Professor Richard Larson

to lead new Center for Engineering Systems Fundamentals in MIT’s Engineering Systems Division

August 25, 2005

Prof. Daniel Hastings, Director or MIT’s Engineering Systems Division (ESD), has announced the formation of the Center for Engineering Systems Fundamentals (CESF), effective September 1, 2005. The major focus of CESF will be research on the fundamentals and cross-cutting issues in engineering systems. The Center will be led by Prof. Richard Larson and report to ESD in MIT’s School of Engineering.

The Center will be responsible for the following:

• developing a climate to discuss Engineering Systems fundamentals (seminars etc)
• developing and deepening relations with the Operations Research Center
• working with faculty to bring in resources for the CESF
• sponsoring a book series
• sponsoring a biannual international symposium on Engineering Systems fundamentals

CESF will be housed in E40 and nearby buildings.

Hastings noted that the need for such a center was identified in the ESD Strategic Plan and endorsed by the ESD faculty.

Hastings also announced that the Center for Innovation in Product Development (CIPD) will be merged with CESF. CESF resources will include CIPD assets and some seed funding from ESD. Prof. Chris Magee, who has served so ably as the director of CIPD, will continue as a faculty member in ESD and CESF.

Over the coming academic year, Prof. Larson will lead a faculty group to develop the resources associated with the CESF and its relationship with the Center to the Center of Technology, Policy and Industrial Development (CTPID) as well as the Center for Transportation and Logistics (CTL).

On September 20, 2005, Prof. Larson delivered a presentation entitled "The Center for Engineering Systems Fundamentals: The Beginnings." To view it, please click here.