Thesis: S.M. in Engineering and Management, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, School of Engineering, System Design and Management Program, 2017. / Cataloged from PDF version of thesis. Vita. / Includes bibliographical references (pages 84-90). / How do companies manage and govern external developer platforms? Drawing on platform ecosystem, product management, and IT governance theory a comparison of the developer platform approaches of two technology firms, Akamai, Inc. and Uber Technologies, Inc. is presented. Internal organizational structures and processes are evaluated in combination with external governance mechanism to develop and manage third party partner relations. The case studies test existing IT governance and app developer platform theory with regards to its applicability to platforms for developer products such as APIs. The two teams are analyzed along the dimensions of organizational structure, internal governance process and risk management, external governance and partner relations, as well as KPIs for team steering. A set of key governance mechanisms is identified as success factors for limiting risks around open developer platforms: Internally, API standards and working groups supported by a high degree of interconnectedness support governance and avoid de-acceleration around a company's product development process. Externally, legal agreements around terms of use shift control from the developer to the platform provider. Access limitations can serve as a supporting gatekeeper for access, or punitive penalty in case of violations of agreements. In support of contractual agreements, transparent developer communication around a firm's intended fields of innovation help avoid discords between developer platform providers and its users. Results are discussed. / by Christian Umbach. / S.M. in Engineering and Management

Thesis: S.M. in Engineering and Management, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, School of Engineering, System Design and Management Program, 2017. / Cataloged from PDF version of thesis. / Includes bibliographical references (pages 115-120). / In today's competitive environment, manufacturing companies are under constant pressure to improve previous products or release new ones. Nonetheless, most products are not designed and built from scratch, but rather, are based on previous versions of the product with the addition of incremental improvements given by the infusion of new technologies. The objective of this research is to focus on continuous improvements where the level of required change is small to medium, which is the most common manner that companies use to achieve advancements in their products or systems. Most of the available literature related to project scheduling assumes that projects are non-iterative and do not consider rework in the analyzes. On the other hand, studies that analyze cyclical projects focus on product design and development, which usually requires a level of experimentation that makes them inherently different from advancements due to incremental improvements. At the same time, the literature on technology innovation is abundant and there are frameworks to assess the impact of transferring various technologies into existing products. However, there has not been proposed a method that specifically addresses the planning and scheduling process required to infuse technologies. Furthermore, the definitive selection for infusion cannot be applied without taking into account available resources, time required to mature technologies and the interaction among them. Portfolio selection and the scheduling process have usually been treated separately although they are interdependent in this particular case. Different plans can make quite different demands on system resources and its availability will impact the portfolio of selected technologies. This thesis intents to bridge the gap between the portfolio scheduling as well as processes for technology selection and insertion by taking a holistic approach, while the iterative nature of activities, due to rework, is included into the model. Therefore, methods for effectively allocating resources in a portfolio of projects related to technology infusion are recommended. Initially, a heuristic method is proposed based on priority rules. However, as the assumptions of the model are loosened a novel method is suggested that combines Genetic Algorithm (GA) and Artificial Bee Colony (ABC). Numerical results indicate that the hybrid meta-heuristic method based on GA-ABC is effective in finding good resource allocations while considering rework; which is shown, can affect the projects that comprise the portfolio and therefore is worthwhile planning for. / by Maximiliano S. Zuloaga. / S.M. in Engineering and Management

Thesis: S.M. in Engineering and Management, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, School of Engineering, System Design and Management Program, 2017. / Cataloged from PDF version of thesis. / Includes bibliographical references (pages 105-108). / The high levels of female unemployment in majority Muslim countries constitutes significant lost opportunity on overall economic development. Nations that employ more women enjoy higher GDP's and a diverse talent pool. There has been little research done on the quality of women's career paths in these countries. Some nations struggle to push women into the workforce due to cultural and traditional expectations. In this thesis, we present a survey-based approach to understanding three barriers that could hinder women's entry to and development in the workforce. The barriers discussed are barriers to initial entry, barriers to retention and barriers to promotion. Cross examination of survey results from respondents in Middle Eastern countries and Southeast Asia have verified the high tertiary educational attainment of women. The results have verified the struggles of working women obtaining promotions. Working mothers in particular find difficulties balancing work and household responsibilities, which could affect their retention in the workforce pipeline. We end the survey analysis by providing recommendations to better strengthen women's retention and overall job satisfaction. This includes spreading awareness, adding guidelines to auditing institutions, and establishing new policies to make the workforce a more attractive platform for women, such as by subsidizing childcare and transportation. We contend that although these countries have put great efforts in attracting women to the workforce, more systemic female welfare policies will be needed in order to better capitalize on the valuable human capital asset that women add to the talent pool. / by Aisha Alomair. / S.M. in Engineering and Management

