Wicked Problems: How to Engineer a Better World

Madhavan, Guru

ISBN 10: 0393651460 / ISBN 13: 9780393651461

Published by W. W. Norton & Company, 2024

About this Item

Inscribed by author to PO on title page. DJ has very minor bumping to edges, otherwise clean and free of markings. Pages clean and free of markings. Binding tight. BP/engineering.

Seller Inventory # ABE-1761421832748

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Wicked Problems: How to Engineer a Better World
• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
• Publication Date: 2024
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0393651460
• ISBN 13: 9780393651461
• Binding: Hardcover
• Condition: As New
• Dust Jacket Condition: Very Good
• Signed: Inscribed by Author(s)
• Seller catalogs:
  • Engineering

About this title

Synopsis

An ode to systems engineers―whose invisible work undergirds our life―and an exploration of the wicked problems they tackle.

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.

In linked chapters focusing on key facets of systems engineering―efficiency, vagueness, vulnerability, safety, maintenance, and resilience―engineer Guru Madhavan illuminates how wicked problems have emerged throughout history and how best to address them in the future. He examines best-known tragedies and lesser-known tales, from the efficient design of battleships to a volcano eruption that curtailed global commerce, and how maintenance of our sanitation systems constitutes tikkun olam, or repair of our world. Braided throughout is the uplifting tale of Edwin Link, an unsung hero who revolutionized aviation with his flight trainer. In Link’s story, Madhavan uncovers a model mindset to engage with wickedness.

An homage to society’s innovators and maintainers, Wicked Problems offers a refreshing vision for readers of all backgrounds to build a better future and demonstrates how 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.

About the Author

Guru Madhavan is the Norman R. Augustine Senior Scholar and senior director of programs at the National Academy of Engineering. He is a prizewinning author of essays and books including Wicked Problems, from which The Blue Box is excerpted, and Applied Minds. He lives in Washington, DC.