Engineering systems: critical infrastructure and logistics. UW-Madison EGR 102 Introduction to Engineering.

1. Theme 3:
Engineering systems:
Critical infrastructure & logistics
Professor Laura Albert McLay

2. A system is a set of things—people, cells,
molecules or whatever—interconnected in such
a way that they produce their own pattern of
behavior over time.
—Donella Meadows
What is a system?

3. Transportation, critical infrastructure, power and energy, systems that
connect people across cities, states, countries
We will focus on
large-scale engineered systems

5. Critical infrastructure* means
systems and assets so vital to the United States that
their incapacity or destruction would have a debilitating
impact on security, national economic security, national
and/or public health or safety
- Patriot Act
* it’s not just for civil engineers! My these has something for everyone, especially electrical,
computer, industrial, mechanical, civil, and environmental.

6. Critical infrastructure has been around
for a long time!
Aqueducts, concrete columns, and roads courtesy of Ancient Rome!

7. Our world is becoming increasingly
urban and increasingly connected
http://www.megacities.uni-koeln.de/

8. Logistics
Logistics is the management of the flow of things
between the point of origin and the point of
consumption in order to meet requirements of
customers.
Logistics is about creating
"people systems" rather
than "machine systems"

9. Some of the engineering grand
challenges are systems challenges
• Restore and improve urban infrastructure
• Prevent nuclear terror
• Secure cyberspace
• Advance health informatics
• Engineer the tools of scientific discovery

11. How to move people around using a
systems approach?

12. The Power Grid

13. Power systems are vulnerable!

14. Creating a smart grid:
Every aspect of the power grid needs improvement

15. When things go wrong…
Disasters & homeland security

16. Remember Theme 3:
Engineering systems:
Critical infrastructure & logistics