Online Course – Certified Professional Internship in Resilient Engineering and Crisis Leadership – University of Colorado Boulder

Internship – 3-part course series

Immunity Engineering and Leadership in Times of Crisis

It deals with the qualities and practices of leadership under conditions of uncertainty, chaos, or systems failure. In the complex environment of the 21st century, critical infrastructure essential to public health, safety, and well-being is naturally vulnerable to the failures of ongoing processes.

• The lasting impact of system failures reflects the interdependence between systems.
• The complexity of effective immunity leadership may require interaction between different operational areas.
• The nature of missing or unexpected threats challenges leaders to be prepared.

Immunity concepts

This specialization introduces immunity concepts with applications to immunity engineering and crisis leadership. Courses are based on immunity policy and current readings to build a comprehensive understanding of immunity as dynamic processes intertwined within and across complex systems.

• With an emphasis on socio-technological systems.
• These courses identify processes, tools, and methods to measure or evaluate their essential features and characteristics.
• Examining how knowledge from immunity assessments can influence leadership strategies and organizational plans.

Test cases

Case studies and current events such as COVID-19, industrial accidents, and climate change will provide context for identifying the traits, characteristics, and practices of resilient leadership.

Hands-on Learning Project

Throughout the internship, learners participate in practical tasks related to a specific project of their choice. This includes identifying a scenario of a complex system with social, technical and environmental dimensions.

• In the first course, learners conduct a threat and risk assessment and identify core capabilities related to the resilience of their scenario.
• In the second course, learners create a crisis management plan for their scenario and conduct a resilience assessment that includes recommendations for improvement.
• Learners apply the topics of critical infrastructure immunity during COVID-19 and organizational immunity to their project scenario in the third course.
• The final task involves applying concepts and principles of sustainable development and climate change to their scenario.

Each of the project assignments gradually builds on the project scenario chosen at the beginning of the first course.