“Bound to fail.” “Impossible.” “Can’t be done.”
Nadya Bliss has been hearing these phrases since she was a 5-year-old trying out for ballet in the former Soviet Union. These same phrases are used to describe many of the current seemingly unsolvable “wicked” problems, ranging from information security to the spread of infectious disease.
As the director of Arizona State University’s Global Security Initiative and professor of practice at ASU’s Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering, Bliss is not deterred by personal discouragement, or the claim that complex problems are impossible to solve. Instead, she embraces complexity and integrates expertise from a broad range of fields and disciplines.
Here, she speaks on solving the unsolvable problem, and how that's not as much of a contradiction as it might appear.
Bliss’ talk is part of the ASU KEDtalks series. Short for Knowledge Enterprise Development talks, KEDtalks aim to spark ideas, indulge curiosity, and inspire action by highlighting ASU scientists, humanists, social scientists and artists who are driven to find solutions to the universe’s grandest challenges. Tune in monthly to research.asu.edu/kedtalks to discover why space is the next economic frontier, how the next educational revolution will come about, and more.
More Science and technology
Extreme HGTV: Students to learn how to design habitats for living, working in space
Architecture students at Arizona State University already learn how to design spaces for many kinds of environments, and now they can tackle one of the biggest habitat challenges — space architecture…
Human brains teach AI new skills
Artificial intelligence, or AI, is rapidly advancing, but it hasn’t yet outpaced human intelligence. Our brains’ capacity for adaptability and imagination has allowed us to overcome challenges and…
Doctoral students cruise into roles as computer engineering innovators
Raha Moraffah is grateful for her experiences as a doctoral student in the School of Computing and Augmented Intelligence, part of the Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering at Arizona State University…