Solving Complex Problems: Structured Thinking, Design Principles, and AI

Engineering projects with shifting goals. Inefficient national healthcare systems. The online spread of misinformation. Every day, professionals are tasked with addressing major challenges that present opportunities for great triumph—or significant failure. How do you approach an important, large-scale challenge with evolving and contradictory constraints? Is the solution a new technology, a new policy, or something else altogether?

In our new course Solving Complex Problems: Structured Thinking, Design Principles, and AI, you’ll acquire core principles that will change the way you approach and solve large-scale challenges—increasing your likelihood of success. Over the course of five days, you will explore proven design principles, heuristic-based insights, and problem-solving approaches, and learn how to persuasively present concepts and system architectures to stakeholders. Methods utilize recent developments in AI and Big Data, as well as innovative strategies from MIT Lincoln Laboratory that have been successfully applied to large and complex national defense systems.

By taking part in interactive lectures and hands-on projects, you will learn to think through and leverage important steps, including problem abstraction, idea generation, concept development and refinement, system-level thinking, and proposal generation. Alongside an accomplished group of global peers, you will explore the strategies and frameworks you need to implement large-scale systems that can have a significant positive impact—and minimize the probability of failure.

• Approach and solve large and complex problems.
• Assess end-to-end processes and associated challenges, in order to significantly increase the likelihood of success in developing more complex systems.
• Implement effective problem-solving techniques, including abstracting the problem, idea generation, concept development and refinement, system-level thinking, and proposal generation.
• Utilize system-level thinking skills to evaluate, refine, down select, and evaluate best ideas and concepts.
• Apply the Axiomatic Design methodology to a broad range of applications in manufacturing, product design, software, and architecture.
• Generate and present proposals that clearly articulate innovative ideas, clarify the limits of current strategies, define potential customers and impact, and outline a success-oriented system development and risk mitigation plan.
• Effectively communicate ideas and persuade others, and provide valuable feedback.
• Confidently develop and execute large-scale system concepts that will drive significant positive impact.

This course is appropriate for professionals who design or manage complex systems with shifting needs and goals. It is also well suited to those who want to improve the quality and performance of their operations and decision-making in a large-scale system environment. Potential participants include engineers, group leaders, and senior managers in government and industries including automotive, aerospace, semiconductors, engineering, manufacturing, healthcare, bio-medical, finance, architecture, public policy, education, and military.

Computer Requirements

A laptop with PowerPoint is required.