When the New Pittsburgh Courier was preparing to interview James Martin II, the new dean of Pitt’s Swanson School of Engineering, we expected to talk about his international reputation as an expert on earthquakes and disaster mitigation; about what his being the first Black dean of the school might mean for minority enrollment; about why he became an engineer.
We didn’t talk about any of that—instead, we talked about the Roman Empire, about philosophy, about Chaos theory and non-linearity, about how the global industrial age started here in Pittsburgh, and about how its coming replacement—which no one has a name for yet—could also start here in Pittsburgh.
“The focus in the industrial age was on efficiency. We built institutions that mimicked the machines we built. It was a linear model,” Martin II told the Courier. “But we live in a non-lineal world. It’s not about size and consolidating resources. It’s about knowledge and connecting to flows of resources. It’s why a company that didn’t exist 10 years ago, Uber, is valued at $150 billion and Sears is going bankrupt.”
Roman engineers, Martin II noted, before they ever learned a thing about engineering, learned philosophy, music, languages—they learned how to think. The waning industrial age model that puts knowledge and skills in distinct silos—medicine, law, business, engineering—limits thinking and, more importantly, limits imagination.
“The structure of organizations dictates how we think. We need a new way of thinking; not about what we know, but about where we can go. Our opportunity here is to have a deeper sense of purpose, being part of something larger than ourselves,” he said.
“It’s like two guys building a wall. You ask one what he’s doing, and he says he’s laying brick. You ask the other guy and he says he’s building a palace.”
To that end, Martin II is reorganizing the structure of the Pitt engineering school—from eliminating job titles and designations like “staff,” to replacing furniture in a conference room so it is more conducive to collaborative working, probably altering the curriculum.
Martin II, who took over as dean on Aug. 15, earned both a master’s degree and a doctorate in civil engineering at Virginia Tech, according to a release from Pitt. He was inducted into the Civil Engineering Department’s Academy of Distinguished Alumni in 2015. While at Virginia Tech, he also received the department’s Alumni Award for Teaching Excellence and the College of Engineering Dean’s Award for Excellence in Professional Service. In addition, he was recognized with the Norman Medal from the American Society of Civil Engineers, the field’s highest honor for published work.
“The first person I hired is a psychologist—an expert in organizational science and human complexity. She is now our director of organizational innovation,” Martin II said. “I think the curriculum will be entirely different. Of course, you still need math and physics, but engineers build communities. We need to be building and making things and engaging in the real world.”
Martin II argues that the “silos” organized around expertise need to come down, so that more inclusive collaboration among disciplines can flourish. His current research is looking at the “strange attractors” that dictate how individuals coalesce into social and working groups, how others act as bridges between those groups, and how it can be predicted and possibly designed—human engineering.
“Why is biomechanical engineering only now a thing? It should have always been a thing,” he said. “We need to organize around solving problems. And a small part of all of us is better than a whole lot of just a few.”
It’s about perspective, Martin II said. When people say it’s hard for the school to get certain students because they are first-generation, urban, low-income to excel because they lack the more solid educational background, he says, “nonsense.”
“It’s about continual learning. A 2.5 (GPA) student who’s striving to get to where the 4.0 student came in has a positive trajectory and research shows they maintain that,” he said. “It’s not that they aren’t ready for us, it’s that we aren’t ready for them.”
“And while we’re at it,” Martin II continued, “let me say this about diversity. I’m convinced the way we achieve diversity is to stop talking about diversity and start talking about unity. The federal government has spent $30 billion and diversity and high school interest in sciences has actually gone down. Focus on unity in the community as a more compelling place. Right now, no one is talking about building the palace. They’re just laying brick.”
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