The Academy of Transdisciplinary Learning & Advanced Studies

http://www.theatlasnet.org/

Founded in 2000, The Academy of Transdisciplinary Learning & Advance Studies (TheATLAS) is a nonprofit organization serving transdisciplinarians In the spirit of Dr. Herbert Simon and Dr. George Kozmetsky. TRANSDISCIPLINE: bridging engineering. natural science, social science, humanities and

"...Today, complexity is a word that is much in fashion. We have learned very well that many of the systems that we are trying to deal with in our contemporary science and engineering are very complex indeed. They are so complex that it is not obvious that the powerful tricks and procedures that served us for four centuries or more in the development of modern science and engineering will enable us to understand and deal with them. We are learning that we need a science of complex systems, and we are beginning to construct it..."
Nobel Laureate Herbert A. Simon Keynote Speech, 2000 IDPT Conference

Transdiscipline
http://www.theatlasnet.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=14&Itemid=29 Within many fields, such as medicine, biosciences, and cognitive science, there is a growing awareness of the need for transdisciplinary approaches. Likewise, engineering education and research needs to be supplemented by a fundamentally new way of addressing the multidimensional, complex problems that society faces today. Because of the nature of modern engineering systems, traditional disciplinary approaches have proven insufficient; as such, researchers and educators are operating beyond traditional disciplinary boundaries to explore complementary approaches. Products have become integrated engineering systems, and design and production requirements regularly traverse disciplinary boundaries. This requires input from multiple disciplines within engineering, as well as other disciplines outside of science and engineering, such as business, social sciences, medicine, etc. As the pace of development of new technical systems has continued to accelerate, the need has shifted from interdisciplinary or multidisciplinary design teams to trans-organizational and trans-national work.

During the last decade, the number of complex problems facing engineers has exploded, and the technical knowledge and understanding in science and engineering required to attack these problems is rapidly evolving. A few examples are the groundbreaking advancements in semiconductor and software technologies, the biosciences, and nanotechnology. The last two decades of designing large-scale engineering systems taught us that neither disciplinary, nor multidisciplinary or interdisciplinary approaches provide an environment that promotes the collaboration and synthesis necessary to extend beyond existing disciplinary boundaries. A sound transdisciplinary science of engineering systems needs, of course, to incorporate knowledge from many different areas. The core of knowledge centered on design and process will be augmented, based on discipline-specific knowledge depending on the problem at hand. The core of design and process knowledge will also be necessarily broad, incorporating concepts and methods from separate disciplines. Transdisciplinary education and research take collaboration across disciplinary boundaries a step further than do multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary programs. In following the transdisciplinary concept, researchers representing diverse disciplines work jointly to develop and use a shared conceptual framework that draws upon discipline specific concepts, theories, and methods, while addressing common problems through a new synthesis of a common ontology, theories, models, and methodology.

The ATLAS Vision

http://www.theatlasnet.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=30&Itemid=52

Inspiration
Education is a revolutionary concept that has continued to evolve since the times when Socrates, Plato, Aristotle and other great philosophers would come together with their followers in a room to discuss knowledge and exchange their ideas. Had Plato not suggested his brilliant concept of knowledge being presented to many in a place of learning, which we would call a building or an academy, education might have remained within the boundaries of small rooms to be shared by only a select few. Like those great thinkers of old, our group has met together with followers on a regular basis, discussing the possible directions that education and research might take in the new millennium. We were stumbling over the implications and mechanics of various interdisciplinary educational models until Dr. George Kozmetsky introduced the transdisciplinary concept. This concept has provided a light by which we have embarked on the implementation and development of a bold new educational process, the transdisciplinary model for education and research.
Atila Ertas -- 1999

Purpose
The Corporation is organized for educational and scientific purposes and shall be dedicated to the study, understanding, and use of transdisciplinary education and research for the benefit of all people throughout the world. The Corporation will act as a forum for ideas, a center of knowledge and an exchange for information by extending the benefits of transdisciplinary education and research to all who seek to understand and apply it in accordance with the defining principals.

Transdisciplinary education, research and training will be considered a primary process deserving special attention and effort on the part of the Corporation.

Vision
It is the vision of this Academy to be a catalyst for change, enabling the discovery of new approaches in education and research, that lead to alternative solutions for the increasingly complex problems that face civilization.

Goal
The goal of TheATLAS is to foster and support transdisciplinary education and research that falls outside the realm of any traditional discipiline in Science and Engineering. Innovation often occurs at the nexus between disciplines at their frontiers and boundaries.