Thesis: S.M. in Engineering and Management, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, School of Engineering, System Design and Management Program, 2017. / Cataloged from PDF version of thesis. / Includes bibliographical references (pages 88-90). / In preparation to fight and win the nation's wars, the United States Army spends a lot of time and money on tactical training. While few doubt that the Army produces some of the world's finest tactical units, there is still room for improvement. The Army's current tactical evaluation process utilizes a series of subjective and uncalibrated metrics that describe the capability of military units. Leaders fail to see the value in the provided evaluation forms and formats and have begun developing alternative methods to evaluate and provide feedback to their units. The abandonment of a standard evaluation process has added to the inability to objectively or accurately compare units across formations and time. The current evaluation system depends almost entirely on one set of humans to monitor safety, performance, and provide feedback to the training unit for improvement. Humans in this system fatigue and fall prey to natural pressures to reduce standards and push units through training exercises regardless of undesirable performance. Additionally, internal pressure, organizational structure, and competition encourage units to exaggerate or inflate their tactical readiness reports. While this situation is widely recognized in the Army, the current evaluation system results in unreliable, and possibly inaccurate, outputs that are unusable for decision making. As a consequence of this system, the Army maintains very few ways to distinguish between the training levels and capability of tactical units. By examining the organizational structure, individual and unit incentives, and evaluation methods available for the Army to adjust, this document provides a method to compare and evaluate the possible alternatives. / by John D. Caddell. / S.M. in Engineering and Management

Thesis: S.M. in Engineering and Management, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, School of Engineering, System Design and Management Program, 2017. / Cataloged from PDF version of thesis. / Includes bibliographical references (page 49). / Forecasting demand and managing spare part inventory has long been a challenge for products that have a very long lifecycle time. With demand being discrete, low and sporadic, understanding of the actual demand is erroneous and hence forecasting the right demand for a Last-Time-Build has been difficult. Managers routinely build buffer stock to avoid missing contractual agreements, with extremely high penalties for running out of stock. Thus, Last-Time- Build strategies have been expensive and non-profit yielding. With the advent of 3D printing technology and its superiority in terms of the ability to setup shop at a low cost and print parts as and when required, make it a very promising technology in solving the issue of spare part inventory management. In this thesis, a model-based approach was taken to the decision making of Last-Time-Build. By use of financial modeling and non-linear optimization tools, optimal strategies to best use 3D printing technology have been recommended, under several conditions of demand uncertainty. The most optimal results are achieved when a Hybrid approach is employed. The Hybrid approach is a combination of a Last-Time-Build via traditional manufacturing method that is supplemented with parts printed via 3D printer, to cater to changing demand, at a future point of time. The model helps in determining the best combination of parts that need to be built ahead and the parts that can be built later via 3D printing for various demand projections and a given service level that needs to be met. The sensitivity of each of the different variables involved on the decision making is also highlighted. The higher the uncertainty in demand, the more lucrative is the hybrid approach to solving the problem of spare part inventory management. / by Subhankar Das. / S.M. in Engineering and Management

Thesis: S.M. in Engineering and Management, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, School of Engineering, System Design and Management Program, 2017. / Cataloged from PDF version of thesis. / Includes bibliographical references (page 56). / Renewable energy is one of the most important technologies for decarbonizing the economy and fighting climate change. In recent years, wind energy has become cheaper and more widely adopted. However, the variable nature of wind production creates unique challenges that are not faced by conventional thermal technologies. Several studies to date have showed the decrease in economic value of wind energy as penetration increases due to this variable nature. Plus, they also show that high wind penetration favors intermediate energy sources such as natural gas. I claim however, that few of these studies have considered the dynamic behavior and feedbacks of these systems, including investment delays and learning curves. This thesis uses system dynamics models to simulate the long term changes in the electric grid for Texas. The goal is to test two hypothesis: that the economic value of wind energy decreases as penetration increases, and that variable wind production favors natural gas technologies. It does this by calculating how wind energy changes the shape of the net load duration curve for a given region. This affect changes the profitability of different technologies in unique ways, due to their different fix and variable costs. The conclusions of this thesis are consistent with the literature, with the caveat that they are highly dependent on assumptions regarding the learning curve for energy technologies. The economic value of wind decreases, but this effect can be compensated by lower costs, leading to a continuing adaptation. Faster Wind adoption also reduces the profitably of technologies with high fixed costs such as coal and nuclear, and favors intermediate and peaking sources such as natural gas. / by Leonardo Mendes Barlach. / S.M. in Engineering and Management

