Introduction to Engineering Systems
MIT's ESD.00 introduces engineering systems thinking through team-based projects tackling large, real-world problems such as energy supply, environmental issues, health care delivery, and infrastructure like telecommunications, water, and transportation. The course draws on engineering, management, and social science methods to frame these problems as interconnected systems rather than isolated technical puzzles. Small, faculty-led teams choose a term project that applies one or more of these interdisciplinary approaches, working through problem framing, stakeholder analysis, and systems-level tradeoffs. Materials on MIT OpenCourseWare include the syllabus, project guidelines, and assignment structure used in the actual MIT class. The course suits students who want practice translating messy, multi-stakeholder problems into engineering systems frameworks rather than a single-discipline technical curriculum. No certificate is offered, consistent with MIT OpenCourseWare's open publication of course materials.