| SES # | TOPICS | READINGS |
|---|---|---|
| 2 | Systems: Classes of systems (technical, sociotechnical, engineering systems) |  Churchman, Charles West. "Thinking." Chapter 1 in The Systems Approach. New York, NY: Delacorte Press, 1979. ISBN: 9780385289986. |
| 3 | Systems: Sociotechnical systems and introduction to complexity | Forrester, Jay W. "Counterintuitive Behavior of Social Systems." Technology Review 73, no. 3 (1971): 52-68. One of our goals in ESD.04J / 1.041J is to teach you about systems thinking. To do so, we will introduce the ideas of some of the "Giants" of the systems field. You already have been introduced to the work of Churchman in the first reading. In this reading, we introduce you to some of the thinking of Professor Jay Forrester of MIT. |
| 5 | Project: Introduction to Spent Nuclear Fuel (SNF), the big issues and questions, introduction to resources | "Nuclear Power: Half Life." The Economist, November 11, 2006, pp. 81. Howe, Peter J. "Undersea Cable Could Bring 'Green' Power to Hub." The Boston Globe, February 14, 2007. Baird, Andrew. "False Hopes and Natural Disasters." The New York Times, December 26, 2006. Frank, Thomas. "TSA to Track Rail Shipments with Toxic Cargo." USA Today, January 22, 2007. Emery, Theo, and Matthew L. Wald. "Chemical Train Derails in Kentucky, Evacuations Are Ordered." The New York Times, January 17, 2007. |
| 14 | Systems: Models and frameworks |
|
| 16 | Systems: Risk assessment Project: Discussion of P3 | Morgan, Granger. "Risk Analysis and Management." Scientific American 269, no. 1 (1993): 32-38.
Optional
|
| 19 | Project: Team meeting with Department of Energy secretary to finalize strategic alternatives | Wald, Matthew L. "A New Vision for Nuclear Waste." Technology Review 107, no. 10 (2004): 38-44. |
| 20 | Systems: CLIOS stage 3 — implementation | Freeman, R. Edward, Andrew C. Wicks, and Bidhan Parmar. "Stakeholder Theory and 'The Corporate Objective Revisited.'" Organization Science 15, no. 3 (2004): 364-369. |
| 21 | Systems: Scenario planning | Optional "New York's Transport: Tunnel Vision." The Economist, April 19, 2007. Holley, Joe. "Chauncey Starr; Physicist Wrote Noted Paper on Everyday Risks." The Boston Globe, April 23, 2007. "Government Renews Focus on Cross-Nevada Rail Line to Nuclear Dump." Jackson Hole Star Tribune, April 27, 2007. Wack, Pierre. "Scenarios: Uncharted Waters Ahead." Harvard Business Review 63, no. 5 (1985): 73-89. |
| 26 | Class summary, systems recap, student evaluations | Drucker, Peter F. "Managing Oneself." Harvard Business Review 77, no. 2 (1999): 64-74. Griffin, Michael. "Speech by NASA Administrator Michael Griffin: System Engineering and the Two Cultures of Engineering." Peter Drucker is arguably the inventor of modern management. He has been writing on this subject since the 50s in a highly prolific and clear manner. He has his fans (including me) and his detractors ("it's all really obvious"). In a subject like this one, in which the management of your own talents, those of your group members and those on other groups, will be central to your overall success, we thought you should be exposed to Drucker's thinking. While this kind of article is never "on the test", there are some very valuable lessons contained therein. Why don't you take a half-hour and read it? |
Table of Contents
Study Materials
Readings
This section contains documents that could not be made accessible to screen reader software. A "#" symbol is used to denote such documents.
| Help support MIT OpenCourseWare by shopping at Amazon.com! MIT OpenCourseWare offers direct links to Amazon.com to purchase the books cited in this course. Click on the Amazon logo to the left of any citation and purchase the book from Amazon.com, and MIT OpenCourseWare will receive up to 10% of all purchases you make. Your support will enable MIT to continue offering open access to MIT courses. |
The CLIOS Process: A User's Guide (PDF)
MIT Energy Research Council, Robert C. Armstrong, and Ernest J. Moniz. Report of the Energy Research Council. Cambridge, MA: MIT, 2006. (PDF - 2.4 MB)#
Nye, David E. Consuming Power: A Social History of American Energies. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1999. ISBN: 9780262640381.
Hoffman, Peter. Tomorrow's Energy: Hydrogen, Fuel Cells, and the Prospects for a Cleaner Planet. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2002. ISBN: 9780262582216.
National Research Council. Risk and Decisions: About Disposition of Transuranic and High-Level Radioactive Waste. Washington, DC: National Academies Press, 2005. ISBN: 9780309095495.
MIT Nuclear Energy Study Advisory Committee. The Future of Nuclear Power: An Interdisciplinary MIT Study. Cambridge, MA: MIT, 2003. (PDF)#
National Research Council. Nuclear Wastes: Technologies for Separations and Transmutation. Washington, DC: National Academies Press, 1996. ISBN: 9780309052269.
Ackoff, Russell L. "The Art and Science of Mess Management." Interfaces 11, no. 1 (1978): 20-26.
Ritchey, Tom. "Wicked Problems: Structuring Social Messes with Morphological Analysis." Swedish Morphological Society, 2005. (PDF)#
Sussman, Joseph M. "Collected Views on Complexity in Systems." MIT Engineering Systems Division Working Paper Series. (PDF)
Radiation Quantities and Units
Engineering Systems References (PDF)