System Dynamics News
Graduate Wins Dana Meadows Award
Tod Bendor, a WPI system dynamics graduate currently pursuing a Ph.D. at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champagne won the Dana Meadows Award 05 for his work on nature preservation done together with his colleague Sara Metcalf. This award is given for the best paper and presentation by a graduate student at a system dynamics conference and carries a cash remuneration as well as a citation.
System Dynamics Focus of Two Events
System Dynamics majors David Liu '02 and Andrea Baker '03 were observers and student mentors at SymBowl, a high school system dynamics modeling competition held in Portland, Ore., in early May. They presented system dynamics models they had developed, which were widely appreciated by students and teachers attending the event. They also handed out WPI admissions information and informally counseled the students interested in pursuing a system dynamics major at WPI. Their participation was made possible by support from High Performance Systems, a leading firm in system dynamics modeling consulting and software development.
Dynamiquest Contests Hosted at WPI
On May 11, 2004, the Social Science and Policy Studies Department hosted DynamiQuest, a junior school System Dynamics Modeling exhibition organized by The Creative Learning Exchange. Held at the Campus Center, the event was attended by such system dynamics luminaries as Peter Senge, George Richardson and Jay Forrester, the founder of the field. Professors Michael Radzicki and Khalid Saeed attended on WPI's behalf. High points of the event included an exhibit on system dynamics work of WPI students arranged by the WPI System Dynamics Club and a modeling exercise based on The Butter Battle Book by Dr. Seuss, moderated by George Richardson.
Professor John Sterman Lectures on System Dynamics
Water is flowing into a bathtub at a varying rate, and out of the tub at a steady rate. When will the tub overflow? John Sterman, Jay Forrester Professor at the MIT Sloan School of Management, posed that problem to students during a recent lecture on problem solving at WPI. It seems simple, but the students got it wrong. The problem, Sterman said, demonstrates that complex systems are difficult to deal with because they are counterintuitive. For example, it's hard to estimate the effects of a public policy after five years because one can't keep track of all the variables, let alone understand how they interact. And, "solutions" create additional problems that require their own solutions, resulting into a cyclical nightmare.
System dynamics provides tools for tackling complexity. It's not a computer program or list of procedures that magically fixes problems. Rather, it's a way of approaching the world that can provide insights into how things work. To date, it has been credited with saving companies billions of dollars, providing key material for improving social programs and policies (like the war on drugs, taxes and environmental concerns), and giving a few students here at WPI something to crow about.
System Dynamics Receives Professor's Gift
Jay Wright Forrester recently donated 30 shares of Alza Corp. to WPI's Social Science and Policy Studies Department. The gift, valued at $2,500, will support the student System Dynamics Club. Forrester founded the field of system dynamics at MIT nearly 50 years ago. He serves on the advisory board for system dynamics at WPI. He also directs programs at MIT to support system dynamics education in K-12 curricula and professional development.
Maintained by webmaster@wpi.eduLast modified: September 28, 2006 14:33:22