Event
MechE Seminar Richard de Neufville, MIT, Flexibility in Engineering Design
Friday, February 25, 2011
2:00 p.m.
DeWalt Seminar Room, 2164 Glenn L. Martin Hall
Prof. Peter Sandborn
301 405 3167
sandborn@umd.edu
http://www.enme.umd.edu/seminars/
Mechanical Engineering Distinguished Seminar Series
"Flexibility in Engineering Design"
Richard de Neufville, Ph.D.
Professor of Engineering Systems and Civil and Environmental Engineering
MIT
Abstract:
Flexibility in design is an idea whose time has come back! While we rationally keep options open in planning our careers, the standard model of engineering design, of systems engineering in particular, has driven out this notion. The textbook exposition of systems engineering starts with Step 1: define the requirements as the prelude to optimizing to those specific criteria. The resulting system is generally inappropriate, however, insofar as the requirements change, along with technology, markets, regulations and other definitions of need and opportunity.
The analysis for flexible design requires us to investigate the performance of systems not just under an assumed condition, but for many, many different scenarios. As available stochastic programming and other optimization approaches cannot deal with the computational size of systems designs in large numbers of scenarios, we need to employ a layered approach to systems design. We need a procedure combining screening models, simulation and subsequently optimization. This talk describes the approach and applies it to major systems such as oil platforms, automobile production and skyscrapers. Experience indicates that the use of flexible design for the design of such systems can lead to significant, double digit percent improvements in expected value.
Biography:
Richard de Neufville, Professor of Engineering Systems and of Civil Engineering at MIT, is an engineer and system designer. His research and teaching now focus on inserting flexibility into the design of technological systems. Major industrial and government projects show that the use of real options, enabling managers to react to unanticipated events, significantly increases overall expected performance. This work implies a fundamental shift in the engineering design paradigm, from a focus on fixed specifications, to a concern with system performance under the broad range of situations that could occur. His book Flexibility in Design (co-authored with Stefan Scholtes of the University of Cambridge) is being published by the MIT Press in 2011. 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.
For more information, please visit Professor de Neufvilles homepage.
