Prof. Olivier L de Weck

Professor de Weck leads the Strategic Engineering Research Group (SERG). Strategic Engineering is the process of architecting and designing complex systems and products in a way that deliberately accounts for future uncertainty and context in order to maximize their lifecycle value.

Here are some of the questions we - and our research sponsors - are asking:

(*) Is the system reliable and does it perform robustly over a range of future operating conditions? What is its useful lifetime?
(*) How easy is it to upgrade or change the system by adding new functions, different features, infusing new technologies or scaling it up in size?
(*) How do man-made systems like roads and rail lines, electrical power grids, airline networks etc... evolve over time and are there predictable patterns to such evolution?
(*) Is it possible to develop new versions or variants from a manufactured product for new markets? How expensive or profitable is that ?
(*) How does the underlying architecture of a system, its complexity and degree of modularity or decentralization impact its lifecycle properties such as its flexibility to evolve?
(*) When does a system become obsolete or too complex and when it is time to retire it and replace it with a new system? How do you optimally introduce a new system, while continuing to operate the old one?
(*) What is the future of our technological human civilization on Earth? What does it take to explore space in a sustained way? What are the real requirements for long term space exploration campaigns, and eventually for building and operating planetary colonies?

The SERG Group answers some of these questions in rigorous and quantiative ways, developing new integrated approaches based on the principles of systems architecture and systems engineering, design theory, complexity science, management of technology, project management, as well as strategy and economics.