Frameworks and Models in Engineering Systems
MIT OpenCourseWare offers this course on quantitative models and qualitative frameworks for analyzing complex engineering systems. Students learn to abstract a complex system into a workable model for analysis and design, handling complexity, emergent behavior, stochastic effects, non-linearities, and the competing objectives of multiple stakeholders. The course requires a semester-long project applying these models and frameworks to a contemporary interdisciplinary issue, integrating perspectives from civil and environmental engineering with systems thinking. Materials come from MIT's Engineering Systems Division and include the syllabus, lecture materials, and project guidelines typical of OCW course sites. The course is aimed at students who want structured tools for tackling real-world systems that resist simple linear analysis, rather than a survey of a single engineering discipline. No certificate is offered, consistent with MIT OpenCourseWare's open publishing model.