Currently, Dr. Susu Nousala is researcher in sustainable design at Aalto University (Finland), and Research Fellow at the (Australasian Centre for the Governance and Management of Urban Transport) Faculty of Architecture, Building and Planning, University of Melbourne. Dr. Nousala was Research Fellow at SIAL (Spatial Information Architecture Lab), RMIT Design and Social Context, School of Architecture and Design, RMIT University.
Her areas of research interest include embedded practice, tacit knowledge networks (complex adaptive systems) understanding the value and transference of tacit knowledge in socio-technical networks and complex systems. She is also involved in the development and coordination of a research group focusing on the theory, ontology and management of organizational knowledge. To date she is the author and co-author of over 20 refereed journal and conference papers, as well as book chapters. She has been successful in managing and securing funding for several National and International grants and projects.
She earned her Ph. D. at the Aerospace Mechanical & Manufacturing Engineering, RMIT University.
The tip of the iceberg" is a useful phrase when describing the obvious with a vast and unknown element attached. Structures or entities such as societies, cities and regions are visible and obvious on the surface but are also vast unknown interactions of individuals and their knowledge networks operating continuously, on multiple scales (scalable adaptive complex systems). These systems and their knowledge networks have not always been clearly understood or received the attention they deserve. When considering the vast variety of perturbations that impact the daily dynamics through to design for cities and regions, the how and why of these adaptive complex systems really is the tip of the iceberg. The basis for new methodological approaches are emerging, reflecting the demands of dynamic analysis of field work and the like, including reflection of the evolving living systems - the knowledge networks of the unknown.
