Making System Dynamics Useful: A Personal Memoir

19 Pages Posted: 25 May 2007

See all articles by Edward B. Roberts

Edward B. Roberts

Founder/Chair, Martin Trust Center for MIT Entrepreneurship

Date Written: May 2007

Abstract

During the many years that I was a founding member of the MIT Industrial Dynamics (ID) Group, later System Dynamics (SD), I focused on trying to apply SD concepts, tools and techniques to the real world and to having real impact. That orientation originated from listening to Jay Forrester as he related his personal history and communicated his personal values to our group and to me individually in his forceful and influential manner. Here I review that history and some lessons I learned. As this is a personal memoir I do not attempt to review the entire field, but concentrate entirely on my years of activity in the System Dynamics field from 1958 to 1993 and on the aspects most familiar to me, i.e. my own teaching and research and the work of Pugh-Roberts Associates, Inc.

Keywords: System Dynamics

Suggested Citation

Roberts, Edward B., Making System Dynamics Useful: A Personal Memoir (May 2007). MIT Sloan Research Paper No. 4649-07, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=989062 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.989062

Edward B. Roberts (Contact Author)

Founder/Chair, Martin Trust Center for MIT Entrepreneurship ( email )

100 Main Street, E62-440
Cambridge, MA 02142
United States
617-253-4934 (Phone)
617-253-2660 (Fax)

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