Chalk Radio Podcast - Seeing the Big Picture from Space with Astronaut Jeff Hoffman (S2:E4)

Over the years, Sarah Hansen has interviewed the creator of the “Women of NASA” minifigure series as well as a professor of astronautics and former deputy administrator of NASA. Now, for the first time, she interviews an actual astronaut, Jeff Hoffman, who teaches aerospace engineering and systems engineering at MIT. In this episode, Prof. Hoffman describes his experiences in space and how one’s understanding of the world is changed by seeing it from the outside, as a finite sphere, with our seemingly boundless sky revealed as just a thin layer of breathable atmosphere. So far this broadening of physical perspective has been limited to a select few, but Prof. Hoffman tries to achieve an analogous broadening in his students’ mental perspective by introducing them to the Conceive Design Implement Operate (CDIO) framework, an approach to engineering education that uses student-designed-and-built projects to develop teamwork and professionalism and to help students envision the big picture of the systems being designed: what they are intended to be and how they will be used in the real world by actual people, whether on the ground or in the vacuum of space. Subscribe to the Chalk Radio podcast: https://chalk-radio.simplecast.com/ Relevant Resources MIT OpenCourseWare https://ocw.mit.edu/index.htm?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=shownotes&utm_campaign=chalkradio&utm_term=s2e4 The OCW Educator Portal https://ocw.mit.edu/educator/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=shownotes&utm_campaign=chalkradio&utm_term=s2e4 Professor Hoffman’s systems engineering course on OCW https://ocw.mit.edu/courses/aeronautics-and-astronautics/16-885j-aircraft-systems-engineering-fall-2005/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=shownotes&utm_campaign=chalkradio&utm_term=s2e4 Professor Hoffman’s aerospace engineering course on MIT’s Open Learning Library https://openlearninglibrary.mit.edu/courses/course-v1:MITx+16.00x+2T2019/about? utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=shownotes&utm_campaign=chalkradio&utm_term=s2e4 Professor Hoffman’s full video interview with Sarah Hansen https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZJ3goVpjxck&list=PLTz-v-F773kXx9WyLmi2cOC64aY8P3i-w Professor Hoffman’s faculty page https://aeroastro.mit.edu/jeffrey-hoffman CDIO approach to engineering education http://www.cdio.org/ Music in this episode by Blue Dot Sessions http://www.sessions.blue/ Connect with Us If you have a suggestion for a new episode or have used OCW to change your life or those of others, tell us your story. We’d love to hear from you! On our site https://ocw.mit.edu/about/contactus/ On Facebook https://www.facebook.com/MITOCW/ On Twitter https://twitter.com/MITOCW?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor On Instagram https://www.instagram.com/mitocw/?hl=en Stay Current Subscribe to the free monthly "MIT OpenCourseWare Update" e-newsletter. https://ocw.mit.edu/subscribe/index.htm?utm_source=header Support OCW If you like Chalk Radio and OpenCourseware, donate to help keep those programs going! https://giving.mit.edu/form/#/ Credits Sarah Hansen, host and producer Brett Paci, producer https://twitter.com/Brett_Paci Dave Lishansky, producer https://twitter.com/DaveResonates Show notes by Peter Chipman