We are pleased to announce that we are hosting a talk by Daniel Pargman on Monday, January 13 at 11:00 AM.

The chief source of problems are solutions: how to teach engineering students about complexity and sustainability

Daniel Pargman, associate professor in Media Technology with a specialisation in Sustainability, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, Sweden

In person: Campus Pierre et Marie Curie, entrance tower 66, 3rd floor, corridor 66-65 (ISIR), room 304.

Please indicate if you plan on attending in person through filling the following form: https://evento.renater.fr/survey/registration-for-in-person-attendance-at-daniel-pargmans-talk-9lh15d9z

Virtual: https://cnrs.zoom.us/j/91946078826?pwd=8OrOR96C7YPDb3p4NtJFxQ6oDIlcx3.1

Engineering students learn to solve problems (and problems have solutions). But what if, in a world that is increasingly characterised by complexity and uncertainty, complicated problems have morphed into complex, “wicked” predicaments that have no clear solutions? What if feedback loops, delays and tipping points reshape techno-socio-ecological problems into “predicaments” that are hard to understand, master and solve? If engineering students previously have learned to solve complicated problems, the most difficult challenges that humanity will face during the 21st century pertain to sustainability, so how do we now help our students learn to deal with complex systems? I will describe the new master’s programme in “Sustainable Digitalisation” at KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, Sweden and the ideas behind the program.

Daniel Pargman is an Associate Professor Media Technology and is the co-leader of Sustainable Futures Lab, a research group that works in the intersection of computing and sustainability. He is also vice program director of a new two-year master’s programme in Sustainable Digitlization at KTH Royal Institute of Technology. Daniel is also a founding member of the annual workshop/conference Computing within Limits and was the co-chair of the 10th International Conference on Information and Communications Technology for Sustainability (ICT4S) in June 2024. The two overarching questions that guide his research are 1) What happens when exponential developments in computing bump into sustainability-related limitations and 2) What is the role of ICT in the transformation to a more sustainable society?

Meadows, D. (1999). Leverage points: Places to intervene in a system. Hartland, VT: The Sustainability Institute.

Easterbrook, S. (2014, August). From Computational Thinking to Systems Thinking: A conceptual toolkit for sustainability computing. In ICT for Sustainability 2014 (ICT4S-14) (pp. 235-244). Atlantis Press.