Framing Questions about Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS) or the Question course runs only on Semester 1. This first semester, we learn how to be the future practitioners of the new branch of engineering who can carefully examine new and emerging technological systems, the building blocks they are made from, and the questions they raise for human society and our ecosystems.
This course is designed to challenge us to take different approaches to study and understanding cyber-physical systems (CPS): systems with human, technological, and environmental components. These approaches do not start with identifying and solving problems but instead begin with framing questions about these systems, building blocks and the dynamic relationships between their human, technological, and environmental components. I learn to engage with important terminology and detail, integrate multiple perspectives, question assumptions, and think critically and creatively to start with framing questions about emerging cyber-physical systems and the future we want to create with them collectively.
The Question course gives me exposure to conceptual approaches of the new branch of engineering. It draws on cybernetics, systems and control theory, design thinking and practice, scientific method, social science, humanities, and critical theory, as a foundation for applying the new branch of engineering’s approach to cyber-physical systems analysis.
