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Design research in engineering systems takes into
account within the design the coordination of many corporate functions,
including research and development, engineering, finance, manufacturing,
marketing, and distribution and logistics. ESD researchers work
to improve the various processes associated with design and implementation,
including requirements development, product architecture and design,
program and project management, and new reliability/robustness/testing
methods. They also explore the process of implementing various
designs and the change management process itself.
Real Options in System Design
This research focuses on the development of valuable flexibility
in designs. Conceptually and professionally, this work lies midway
between standard engineering (which does not consider design flexibility
in any detail) and financial real options analysis (which does
not look at design). ESD’s research team has developed a
“screening model” approach to the core problem of
identifying the system elements that should be flexible in order
to increase value. Read
more.
Strategic Materials Decisions: Systems Insights
to Improve Recyclabilty
Materials choices affect every aspect of the life cycle of every
product, from materials production to manufacture to use, end-of-life,
and materials recovery. Product and materials recycling can limit
the environmental impacts of manufacturing processes, but its
implementation has been largely opportunistic, rather than grounded
in an appreciation of the interactions among materials science,
production technology, materials markets, and product life cycles.
Using simulation and stochastic optimization methods, the ESD
research team has developed recycling strategies that include
redesign of materials, products, recycler processes, recovery
infrastructure, and policy. Read
more.
Driving Innovation in Aging and Human Technology
Innovation
Understanding how older people learn, interact, and adopt technology
is critical to moving inventions into everyday use. AgeLab—in
collaboration with colleagues in Aeronautics and Astronautics,
Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Brain and Cognitive
Sciences, and the Computer Science Artificial Intelligence Laboratory—is
working to design a car that enables older people to drive safely
longer. Read more.
Change Propagation Analysis in Complex Technical
Systems
This research develops and applies change propagation analysis
methods and extended prior reasoning through examination of large
data sets from industry. One such data set at Raytheon Integrated
Defense Systems included 41,500 change requests, spanning eight
years during the design of a complex sensor system. The research
used graph theory to define how specific network relationships
of connected “parent,” “children,” and
“sibling” changes are resolved over time and mapped
to various subsystem areas. Read
more.
Real-Time Predictive Human Supervisory Control
Models of Team Collaboration
Research at the Humans and Automation Lab (HAL) focuses on the
multifaceted interactions of human and computer decision-making
in complex socio-technical systems, such a air traffic control,
disaster first response, and military command and control. Researchers
aim to build models of behaviors able not only to recognize the
current state of a team supervising automation in real time, but
also to predict future states of this team. Read
more. For more information about the variety of HAL research
projects regarding the interface of humans and technology, click
here.
New Approaches to Accident Modeling and
System Safety
ESD researchers are developing new, more powerful accident causality
models and risk management techniques that can handle the complexity
of today’s technical and social systems. Using systems and
control theory as the mathematical foundations and a causality
model (called STAMP) that expands traditional models, the researchers
are constructing computational models of the static (structural)
and dynamic aspects of complex, socio-technical systems to provide
information about potential risks. Read
more.
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Dava
Newman talks about spacesuit design (Scientific American -
July 17, 2009)
Dava
Newman on “OnPoint” broadcast about Hubble repair
mission (On Point on WBUR – May 20, 2009)
“MIT's
AgeLab is Engineering for the Ages” (Design News –
April 8, 2009)
“FedEx:
Leaders aim to guide growth”
News-Record.com (Greensboro, NC) – September 14, 2009
“Dava
Newman talks about the BioSuit”
with link to Studio 360 – December 13, 2009
“Crowd
Sourcing Turns Business On Its Head”
Morning Edition (NPR) – August 20, 2008
“High-tech
tinkerers on the rise”
The Boston Globe - February 11, 2008
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“Socio-Technical Analysis of Engineering
Systems Design”
ESD PhD student Mark Avnet shares his research on the relationship
between the design process and shared knowledge in the design
team.
View
on TechTV.
“Perception & Coordination in
Product Development”
ESD PhD student Joao Castro shares his research on how product
development teams engage in coordination and indentify who they
need to work with.
View
on TechTV.
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Design-Inspired
Innovation
James M. Utterback, Bengt-Arne Vedin, Eduardo Alvarez, Sten Ekman,
Susan Walsh Sanderson, Bruce Tether, Roberto Verganti
Product
Design and Development
Karl Ulrich, Steven Eppinger
Interactive
Aerospace: Engineering and Design
Dava Newman
Paper presented at 2004 Engineering Systems Symposium:
Evaluating
Robust Design Methods Using a Model of Interactions in Complex
Systems
Daniel Frey, Xiang Li
ASME Design Theory and Methodology Best Paper Award:
"Evaluation
of the Pugh Controlled Convergence Method"
Daniel Frey, Paulien Herder, Ype Wijnia, Eswaran Subrahmanian,
Konstaninos Katsikopoulos, Don Clausing
Paper presented at 2004 Engineering Systems Symposium:
“Sustainability
as an Organizing Design Principle for Large-Scale Engineering
Systems”
Joel Cutcher-Gershenfeld, Frank Field, Ralph Hall, Randy Kirchain,
David Marks, Ken Oye, Joseph Sussman
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