A system-of-systems engineering approach to leadership and innovation: Sustainable STEM education and workforce development through the Smart Cities initiative

Abstract

Given the most competitive nature of a global business environment today, an effective engineering management and leadership that supports innovation and entrepreneurship is a critical requirement for all levels of an organization. In view of the ever increasing complexity of contemporary urban systems and services they provide, it is important for planners and leaders to leverage individual and organizational learning processes to assure the highest levels of organizational performance. Development of engineering competence and leadership skills are also extremely important due to a general shortage of engineering talent and the need for mobility of highly trained professionals. Two factors emerge to have the greatest impact on growth and sustainability of the future smart cities and the variety of services they will be able to provide to their citizens: improving managerial, leadership and creative (innovative) skills of city employees, and integrating the concepts of the science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) disciplines into the instructional training and development of the future smart city workforce. One of the most important factors for success of the above goal is integration of the complex adaptive systems engineering concepts into the smart city planning processes. This paper introduces a complex adaptive system-of-systems engineering approach to leadership and innovation by promoting sustainable STEM education and workforce development through the smart cities initiative. The core STEM leadership and innovation principles are integrated with systems engineering concepts for collaborative development of engineering skills and performance improvements in education, this is critical for modeling and design of the next generation sustainable smarter cities and services.