Wicked Problems: Lessons from the “Pilot Maker”
CME Department Seminar
March 14, 2025
11:00 AM - 12:00 PM America/Chicago
Location
ERF Room 1047 and Zoom
Address
842 W. Taylor St., Chicago, IL 60607
Calendar
Download iCal FilePresenter: Guru Madhavan, PhD, National Academy of Engineering
Location: ERF Room 1047 and Zoom
Meeting ID: 830 5224 6369
Passcode: CME@1234
Abstract: Our world is filled with pernicious problems. How, for example, did novice pilots learn to fly without taking to the air and risking their lives? How should cities process mountains of waste without polluting the environment? Challenges that tangle personal, public, and planetary aspects―often occurring in health care, infrastructure, business, and policy―are known as wicked problems, and they are not going away anytime soon. Using key facets of systems engineering, this talk will illuminate how wicked problems have emerged throughout history and how best to address them in the future. Braided throughout is the uplifting tale of Edwin Link, an unsung hero who revolutionized aviation with his flight trainer and the demonstration that engineering is a cultural choice―one that requires us to restlessly find ways to transform society, but perhaps more critically, to care for the creations that already exist
Speaker Bio: Guru Madhavan is the Norman R. Augustine Senior Scholar and senior director of programs at the National Academy of Engineering. A systems engineer, he has served as a technical adviser for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the European Union Malaria Fund and previously in medical device industry, contributed to cardiovascular and neuromuscular technologies. He is an elected fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Institute of Medical and Biological Engineering, the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, a companion of the Royal Aeronautical Society, and a member of the European Academy of Sciences and Arts. His books include Applied Minds: How Engineers Think and most recently, Wicked Problems: How to Engineer a Better World.
Date posted
Mar 5, 2025
Date updated
Mar 5, 2025