Wicked Problems

How to Engineer a Better World

By: Guru Madhavan

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Hardcover | 23 May 2024 | Edition Number 1

At a Glance

Hardcover
384 Pages

Dimensions(cm)
2.29 x 1.52 x 0.33

Hardcover

RRP $49.95

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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.

Industry Reviews

"Madhavan champions the importance of looking at seemingly technical problems through a wider lens-such as the business, policy and social aspects... Wicked Problems is a wake-up call for all engineers to expand their mindset." -- Susan Krumdieck - Nature

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