The implementation of the “acting/thinking in complexity”  competency for engineers is rooted in the MSEI diploma with the help of a practical guidance that can be found in the recent book by a member of our teaching group one of us, J.Y. Rossignol (2018) [1], the leading initiator of the MSEI cursus.

 

Applied to the engineering of sustainable solutions in response to various challenges, it consists in promoting holistic, systemic and interdisciplinary approaches:

• there exists no universal solution or recipe, no miraculous model;

• models are seen as media of intermediation for co-building an understanding of all issue, share by all stakeholders

• the project objectives or questions must always be questioned at first in the light of social, ecological, technical, economics, climate, landscape, …issues;

• solutions are integrative and necessarily co-built with all stakeholders;

• discuss while acting;

• reassess goals during projects,

• design relevant indicators,

• periodically evaluate means of evaluation,

• …

 

[1] Rossignol J.Y. (2018). Complexité - Fondamentaux à l'usage des étudiants et des professionnels, EDP Sciences.