A dialogue about the question, not the answer.

How can an optimization model take into account the effect that a system has on people, communities, and the environment? In this community dialogue, Prof. Aaron Johnson will lead us in collaboratively thinking about the different ways that we, as engineers, can account for the effect that our technology has on people and the environment. The first part of the dialogue will involve a small-group activity around Johnson and colleagues' work on spaceport location planning. Then, we will talk about the social and environmental factors that engineers can--and cannot--include in engineering models. We will not come to a single conclusion, and Johnson does not have one answer to give to you. Instead, the importance of this dialogue lies in posing this question as a part of engineering work, starting to talk about it together, and then continuing to think about it as we go about our engineering work.

Bio: Aaron W. Johnson is an Assistant Professor in the Aerospace Engineering Department and a Core Faculty member of the Engineering Education Research Program at the University of Michigan. His design-based research focuses on how to re-contextualize engineering science engineering courses to better reflect and prepare students for the reality of ill-defined, sociotechnical engineering practice. Johnson holds a B.S. in Aerospace Engineering from Michigan and a Ph.D. in Aeronautics and Astronautics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Prior to re-joining Michigan, he was an instructor in Aerospace Engineering Sciences at the University of Colorado Boulder. Outside of work, Johnson enjoys reading, collecting LEGO NASA sets, biking, camping, and playing disc golf.