Workshop: Designing Systems to Address Global Challenges; Corvallis, Oregon; April 1-4, 2017

Oregon State University, Corvallis OR

Investigators

Abstract

This workshop brings together educators and researchers in the fields of Engineering Design and Systems Engineering to assess the state of the art in these fields with the objective of addressing global, real-world challenges that impact people, our planet, and the economy. The workshop attendees will work together to identify promising directions for future research, exploit the synergies between the two fields, and strengthen the design and innovation capabilities of practitioners. Additionally, current NSF grantees from both ESD and SYS programs (Engineering and Systems Design; Systems Science) will be able to present posters explaining their work and get feedback from their colleagues and the program director. Participants will identify and discuss past contributions that have had a strong impact on education and practice. and discuss their domains of applicability, their limitations, and what needs to be done to strengthen their future potential and impact. Junior faculty will be given an opportunity to do 'elevator pitches' to help them network with established researchers in the Engineering Design and Systems Engineering communities. The main objective of the workshop is to enable the engineering design and systems engineering communities to exchange ideas and find synergies. The workshop will bring together about 150 researchers and divide them in small groups of ten to discuss three specific topics. The workshop will have significant impact on the research conducted in engineering design and systems engineering because of the unique challenges and opportunities of designing systems that address global challenges. Such systems require designers to work in a context in which the artifact being "designed" is no longer under their control, but rather evolves through interactions between multiple/many stakeholders, effectively resulting in complex adaptive systems. This unique context will have an impact on the choice and characteristics of design methods because, rather than making decisions about the artifact, one would need to worry about how to influence other stakeholders so that they make choices that as a whole lead to desirable outcomes. To address this objective, the workshop will conduct discussions on three topics: (1) What are the greatest and unique research challenges and roadblocks? (2) What constitutes good research & good research methods? (3) What are the gaps and unique opportunities for developing synergistic methods between engineering design and systems engineering communities?