Investigating Leadership and Engineering through Film and Media: The Making of the Atomic Bomb

Using an award-winning BBC mini-series, along with supplemental references from film and books, participants will observe and discuss the leadership of one of the largest engineering projects in history: The “Manhattan Project” that designed and built the world’s first atomic bomb.  In a small seminar setting, students will consider leadership of the project and moral responsibility in the context of the devastating use of atomic weapons at the close of World War II, clashing leadership styles between scientists and the military, and how these concerns relate to broader questions of leadership and ethics on complex scientific and engineering projects.

Interested students should contact Andrew Silver (e-mail below) for more information. View trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=giEOo4aJUoo&feature=youtu.be

This course will meet for two sessions:

Session One: Wednesday, January 18, 2023, 1 pm-2:30 pm

Leadership “Personas,” Clashing Leadership Styles, Collaboration, and Managing Personalities

Episode 3 of “Oppenheimer” (1980), BBC-TV TV Mini-Series starring Sam Waterston    
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AQh2oeThmgk  

Session Two: Thursday, January 19, 2023, 2:30pm-4 pm

Morality, Ethics, and Personal Responsibility

Episode 5 of “Oppenheimer”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t6r4QlQoCn4

Both sessions will meet at MIT Open Learning, 600 Technology Square, 2^nd Floor (MIT Building NE-49)