Our world is filled with pernicious problems. How, for example, did novice pilots learn to fly without taking to the air and risking their lives? How should cities process mountains of waste without polluting the environment?

Challenges that tangle personal, public, and planetary aspects - often occurring in health care, infrastructure, business, and policy - are known as wicked problems, and they are not going away anytime soon.

In this talk, the Author of Wicked Problems, engineer Guru Madhavan, will illuminate how wicked problems have emerged throughout history and how best to address them in the future. He will examine best-known tragedies and lesser-known tales, from the efficient design of battleships to a volcano eruption that curtailed global commerce.

An homage to society’s innovators and maintainers, Guru will offer a refreshing vision for all backgrounds to build a better future and demonstrate how engineering is a cultural choice - one that requires us to restlessly find ways to transform society, but perhaps more critically, to care for the creations that already exist.

Guru will be joined in conversation by Sir Charles Godfray, Director of the Oxford Martin School.

The talk will be followed by a drinks reception and book signing.

REGISTRATION

• To register to join the event live in-person in Oxford, scroll to the bottom of the page and complete the form.
• To register to join live online on Crowdcast: https://www.crowdcast.io/c/how-to-engineer-a-better-world
• To watch later: https://www.youtube.com/live/TqKIpU4Ua8g

Guru Madhavan
Senior Director of Programmes, US National Academy of Engineering

Guru Madhavan is the Norman R. Augustine Senior Scholar and Senior Director of Programmes at the US National Academy of Engineering. He is an elected fellow of the Institution of Engineering and Technology (UK), the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Institute of Medical and Biological Engineering, and the American Society of Mechanical Engineers.

A biomedical systems engineer, he is a prizewinning author of essays and books, including Applied Minds: How Engineers Think and Wicked Problems: How to Engineer a Better World. He lives in Washington, DC.

In-Person Registration

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