Models, Data, Inference for Socio-technical Systems (ESD.86)3. Social Science Concepts and Methods—Developing a single required
social science methods class is a priority - discussion and work is well underway - to be offered AY08/09.
– We have a need for coordination of the content in these three subjects
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Domains/Contexts Examples - Expected Depth - 3 subjects (or
equivalent) Aerospace Education Energy/Environment Health Care Information Technology Infrastructure Manufacturing Materials Telecommunications Transportation
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(Established) Methodologies Examples - Expected Depth - 3 Subjects
Control Theory Economics Operations Research Systems Engineering, Analysis and Evaluation Modeling and Simulation including Enterprise
Modeling, Design and Architecting Management Concepts and Methods
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Advanced Engineering Systems Thinking
Student takes a minimum of 1-2 subjects from what, we hope, will be a rich list
Some of these subjects will likely “fly up” to the fundamental (required) set
A target for curriculum development-- this is a mechanism for stretching our definition of the engineering systems field
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ESD PhD Overall Requirements
This is in the range of 12-13 subjects, about 150 units beyond the SB in accord with MIT practice. Often some subjects taken in SM programs at MIT or elsewhere can be applied toward the 150-unit requirement. We note these are minimum requirements. Students may choose to take more units or may be asked by their committee to do so.
Fundamental Engineering Systems Thinking
3 Subjects
Domains/Contexts 3 Subjects (or equivalent)
Methodology 3 Subjects
Advanced Engineering Systems Thinking
1-2 Subjects
Additional Electives 2-3 Subjects
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The General Exam A creature of both the ESD faculty and the student’s
committee. The decision on whether the student has passed or failed the general exam is ultimately the province of the ESD faculty-at-large. It tests both the candidate’s knowledge in engineering systems and potential to do PhD-level research.
Two written questions (of four) on the general exam build on fundamental engineering systems material. (ESD.86, Social Science Concepts and Methods)
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General Exam - Oral The oral exam would be largely as we conduct it
now—a student submitting a research paper when he or she picks up the written exam. As it is currently, this paper is not a formal thesis proposal, but rather is intended to demonstrate that the candidate has PhD-level research potential.
ESD faculty beyond the committee would be present at the oral exam. We need a formalization of this to insure adequate and equitable coverage at each oral exam.
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Breadth, Depth and Scholarship The ESD PhD is an especially challenging one given the
combination of breadth and depth it requires—breadth in several fields---for example, in engineering, in engineering systems thinking, in social science and in management --- and depth in methodology and domain/context. Attaining this combination will necessarily take time; we expect on average four years beyond the master’s spent working in our community of scholars will be needed, although, of course, this will vary among individual students.
While our students may go into academia, research or practice in the public and private sectors, our expectation is that the student's dissertation will be a scholarly contribution and that all our ESD PhDs could be competitive for faculty positions, whether or not they choose to seek such posts.
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Structure for Evolution
This is a structure for evolution for the ESD PhD program. The content of the program will and should change as the engineering systems field matures.
