The elegant book written by De Weck and his co-authors suggest that, in today’s complex world, people must conform to the technology and engineering artifacts through adoption of macro engineering systems. Through their extensive study, they identify that this intersecting macro-engineering systems compost of the management, engineering, and social sciences. They consider the technology framework to comprise of future needs, societal consequences and evolution of the systems. The book denotes that the engineering system posses the capacity to promote that development of new approaches to design, manage and analyze these systems. This comprehensive book uses several historical records, technological observations and education rules to relay the information and advance its arguments (De Weck, 2012).
The well organized book is subdivided into eight chapters. The initial chapter mainly traces the historical background of major discoveries and inventions of the technological systems and their development. The main invented systems during this time are transportation, energy and communication systems. The author narrates how human struggle to meet basic needs through cultivation of food, hunting and construction of shelter resulted into innovation of different tools and artifacts for accommodation. Throughout the industrial revolution, the great inventions of 19th century have continued to enter into an era of explosive growth and innovation. Since that time, the rates of invention of different technological appliances have tremendously increased. For instance, the year 1837 telegraph, 1879 telephone and William Gilbert discovery on static electricity in 1832 have greatly developed. These discoveries and advances have been a product of complex experimentation, subsequent failures, advances, and finally success. Scholars, scientist and other concerned bodies discovered that these forms of technological growth were being supported by all sectors of the ecosystem (De Weck, 2012).
In the second chapter of this book, De Weck et al focus mainly on the properties and the characteristics of the technological systems. He presents them as complex, dynamic and of high value to the society. To greater extend the literature presents system engineering as holistic and interdisciplinary system that accomplishes all important functions of the society. The system overlaps both humanly centered disciples and technical applications such as organization studies, control engineering, risk and project management. This chapter continues to spell out on the critical need of proper system synthesis and analysis on the holistic functionality during its development cycle. Holistic view presents the system to need both the technical and the management team for processing and production of end product. As an interdisciplinary field, it spells out that engineering system needs diverse technical contribution in order to develop and function properly. To control this complex scope of the system, a proper management that can control algorithms, manage complex human resources and analyze the environment is necessary (De Weck, 2012).
The third chapter of this interesting book mainly expands on the need of revision of perspectives. The author in his study portrays that technologies always emerge with low end segments that need a new focus for development and effectiveness in the market. The empirical findings from this book discover that disruptive forms of innovation may only succeed where incumbents are already initiated. During this development period, it is necessary to involve all the actors to avoid chances of barriers in the societal adoption. The chapter mainly advocates for the development of the systems to maximize their efficiency and adoption in the society (De Weck, 2012).
In chapter five, the book clearly spells out the different tools and techniques for analyzing and modeling the engineering systems. This section presents architectural systems as complex systems that require a series of actions using modeling tools to achieve the results. One of the basic units of the methods is the Unified Modeling Language (UML). The chapter spells out the need of functionality of architectural systems and accounts for the relative impacts of its operation on human and the environmental development. In chapter six, the author exposes the different designs that have been produced by the engineering system. He supports the need of developing these systems efficiently in respect to the social norms and disciplinary boundaries. The book spell out that implementation of these products is of great value to the entire society. The author anticipates for the emergence of better engineer in the future that will combat the current challenges efficiently and with ease (De Weck, 2012).
In chapter seven, the author extensively provides that historical background of the engineering systems and engineering education. The Author traces back the origin of engineering from the Egyptian pyramids, Empire State Building and Roman aqueducts. The book speculates that most of this engineering works operated without major science concepts and theories. As seen during World War II, project managers and engineers were mandated to manage aircraft operations such as propulsion structure and control systems. During 1950s, system engineering emerged to produce the current robust engineers who are able to manage the current complex engineering works. The well developed engineering education systems and high level of technology across the globe have resulted into better design and synthesis of different elements in the systems (De Weck, 2012).
The closing chapter in this book mainly speculates on what the future hold for the systems engineering. The chapter mainly bases itself on the continuous civilization to achieve a global web of systems. The chapter still believes in holistic and integrated mechanisms of archiving the quality future systems. In summary, through comprehensive study, the author provides better reasons on his believe in evolution as a common denominator for the technological development. He challenges engineers to work closely in order to co-design their artifacts that may achieve desirable results in the society (De Weck, 2012). As seen, the well developed book exclusively achieves to relay its important information concerning engineering systems.
References
De, W. O. L., Roos, D., & Magee, C. L. (2012). Engineering systems: Meeting human needs in a complex technological world. Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press Pp. 1-167 Retrieved from http://www.worldcat.org/title/engineering-systems-meeting-human-needs-in-a-complex-technological-world/oclc/719429227
