Harry Dankowicz receives CAS Appointment

MechSE Professor Harry Dankowicz has received a Center of Advanced Study (CAS) research appointment. The announcement of the appointments said the CAS award “grants one semester of release time for creative work on self-initiated programs of scholarly research or professional activity.”

These highly selective one-semester appointments are offered in order to bring together scholars from diverse disciplines and backgrounds. CAS appointments provide an incentive for professors to explore new ideas and pursue the highest level of scholarly achievement. In spring 2012, CAS Associate Harry Dankowicz will conduct research studying metrics of systemic risk that can be deployed to diagnose the vitality of real-world complex systems, specifically frameworks for international cooperation and security in the context of climate change mitigation. Particular emphasis will be placed on the possibility of designing complex systems against systemic failure induced by sensitivity to short-term fluctuations in system behavior.