{"id":50144,"date":"2025-07-16T17:00:15","date_gmt":"2025-07-16T21:00:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/magazine\/?p=50144"},"modified":"2026-06-11T15:48:49","modified_gmt":"2026-06-11T19:48:49","slug":"when-the-going-gets-tough","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/magazine\/inquiring-minds\/course-audit\/when-the-going-gets-tough\/","title":{"rendered":"When the Going Gets Tough"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Engineering education is often about the nuts and bolts of how to make things work. But what happens when they don\u2019t? In Technical Leadership in Times of Crisis, James Bellingham<\/a>, Bloomberg Distinguished Professor of exploration robotics, aims to expose Hopkins engineering students to possible crisis management scenarios by exploring historical catastrophes. Having spent most of his career outside academia, Bellingham has seen firsthand how companies handle small and large setbacks, and he brings this expertise to the unique first-year seminar.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Key Takeaways<\/h2>\n\n\n
\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Putting ‘What-If’ Into Practice<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Students are presented with a notable real-life occurrence (such as the 1982 Tylenol cyanide poisoning case) and split into three groups\u2014 financial, public relations, and executive\u2014to develop crisis management plans, considering ethical practices as well. After the teams make their cases and the executive group decides on a plan of action, Bellingham reveals what actually transpired.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

“I chose it because it looked like it had a lot of interesting historical components. Covering Apollo 13 and Chernobyl was very intriguing”
\u2014 Miles Qvale, materials science and engineering<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Being a Conscientious Employee<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

In addition to discussing the financial or technical ramifications of their decisions, students also consider how those decisions affect the intangible element of public goodwill.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFor massive companies, their biggest asset is brand trust,\u201d Bellingham says. \u201cShould you be driven by the quarterly report, or should you be thinking in the longer term?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

“Later in their careers, engineers often become engineering managers, so I wanted to hear from a leadership perspective”
\u2014 Eitan Rosenblatt, mechanical engineering<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Words From the Wise<\/h3>\n\n\n
\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

The students also hear from people with real-world experience: a doctor who managed an Ebola outbreak, a journalist who had to vet information and determine whether it was true or false, and the CEO of a Fortune 500 company.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Assigned readings include Principles by hedge fund manager Ray Dialo and a guide to avoiding confirmation bias written by an intelligence analyst.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

“What kind of company do you want to work for? What values would you be attracted to?”
\u2014 Instructor James Bellingham, executive director of the Johns Hopkins Institute for Assured Autonomy<\/a>
<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

\u2014 JONATHAN DEUTSCHMAN<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Illustration by Kathleen Fu<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By exploring historical catastrophes, students learn to lead.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":50147,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[65],"tags":[],"issue":[42],"class_list":["post-50144","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-course-audit","issue-spring-2025"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nWhen the Going Gets Tough - Johns Hopkins Engineering Magazine<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/magazine\/inquiring-minds\/course-audit\/when-the-going-gets-tough\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"When the Going Gets Tough - Johns Hopkins Engineering Magazine\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By exploring historical catastrophes, students learn to lead.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/magazine\/inquiring-minds\/course-audit\/when-the-going-gets-tough\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Johns Hopkins Engineering Magazine\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-07-16T21:00:15+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-06-11T19:48:49+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Chernobyl_Spot-01.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"801\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:image\" content=\"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Chernobyl_Spot-01.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Dan Wiznitzer\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/engineering.jhu.edu\\\/magazine\\\/inquiring-minds\\\/course-audit\\\/when-the-going-gets-tough\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/engineering.jhu.edu\\\/magazine\\\/inquiring-minds\\\/course-audit\\\/when-the-going-gets-tough\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Dan Wiznitzer\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/engineering.jhu.edu\\\/magazine\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/8fea0e9d76ea4fd7f190559580c45e41\"},\"headline\":\"When the Going Gets Tough\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-07-16T21:00:15+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-06-11T19:48:49+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/engineering.jhu.edu\\\/magazine\\\/inquiring-minds\\\/course-audit\\\/when-the-going-gets-tough\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":355,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/engineering.jhu.edu\\\/magazine\\\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/engineering.jhu.edu\\\/magazine\\\/inquiring-minds\\\/course-audit\\\/when-the-going-gets-tough\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/engineering.jhu.edu\\\/magazine\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2025\\\/07\\\/Chernobyl_Spot-01.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Course Audit\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/engineering.jhu.edu\\\/magazine\\\/inquiring-minds\\\/course-audit\\\/when-the-going-gets-tough\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/engineering.jhu.edu\\\/magazine\\\/inquiring-minds\\\/course-audit\\\/when-the-going-gets-tough\\\/\",\"name\":\"When the Going Gets Tough - 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