Faculty & Staff

Khalid Saeed

Professor

Office: Salisbury Laboratories, 310D
Phone: +1-508-831-5563
Fax: +1-508-831-5896
saeed@wpi.edu

Related Information

Educational Background

 

Research & Teaching Interests

System dynamics, sustainable development, governance, innovation

IQP Advising Interests

Water pollution, natural resource management, assault on tropical fauna & flora, conservation, energy demand & supply (modeling), energy politics, electric utilities, energy policy, redevelopment of urban areas, transportation planning, resource management, demographic policies, preservation of agricultural lands, economics in mature countries, economics in developing countries, entrepreneurship, introducing new teaching materials

Research

My research is on sustainable economic development and I use system dynamics, a computer modeling and simulation approach allowing experimentation with the relationships underlying a problem, as my research method. This research method has helped me develop a new perspective on policy which I see not as a set of instruments that should alleviate existing conditions, but as structural and institution changes in the system that alter its internal tendencies.

I give credence both to environmental and social considerations when addressing sustainable economic development, since a dysfunctional society and a failed economy can appear even when environmental capacity exists to accommodate human activity. Hence, I consider poverty alleviation, creation of civil liberties and freedoms, reduction of threats to state and to public welfare to be as important as environmental considerations for defining the parameters of sustainability and they are all addressed in my research.

Dealing with complex social problems has also forced me to address related methodological issues in system dynamics like how composite problems should be partitioned and how a problem pattern relevant to policy agendas should be constructed from qualitative and quantitative information sources.

I have found that public policy is often susceptible to being stated as interventions that rely on the power of the leadership rather than the instruments that might affect motivations of the actors in the system, whereas the maintenance of leadership power often conflicts with its commitment to public welfare. This requires attention to the design of governance and regulatory institution as well as carefully crafting implementation strategies. Hence, my most recent work is aimed at addressing policy implementation agendas.

Recent Publications

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Honors & Awards

 

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