How do we create synergy between humans and engineered systems?

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Beyond computer networks, our physical infrastructure depends on information technology for its operation, yet it is vul
How do we create synergy between humans and engineered systems? Managing increasingly complex interactions

This paper was published in June 2015. The ideas and recommendations within it are among dozens of suggestions that arose from the Stanford Engineering Future process. Share your thoughts with us at [email protected].

How do we create synergy between humans and engineered systems?

Engineering exists to serve humanity, and as advances in information, communication and sensor technologies permeate our lives, the interface between us and our technology is becoming both richer and more complex. New technologies are transforming how we live: Our homes sense our presence and turn on the lights. Biomarker-guided personalized medicine allows individuals to choose a treatment plan tailored to their genetic makeup. Smart water meters guide us toward water conservation. Our mobile phones have become one of our strongest mechanisms of social interaction. At the same time, technology is making great strides in measuring how we live: Immense volumes of data are continuously generated about our consumption patterns, our health, our work habits, our communication with each other, our education, etc. But how well do these technologies understand what we want? A grand challenge for engineering is to manage the complex interface needed for technology to discover, understand and adapt to individual, social and cultural values over time. To succeed, engineers (and the systems we design) must be able to figure out the preferences and needs of users, who must, in turn, be able to communicate with systems to reveal their preferences. Furthermore, these interactions must attend to and improve the broader social systems of our lives. Urbanization, energy and the smart grid, autonomous technology, security, health care, social and economic networks, and financial systems provide examples of this evolving, complex interface between humans and technology. The School of Engineering is poised to play a leading role in all of the following realms. |2|

How do we create synergy between humans and engineered systems?

Urbanization Urban populations are growing in cities of all sizes, which requires scalable solutions for engineered urban systems. One way to meet this challenge is to design coupled networks of adaptable, flexible and modular urban systems (e.g., electricity and information) for scales ranging from neighborhoods to large regions. Modules may be virtual (e.g., a service) or physical (e.g., a building or a resource recovery system) and connected through exchanged data and controls in a manner that will sustain our natural environment along with our values, cultures and social norms. Innovations required to realize this vision include:

Energy and the smart grid The smart energy grid of the future is a complex system that will combine information technology throughout the power system with a range of novel mechanisms for changing human behavior, such as demand response. The challenge is that individual end users do not naturally express their preferences in terms of the quantities the power grid tries to stabilize: voltage, frequency, etc. Which interfaces help the grid learn the preferences of its users and align their behavior with good outcomes for the entire grid? This challenge requires powersystems engineers to effectively collaborate with economists and behavioral scientists.

Autonomous technology We expect autonomous technology to become an integral part of our societal fabric, from transportation (autonomous cars) to health care (autonomous surgery and biotechnology). Crucially, such systems must be reliable, controllable and capable of interacting responsibly with their human environment. Even more important, such systems raise significant social issues that we must address hand in hand with the technology (i.e., ethics, values, privacy and regulation).

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How do we create synergy between humans and engineered systems?

Security Securing our technology is already a first-order societal concern. Beyond computer networks, our physical infrastructure depends on information technology for its operation, yet it is vulnerable to security threats. This is partly a technological problem in that we need to design more secure systems, but it is also affected by human vulnerabilities, such as users choosing weak passwords. How will we provide an interface between humans and information technology that reinforces rather than weakens security?

Health care In the future, personalized medicine promises great advances in predicting individualized and effective treatments. However, understanding what the patient wants is not as simple: They may prefer shorter treatment durations, treatments that do not require hospitalization, or those that promote quality over quantity of life. How can our health care delivery system ensure that patient preferences are primary influences in the formulation of a treatment plan?

Social and economic networks Technology is transforming how we interact with each other socially and economically. In turn, these interactions generate information which is altering that same technology. Stanford is well positioned for a leading role in shaping and understanding the systems, algorithms, markets and mechanisms that govern our networked digital society.

The banking and financial system Engineering has revolutionized banking and finance: Ever more sophisticated financial instruments and securities have changed how risks are managed. However, these innovations take place in a system where the main actors are human, and that interaction has created systemic risks that we do not fully understand, as evidenced by the 2008 financial crisis. SoE, in partnership with other Stanford entities, is positioned to engineer the banking and financial system to deliver desired social values: robustness, reliability, transparency, fairness and efficiency.

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RECOMMENDATIONS

How do we create synergy between humans and engineered systems?

Stanford is among the only institutions in the world with the complementary strengths across its engineering, social science, humanities and professional schools to address the challenges raised at the interface between engineering and humanity. We suggest three specific ways to prepare engineers who are ready to address these challenges:

Nurture the humanist engineer

Globalize education

The preceding trends suggest the world will increasingly need engineers who can be humanistic in the engineering design process. Our future graduates will benefit not only from technical excellence, but also from empathy, ethics, social responsibility and, ultimately, a greater appreciation of how humans will use and react to the technology they create. These elements can be better integrated into the curriculum, both within SoE and through deeper curriculum connections to the humanities and social sciences.

Understanding how engineering systems are used, and designing them appropriately, differs globally based on geographic and cultural context. As the world becomes smaller, SoE should give every student the opportunity for an international experience that builds competencies for work across national boundaries.

Experiment at the boundaries of disciplines The challenges we have outlined are inherently interdisciplinary. A key goal of the SoE should be to create more collaboration between disciplines. The proposed interdisciplinary program targets precisely this goal.

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