Objectives
To take leadership in developing the fundamentals of the transdiscipline To provide leadership in the development of new models of learning and innovative teaching environments to complement transdisciplinary curricula To foster global perspectives on education, research and training activities, To provide a forum for improving the links between science, technology, and the arts by fostering research and educational collaborations among the nations, Enlighten the World with Hope for Green Engineering and Science to Inspire Global Peace, and To promote global information exchange through innovative publishing.

Background and General Overview

An educational process, especially an engineering educational process, should teach students to learn, think, create, and innovate. The most important aspect of education is not the imparting of specific technical knowledge, but rather the learning of how to find knowledge when it is needed, how to assimilate that knowledge, how to integrate that knowledge, and how to synthesize new ideas and solve problems. Education and research activities are necessarily ever evolving, and it is imperative that educators and researchers continually update their methods, curricula, and processes to incorporate developing technology and new ideas. Otherwise they cannot produce the best research or prepare the best scientists and engineers for tomorrows challenges. Traditionally, education has been divided into particular areas of study called disciplines. These disciplines have unified tools, techniques, and methods and a well-developed jargon, and they inevitably develop into selfcontained hard shells which tend to minimize interaction with outside entities or other disciplines. The longer a discipline evolves, the harder its shell becomes. Practitioners of these disciplines develop an effective level of intradisciplinary communication due to their welldeveloped disciplinary jargon. Equally, the rigid disciplinary shell and the precision of the disciplinary jargon tend to minimize interdisciplinary communication. In the middle of the 20th century, after World War II, the development of technology began to change direction and to increase in speed. There was an expansion of interest in consumer products and in time and work saving technology. Many new and better products were being designed and produced. At that time, technology development and much product development were accomplished by academia. The emphasis on more complex products and higher quality demanded an intradisciplinary team approach to design and production. Product complexity was

manageable within disciplines, and communication and project management were relatively easy for intradisciplinary teams. Product complexity continued to increase, and design and production requirements began to cross-disciplinary boundaries. With technology as the driving factor, many products were now integrated systems. The development and production of cross- disciplinary integrated systems required multidisciplinary or interdisciplinary design teams. Such teams demanded much more effort to manage because of the difficult cross-discipline communication. As technology continued to develop at a more and more rapid pace, product quality and the time to develop new products became the driving forces. It became necessary to conceive, design, develop, produce, and market quality products much faster in order to be competitive and to remain current with the rapidly changing technology. These needs required the interdisciplinary teams to include not only members from the science and engineering disciplines, but also disciplines from other areas such as business, the social sciences, medicine, and so forth. The teams required to provide knowledge from many disciplines and to integrate the complex systems being developed could now be described as cross college teams. These cross-college teams provided even greater challenges for management and communication. As the 21st century approached, problems and products became even more complex, and the cross-college teams within one university or one organization were no longer capable of handling these large, complex development processes. It became necessary to assemble the best experts and to utilize the best resources available to develop the complex, integrated products required by society. These teams could be dubbed cross- university or cross-organizational teams. During the cross-college and cross-university periods, many of the research and development activities changed hands and moved for the most part to industry. Industry became the driving force in developing new technology and high-tech products, since universities are in general very conservative and reluctant to move in the direction that industry has charted from technology development. The next phase in technology development will be called cross- continent. Mankind is becoming more aware of global issues and the interdependence of the worlds people. The rapid advances in technology and communications have made the collaborative solution of complex global problems feasible. Problem solution and product development are driven by the need to increase speed for the development processes and to best utilize resources. Cross-continent teams of experts using the best resources available are required to produce quality products in the minimum time. A team whose members are spread around the globe can effectively work twentyfour hours a day seven days a week. However, there are difficulties associated with this crosscontinent approach for problem solving and product development. The problems to be considered are very complex and involve the consideration not only of technical issues, but also of financial, environmental, social, cultural, political, and other issues. Further, the integration of knowledge and skills from all disciplines into complex systems is required. Cross continent teams face difficulties in communicating across disciplines and languages and in developing stable and positive relationships across disciplinary, social, and ethnic cultures. The transdisciplinary model for education and research transcends the artificial boundaries imposed by traditional academic organizational structures and directly addresses the problems enumerated above which are related to the solution of large and complex problems by teams consisting of many people from diverse backgrounds. The essence of transdisciplinary education, research, and development processes lies in the common ground built on the foundation of design fundamentals and process development and management. A transdisciplinary education program is built around a core of design, process, systems integration, and metrics. The core is

