Designing Policy using Modeling within Complex Socio-Technical Systems

Robert Glass, Jr. is the 2011-2012 Perry Fellow at CISAC. Before coming to CISAC, he was a Senior Scientist in the office of Complex Adaptive Systems of Systems Engineering Initiative at Sandia National Laboratories, New Mexico. He has published in peer reviewed journals such as Critical Infectious Diseases, Emerging Infectious Diseases and Physica A. He received a PhD and a MS from Cornell University in Agricultural and Biological Engineering and a BS from Haverford College. This seminar will expand upon a plenary given at the recent Association for Public Policy Analysis & Management’s conference in Washington DC (November 3-5, 2011) entitled “Designing Influence in Complex Adaptive Systems of Systems or CASoS Engineering.” CASoS are ubiquitous: they include people, organizations, cities, infrastructure, government, ecosystems, the planet – in short, nearly everything that involves biological and social systems. CASoS Engineering entails designing ways of influencing CASoS, or in context of many socio-technical systems, the design of policy. Foundational to the design process is the use of models that conceptualize the system of interest and render it in a mathematical form that allows computational simulation to evaluate the comparative effectiveness of alternatives. The design process will be illustrated through its application during 2005-2006 when it was used to help define US policy for pandemic influenza. If time allows, additional examples that consider the socially mediated transfer of ideas and behaviors will be discussed. For background, please visit: http://www.sandia.gov/CasosEngineering/