"discern a problem" is correct and usable in written English.
You can use it when you want to express the idea of becoming aware of a difficulty or issue. Example: After careful analysis, I was able to discern a problem with the company's financial records.
G. J. Warnock (in Warnock 1964) thought he discerned a problem in Strawson's account because the theory might not allow that in saying that a certain remark is true a speaker is saying something about that remark, which Warnock thought a desirable element in an account of truth.
It needs a capacity to decode the results of research or to discern a policy problem that might yield to disciplined enquiry.
As with wooden surfboards, Alter discerned an inherent problem with his 600-pound catamaran: It took at least four people to haul it to the water.
We do not have a problem discerning whether real human beings were murdered at Sandy Hook.
To summarize, it is possible to discern an epistemological frame problem, and to distinguish it from a computational counterpart.
Han said in his presentation that multi-touch is the standard across the market, because touch is dead due to a number of challenges it faces, including: the "fat finger" problem (not precise enough); the "Midas touch" problem (no hover/tracking state); and the inability to discern which touch is which, a problem that makes for difficult UI choices.
If the science isn't clear to one of the most experienced, discerning reporters in the energy press corps, we think that's a problem.
You may run into problems trying to discern a woman's age (without asking her), thanks to the preponderance of plastic surgery and botox usage among cougars.
I think this one ends up as a problem that has stumped philosophers of science for ages, namely the problem of how scientists (or scholars more generally) are to discern what data count as legitimate and relevant.
It took me a while to discern the real problem: Time is Money was too direct, too aggressive, too in your face; it would frighten the girls away.