then surrounded by knowledge and skill tools selected from various disciplines. These tools can be updated as needed to keep pace with developing technology. The learning environment offers instructor facilitated team projects and discussions rather than the traditional classroom lecture. Transdisciplinary educational and research processes are technology driven, project-oriented processes ones. The transdisciplinary concept can be used to develop curricula and educational programs around any combination of topics; however, of immediate application here are engineering, and science-based graduate-level programs. The development of transdisciplinary educational and research programs in todays universities will be difficult, but well worth the effort. The transdisciplinary model is radically different from traditional educational and research patterns. The very concept of transcending the traditional disciplines stands in stark contradiction to the classical university organization around disciplinary colleges and departments. Although it is not necessary to completely reorganize the entire university according to the transdisciplinary model, it will be necessary to create a transdisciplinary structure in which these programs can exist and from which collaboration with the existing structure of disciplines can be effected. Further, the transdisciplinary model is a new concept; the supporting philosophy, the fundamentals of the core (design, process, system integration, and metrics), and the transdisciplinary culture must be fleshed out to create the transdiscipline. The goals of the Academy of Transdisciplinary Learning & Advanced Studies (TheATLAS) are to create an environment for global collaborative efforts in transdisciplinary education, research and training and to facilitate the development of transdisciplinary programs and processes. The Academy will take the lead in developing the transdisciplinary philosophy, fundamentals, and culture and will integrate the efforts of universities and research organizations endeavoring to create transdisciplinary programs. The development and implementation of transdisciplinary programs must be a truly global undertaking. The most significant characteristic of transdisciplinary education and training is the crossing of barriers to effective communication. These barriers or shells include not only technical issues, but also language, ethnic, and cultural issues. True transdisciplinary education must involve individuals from many countries, ethnic groups, cultures, and so forth. The Academy will provide a global structure and global interaction from which this development can proceed.

Dr. Steadman Upham President, Claremont Graduate Dr. Herbert A. Simon Nobel Laureate Carnegie Mellon University Date of TheATLAS Board decision for the Honor :January, 2001 Dr. George Kozmetsky IC2 Institute, University of Texas at Austin Date of TheATLAS Board decision for the Honor :January, 2001 University, CA Date of TheATLAS Board decision for the Honor :January, 2001 Honorable K. T. Li Sheparding Taiwan from an economy reliant on light industry to high technology Date of TheATLAS Board decision for the Honor :January, 2001 Dr. Michael Anthony Arbib Fletcher Jones Professor of Computer Science

University of Southern California Date of TheATLAS Board decision for the Honor : May, 2002 Dr. C.V. Ramamoorthy Emeritus Professor University of California, Berkeley Date of TheATLAS Board decision for the Honor : May, 2002 Dr. Raymond T. Yeh IC2 Institute Senior Research Fellow, University of Texas at Austin Date of TheATLAS Board decision for the Honor : November, 2003 Lu Yong Xiang Prof. Dr.-Ing. Mult.hon.Dr. Eng. Academician of CAS, CAE, TWAS President of CAS Date of TheATLAS Board decision for the Honor : June, 2005 Professor Nam P. Suh The Ralph E. & Eloise F. Cross Professor Director, The Park Center for Complex Systems MIT, Cambridge, MA Date of TheATLAS Board decision for the Honor : June, 2006 Dr. Herbert Weber Director of the Fraunhofer Institute for Software and Systems Engineering Technical University of Berlin, Germany Date of TheATLAS Board decision for the Honor : June, 2006 Dr. Gnter Valet Max-Planck-Institut fr Biochemie,

Am Klopferspitz 18, D-82152 Martinsried, Germany Date of TheATLAS Board decision for the Honor : June, 2006 Bruce R. Korf, MD., Ph.D. Wayne H. and Sara Crews Finley Professor Chairman, Department of Genetics University of Alabama at Birmingham, AL Date of TheATLAS Board decision for the Honor : June, 2006 Professor Carl Adam Petri Honorary Professor, Department of Informatics, Hamburg University Date of TheATLAS Board decision for the Honor : April, 2007 Professor Oktay Sinanoglu Became the youngest person in the past century at Yale to attain the status as a full professor at the age of 28 Nominated twice for Nobel Prize Date of TheATLAS Board decision for the Honor : April, 2007 Dr. Chun-Yen Chang 1999 Science & Engineering Award Laureate Founding Director of National nano-Device Labs in Taiwan Date of TheATLAS Board decision for the Honor : October, 2007 Dr. Yuan T. Lee Nobel Laureate Date of TheATLAS Board decision for the Honor : October, 2007 Dr. Edgar Mitchell Sixth man walked on the Moon Founder of the Institute of Noetic Sciences Date of TheATLAS Board decision for the Honor : October, 2007 Dr. Ali Nayfeh Distinguished Professor, Virginia Tech Date of TheATLAS Board decision for the Honor : October, 2007

Dr. Muhammad Yunus Nobel Laureate Date of TheATLAS Board decision for the Honor : October, 2008 Lily Yeh, Founder, Artists without Borders Date of TheATLAS Board decision for the Honor : October, 2008