Thesis: S.M. in Engineering and Management, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, System Design and Management Program, 2018. / Cataloged from PDF version of thesis. / Includes bibliographical references (page 59). / Maywa Denki is a Japanese crossover creative company. It is an art studio as well as a toy design company. Maywa Denki saw the value of the meaning expressed in art works, and managed to turn such expression into the attractiveness of products. The possible connection of art and product design is to provide meaning for the public with skillful expression. Such expression has its own techniques, one of which used by Maywa Denki could be traced back to the technique used in ritual objects in traditional culture. Maywa Denki is a successful crossover company because it manages to promote individual expression. Inspired by Maywa Denki products, I proposed my own work "the Floating World". It is based on the observation of individual living condition and it includes graphic design, story-telling, object design and short videos. This thesis analyzed that technique of Maywa Denki, Maywa Denki's crossover product development path and described my own design work. / by Tingyun Yin. / S.M. in Engineering and Management

Thesis: S.M. in Engineering and Management, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, System Design and Management Program, 2018. / Cataloged from PDF version of thesis. / Includes bibliographical references (pages 86-89). / As we are at the beginning of the Second Machine Age, where Al, Machine Learning, and Robotics technologies are increasingly influencing this revolution, we are experiencing significant automation changes in many industries such as warehousing and distribution centers. Many of the jobs in these industries aren't just being transformed but also partially or fully automated, often replacing the lowest skilled workers. Even though the core technologies driving automation today are improving exponentially, there are still many areas where human workers exceed and thrive. Some of the jobs might be automated, but there are some tasks which prove to be difficult for machines to perform. The research tries to understand how technology is automating tasks within warehousing jobs right now? By applying rigorous metrics, developed by Erik Brynjolfsson and Tom Mitchell to jobs within warehouses, the thesis aims to show which tasks within these jobs have the highest suitability for machine learning and robotics automation. The research includes the analysis of the not automated tasks and the possible reasons and opportunities for automation. / by Izabela Witoszko. / S.M. in Engineering and Management

Thesis: S.M. in Engineering and Management, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, System Design and Management Program, 2018. / "June 2018." Cataloged from PDF version of thesis. / Includes bibliographical references (pages 57-60). / Gifted and talented students with coexisting learning disabilities, also known as twice-exceptional, are increasingly recognized in U.S. schools. This increasing awareness needs to be met with improved legal protection, better methods for identification and optimized teaching strategies for the unique needs of these students. For this thesis, literature from a range of disciplines including education, cognitive science, and psychology regarding twice-exceptionality is examined, with a specific focus on gifted students with language-based learning disabilities like dyslexia, along with commonly comorbid factors such as ADHD and anxiety. The challenges of these students are also modeled using human centered design tools. Personas of archetypal twice-exceptional students are presented to create empathy for them and awareness of their unmet needs. Design frameworks are examined that aim to improve education universally for all students. Research strongly suggests that twice-exceptional students are under-identified and underserved in our schools and that comprehensive, individualized teaching strategies are necessary in order for them to reach their full potential. Teaching methods are outlined that simultaneously highlight strengths and accommodate the challenges of this important group of gifted learners. / by John Francis Stillman. / S.M. in Engineering and Management

Thesis: S.M. in Engineering and Management, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, System Design and Management Program, 2018. / Cataloged from PDF version of thesis. / Includes bibliographical references (pages 56-58). / This paper focuses on designing novel ways to alleviate human and economic impacts caused by weather and climate disasters such as droughts and cyclones. Natural disasters are becoming apparent and continue to grow in number, intensity, and impact. Authorities, organizations and community groups who focus on rebuilding and relief efforts are constantly facing challenges in redevelopment effort, environmental hazards, health care and funding support to help communities become recover and be more resilient. When dealing with aftermath due to natural disaster the communities do have heightened sense awareness and come together to provide the necessities of rebuilding infrastructure. There are short-term actions, such as an evacuation based on the weather forecasting. Can a system that properly communicates with all affected stakeholders to be prepared for the natural disaster. The implemented system takes the appropriate actions thereby by reducing the human and economic impacts. This precious window of opportunity time between the forecast and actual natural disasters is regularly overlooked which affects the recovery and resilience process. This thesis explains how to design a holistic system that can lessen the risk of natural disaster with a system for forecasting, automatic trigger responses and disburse required funding when certain threshold conditions are met prior to natural disasters. The proposed framework takes into consideration of blockchain technologies that are at the relatively early stage of development. The objectives are to develop novel early funding mechanism and explained using conceptual architecture with private blockchain and smart contracts that can be designed to automatically execute early funding mechanism when the natural hazard thresholds are reached. / by Suresh G. Rajan. / S.M. in Engineering and Management