Of course! For pipe networks, finding the optimal measurement site (the location and number of sites, Sensors) that you need to ensure the acceptable accuracy of solutions (more measurement site, more accuracy but more cost) is another challenge in this problem. Moreover, the lifestyle of people, population, whether condition and ... influence the results and should be taken into account. 

Hello Jakob

This is a very good way of making students think.... nothing better than an ill-formed or complex problem! 

In my teaching, I would give students a problem (structure)  that has been modelled using a computer software. i would also give them a solution (output) to the problem. But the solution I give them has got errors in it. They are then asked to say what if anything is wrong with the solution, and why it is wrong. This exercise is found challenging by most students. It helps them develop their understanding of how structures perform and respond when subjected to certain loading.

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Hello Dr. Bruhl 

one of the most complex problems, I approached in the field of civil engineering was to determine the roughness of pipes and the location of leakage in a water distribution network using inverse analysis. for this purpose, we model the existing network using EPANET (computer software) and for the night loading condition, we compare the outputs of software with  real measured values (for example pressure or demand). The aim is to change  the roughness of pipes and location of the leakage in a way that outputs of software  reach with an agreement to measured data. The nature of the problem is so complicated and follow an ill-formed. Usually, a lot of set of solutions could lead to that agreement. So that it is recommended to use several data series (measurements in different loading conditions).   

Messaoud and Amin - Thanks for your ideas. I can see how the computer solution with errors and inverse analysis of pipe networks could help bring students to higher levels of learning. In these examples, are there also ways to bring in social and economic factors that may complicate the solutions? The "ideal" problem for our seniors to wrestle with would involve more than just technical components but would require them to consider social, economic, and/or political issues that cannot be ignored.

It is a good idea to add socio-economic factors to make the problem more challenging to a higher level of investigation. May be for master students that will be a good way to go about it (so far I have tried it with undergraduate students).

Of course! For pipe networks, finding the optimal measurement site (the location and number of sites, Sensors) that you need to ensure the acceptable accuracy of solutions (more measurement site, more accuracy but more cost) is another challenge in this problem. Moreover, the lifestyle of people, population, whether condition and ... influence the results and should be taken into account. 

Not sure this would work, but it intrigues me. Just read a wonderful book by a favorite author, Neal Stephenson's Seven Eves. Cataclysmic lunar event creates havoc on earth. Astronauts and "saved peoples" survive in space is the major plot. One astronaut's father is a miner in Alaska. In a major plot twist, his preparations enabled a small population to survive underground for 5000 years. So, have the students read the book then prove that it could be done.

Problems relating to the management of flooding, are always good - appropriately 'wicked', with political action creeping in amongst the technology and social science. 

Carolyn,

Indeed, that will be a good example of "wicked problem".... I guess anything in disaster management is potentially a good candidate!

Excellent idea to use flood or other disaster management examples. In addition to political considerations (i.e. how much risk is tolerable and how is this communicated), such events also have enormous social and economic consequences that complicate the technical challenges of engineering structures or systems to mitigate risk from disasters. These scenarios could also be used to discuss second- and third-order effects of an event such as the effect that flood damage could cause on other infrastructure networks should a risk mitigation measure fail (or be exceeded). Thanks, Carolyn and Messaoud!

Rita, thanks for your comments and insights! Exactly the kind of thing we're trying to create discussion about among our faculty and students.