IES - What if Systems Transition Engineering is the sustainability revolution that the world is hoping for?

This presentation is not about the trouble we are in!

Engineers are acutely aware that society’s wellbeing depends entirely on engineered systems, infrastructures and products. We have the technical intelligence to accept that the good things we provide are also causing risks to our survival. This is why we encounter wicked problems in every field of engineering.

The presentation will make the argument for an evolution in engineering that will change the trajectory of the 21st Century. The evidence for the argument is informed by research into previous evolutions in engineering around safety. The implications of the argument will be explored by presentation of the Systems Transition Engineering Processes (STEPs) discipline and the Transition Engineering methodology. As with safety, all engineers can easily learn how to diagnose problems and contribute strategic ingenuity and resourcefulness to develop shift projects in any line of work. Shift projects deliver the aim of downshifting unsustainable activity while building new values aligned with sustainable development. Systems Transition Engineering is much more than renewable energy development and advocating decarbonization. The Global Society for Transition Engineering (GATE) was founded in 2014 to grow the discipline and establish wide-spread practice.

Professor Susan Krumdieck is an American Mechanical Engineer, with 21 years experience at University of Canterbury in New Zealand building the research foundations for Energy Transition Engineering. She accepted a Chair in Energy Transition Engineering at Heriot-Watt to establish a STEPs research and education program, plus a Transition Lab working directly with companies, communities and local government to tackle wicked problems through whole-systems approaches to placemaking.

Susan has a track record of more than 100 journal publications, building engineering education programs, working with a wide range of communities, industries and government, and now establishing the first STEPs Program in Edinburgh.

An objective of this meeting is to establish a link between IES and GATE, and encourage all IES members to work toward GATE Membership.

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Inperson  (Royal Faculty of Procurators in Glasgow (RFPG), 12 Nelson Mandela Pl, Glasgow G2 1BT)

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