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Technology, Policy and Education: Education for Leadership in Engineering

Moderator: Dava Newman Sm '89, PhD '92
Richard de Neufville '60, SM '61, PhD '65 Sheila Widnall '60, SM '61, ScD '64 Joel Moses PhD '67 Granger Morgan: June 8, 2006; Running Time: 1:53:50

About the Lecture

About the Lecture

In this panel, founders of technology and policy programs at MIT and elsewhere recall the early years, take stock of the current state of engineering education and look to the future.

“Society faces major issues neither technology nor policy sciences can handle alone,” states Richard de Neufville. These include medical care and energy. TPP and similar programs fill the gap, coming at these problems with an interdisciplinary approach. But de Neufville feels surrounded by colleagues who “would gladly see us fail,” who think money spent on such special programs is wasteful. Shoring up the technology and policy paradigm in academia will take at least a generation, and must be accomplished through “unrelenting pursuit of excellence,” a “demanding curriculum,” and “stiff entrance exams.”

At Carnegie Mellon, a tradition of interdepartmental collaboration has provided a more comfortable setting for Granger Morgan’s engineering and public policy program. Nevertheless, as a solid backer of such efforts around the country, he notes the “need to remain in equilibrium, requiring a constant input of energy.” Morgan points to the collapse of programs at Cornell and Washington University. A few new programs have come on line, but “given the small numbers, we need to work together, to build a strong community,” he says.

Government is taking a fresh, and urgent look at the nature of science and engineering education, says Sheila Widnall. The National Research Council responded to a congressional request to determine “what steps should be taken in science and engineering education so the U.S. can successfully compete.” The report, issued recently, didn’t yield “anything earthshaking -- there are no silver bullets in this field,” cautions Widnall. Among the recommendations: Increase America’s talent pool by vastly improving K-12 science and math education; sustain a commitment to basic research and development; interest the best and brightest in science and engineering higher education, including foreign students; and provide incentives for innovation and investment.

Joel Moses describes the evolution of the technology and policy program, in the context of MIT’s post-World War 2 history. Physicists, credited with the successes of MIT’s illustrious Rad Lab, defined much of the emphasis of the engineering school for many years. They chose other physicists to head up divisions, and emphasized math and physics. It was a revolution, says Moses, “that went too far.” By the 1970s, “people were trying to rebalance the situation” -- by founding TPP, for instance. The curriculum gradually opened up to design and engineering management courses. “The fights were unbelievable,” Moses recounts. Today, he concludes, the proliferation of such complex, large-scale systems as education, healthcare and manufacturing necessitates the need to attract talented students to engineering and science, lest they be lost to law, medicine and business.

Lecture Details

Location: E51-345

About the Speakers

Moderator: Dava Newman Sm '89, PhD '92

Professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics and Engineering Systems Director of Technology and Policy Program and MacVicar Faculty Fellow

Dava Newman specializes in investigating astronaut performance across the spectrum of gravity. She is currently the Principal Investigator (PI) on the MICR0-G space flight experiment to quantify astronaut intravehicular activity (IVA) onboard the International Space Station. Previously, she has been the PI for Space Shuttle experiments dealing with load sensors and astronaut workloads.

Newman earned a Ph.D. from MIT in Aeronautics, Biomed and Engineering.

Richard de Neufville '60, SM '61, PhD '65

Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering and Engineering Systems;
Founding Director, MIT Technology and Policy Program

Richard de Neufville is author of five major texts on systems analysis in engineering. This work has been recognized by a Guggenheim Fellowship, the NATO Systems Science Prize; the Sizer Award for the Most Significant Contribution to MIT Education, the Martore and MIT Effective Teaching Awards, and the US Federal Aviation Award for Excellence in Teaching. The French Government made him a Chevalier des Palmes Académiques. He is currently the Chair of the Education Policy Committee for the Engineering Systems Division.

De Neufville holds appointments at Harvard with the Kennedy School of Government, and at the University of Cambridge in the Judge Business School. He has a Ph.D. from MIT and a Dr. h.c. from the Delft University of Technology. In 1965 he served as a first White House Fellow for President Lyndon Johnson.

Sheila Widnall '60, SM '61, ScD '64

Institute Professor, and Professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics

Sheila Widnall received her B.Sc. (1960), M.S. (1961), and Sc.D. (1964) in Aeronautics and Astronautics from MIT. She was appointed Abby Rockefeller Mauze Professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics in 1986 and Institute Professor in 1998. She served as Associate Provost, Massachusetts Institute of Technology from 1992-1993 and as Secretary of the Air Force from 1993-1997. Widnall stepped down from her position as Secretary of the Air Force on October 31, 1997 to return to her faculty position at MIT. Since returning to MIT, she has been active in the Lean Aerospace Initiative with special emphasis on the space and policy focus teams.

Widnall is Vice President of the National Academy of Engineering and a member of the Executive Committee of the National Research Council of the National Academies. She is a trustee of the Sloan Foundation and the Institute for Defense Analysis. She has been a trustee of the Carnegie Corporation and Vice Chair of its Board, a consultant to the Macarthur Foundation, a Director of the Aerospace Corporation, Draper Laboratories, ANSER Corp., GenCorp, Inc., Chemical Fabrics Inc., and a trustee of the Boston Museum of Science, and a member of the Council, Smithsonian Institution of Washington. She was a member of the Carnegie Commission on Science, Technology and Government and the Columbia Accident Investigation Board. She is a past president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics.

Joel Moses PhD '67

Institute Professor and Professor of Computer Science and Engineering and Engineering Systems Acting Director, Center for Technology, Policy and Industrial Development

Joel Moses has served as MIT’s Provost, Dean of Engineering, Head of the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS), Associate Head of EECS, and Associate Director of the Laboratory for Computer Science. He was also instrumental in the conceptualization of a joint engineering and management graduate program, which is now the System Design and Management Program, and in creating the Engineering Systems Division.

Moses is a member of the National Academy of Engineering, and a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Association for the Advancement of Sciences, and of the IEEE. He led the development of the Macsyma system for algebraic formula manipulation and is the co-developer of the Knowledge-Based Systems concept in Artificial Intelligence. His current interests include the complexity and flexibility of engineering systems, algebraic formula manipulation, and knowledge-based systems.

Moses received his undergraduate degree and master’s degrees in mathematics from Columbia University, and his doctorate in mathematics from MIT.

Granger Morgan

Lord University Professor and Department Head, Engineering and Public Policy; Carnegie Mellon University Professor, Heinz School of Public Policy and Management
College of Engineering

Much of Granger Morgan’s work has involved the development and demonstration of methods to characterize and analyze uncertainty. He has addressed issues in the integrated assessment of climate change impacts and policy. He explores problems such as distributed resources, carbon management, and basic technology research to support clean energy. He has worked extensively in risk analysis, communication and ranking.

Morgan received a B.A. in Physics from Harvard College, an M.S. in Astronomy and Space Science from Cornell University, and a Ph.D. in Applied Physics and Information Science from the University of California, San Diego.

He joined Carnegie Mellon University in 1974 and became the head of the Department of Engineering and Public Policy in 1977. From 1986 to 1995, he served as the Director of the Carnegie Mellon Program in International Peace and Security.