Thesis: S.M. in Engineering and Management, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, System Design and Management Program, February, 2021 / Cataloged from the official version of thesis. Page 148 blank. / Includes bibliographical references (pages 139-147). / The Biopharmaceutical industry continues to add a record number of life-saving biological therapies every year, which builds up pressure to make their manufacturing processes faster, more consistent, and more productive. Increased digitalization is expected to address these needs by means of new capabilities related to the analysis of the data collected in the manufacturing process (a.k.a. process data analytics). The objective of this work is to research a framework with which to assess the ability of a Biopharmaceutical company to exploit process data analytics in drug substance manufacturing of monoclonal antibodies. A comprehensive view of the potential benefits of process data analytics is provided, as well as a detailed account of the improvements required to realize those benefits. The framework was built using the published information of analytics use cases, the opinions of experienced practitioners of four major biopharmaceutical companies, and other guidelines built to address similar topics in other industries. Throughout the process, a detailed account of the complexities involved in the deployment of process data analytics was captured and explained. Additionally, four approaches driving the value of analytics for biopharmaceutical processing were identified and used to classify the different use cases. The result is a maturity model of the manufacturing site that describes four archetypical states of process data analytics implementation. They are characterized in terms of the mechanics of value creation and the requirements from informational technology (IT), operational technology (OT), and external sources of information. This model provides the basis upon which biopharmaceutical manufacturers or industry consortiums can further specify its content and generate an assessment tool to guide their manufacturing strategies. / by Tomas C. Egaña Tomic. / S.M. in Engineering and Management / S.M.inEngineeringandManagement Massachusetts Institute of Technology, System Design and Management Program

Thesis: S.M. in Engineering and Management, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, System Design and Management Program, May, 2020 / Cataloged from the official version of thesis. / Includes bibliographical references (pages 136-140). / Japanese Shinkansen has been a safe and reliable mode of transportation in Japan, and JR-Central has developed a well-organized operating system architecture to ensure safety, reliability, and profitability. However, now is the time for the company to transform its architecture because the landscape surrounding the enterprise and stakeholders' needs are rapidly changing. For instance, a lifetime employment custom, which was the long-established practice in large Japanese firms, is disappearing, and the mindset of younger workers in career development can change. Digital technology, which changes general business and the way of working, is available and applicable to all industries. While the Shinkansen system has been successful thus far, the enterprise needs to develop a future architecture that fits with those trends and environments. The objective of this study is to investigate and generate a resilient Shinkansen enterprise architecture against the changes in landscape and stakeholders' needs by implementing digital transformation. The thesis uses the ARIES framework to analyze capabilities of the current enterprise architecture and identify points that require transformation. In addition, literature review and case studies are performed to identify key characteristics to proceed with digital transformation, organizational transformation, and talent management. On the basis of the analyses and literature review, this thesis generates alternative architectures that meet emerging stakeholders' needs and fit the changing landscape of JR-Central. Furthermore, the alternatives are evaluated in context of several extreme scenarios, including the worst-case scenario due to impacts from COVID-19. The results indicate that an alternative architecture that consists of small internal IT and HR units, external intrapreneurs, and corporate venture capital is the best in terms of resiliency. The thesis also provides an implementation plan for an architecting team of JR-Central. The result of this research can be utilized to design a resilient architecture to maintain its safe and reliable Shinkansen operation and create values to survive and grow in the changing landscape and uncertain future in the Japanese railway industry. / by Ryuichi Takagi. / S.M. in Engineering and Management / S.M.inEngineeringandManagement Massachusetts Institute of Technology, System Design and Management Program

The Advancement Via Individual Determination (AVID) program is designed to provide resources and strategies to enable underrepresented minority students to attend four-year colleges. Research indicates that the success of the students enrolled in AVID depends on the strict adherence to the AVID components. The purpose of this study was to determine whether the principal and administrator's understanding of, commitment to and involvement in AVID accounted for the difference in student achievement between a successful school and one that is not. AVID is a program with demonstrated results, however it is costly. Building principals have to be willing to use a teaching position to staff the AVID coordinator/teacher position, and school districts have to employ tutors for the twice-weekly tutorial sessions. In these difficult fiscal times, districts are looking for places to make adjustments. AVID's demonstrated effectiveness for students in an individual building, as well as district-wide, will be the key to keeping AVID from falling subject to budget cuts. Some of AVID's 11 essentials are instructionally based, such as Cornell Notes and WICR, which directly impact what occurs within the walls of the classroom. Others are more leadership-based, such as staffing and policies for student selection. Yet a third set consists of things which are not actually essentials or may be less tangible, but still have a great impact on AVID, such as the perception of AVID students by peers, the perception of AVID students by the school community in general, and the understanding and oversight of the program within the building. This study focused on the essentials that are leadership based as well as those which are less tangible. It is essential to know what factors in a school make AVID implementation meet with the greatest success. A comparative case study methodology was used. The study used Grade Point Averages to determine two focus schools, and then interviews with principals and AVID administrators was conducted and analyzed. This study demonstrated that the key person in any site is the administrator who directly oversees the program. This individual must be thoroughly trained in all aspects of AVID so that program essentials can by implemented according to AVID guidelines and decisions regarding student success are based on accurate information. Assessment of program implementation is a multi-level process. In order to get an accurate picture of a program implemented in multiple schools, it is essential to first be sure that implementation is uniform within a specific building. Schools that have more than one teacher implementing a program must be monitored to be sure that there is a uniform practice within the building. Those involved with program oversight need to start there, especially if grades are being used as a basis of comparison. / Ed. D.

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In conversations, stories, news reporting, and other forms of natural language, understanding requires participants to make assumptions (hypothesis) based on background knowledge, a process called entailment. These assumptions may then be supported, contradicted, or refined as a conversation or story progresses and additional facts become known and context changes. It is often the case that we do not know an aspect of the story with certainty but rather believe it to be the case; i.e., what we know is associated with uncertainty or ambiguity. In this research a method has been developed to identify different contexts of the input raw text along with specific features of the contexts such as time, location, and objects. The method includes a two-phase SVM classifier along with a voting mechanism in the second phase to identify the contexts. Rule-based algorithms were utilized to extract the context elements. This research also develops a new context˗aware text representation. This representation maintains semantic aspects of sentences, as well as textual contexts and context elements. The method can offer both graph representation and First-Order-Logic representation of the text. This research also extracts a First-Order Logic (FOL) and XML representation of a text or series of texts. The method includes entailment using background knowledge from sources (VerbOcean and WordNet), with resolution of conflicts between extracted clauses, and handling the role of context in resolving uncertain truth.

The problem of price volatility as it pertains to material and labor is a major source of risk and financial distress for all the participants in the construction industry. The overarching goal of this dissertation is to address this problem from both viewpoints of risk analysis and risk management. This dissertation offers three independent papers addressing this goal. In the first paper using the Engineering News Record Construction Cost Index (ENR CCI), a predictive model is developed. The model uses General Autoregressive Conditional Heteroscedastic (GARCH) approach which facilitates both forecasting of the future values of the CCI, and capturing and quantifying its volatilities as a separate measure of risk through the passage of time. GARCH (1,1) was recognized as the best model. The maximum volatility was observed in October 2008 and results showed persistent volatility of the CCI in the case of external economic shocks. In the second paper using the same cost index (ENR CCI), the methodology of the first paper is integrated with Value at Risk concept to cautiously estimate the escalation factor in both short and long-term construction projects for avoiding cost overrun due to price volatilities and inflation. Proposed methodology was also applied to two construction projects in which the estimated escalation factors revealed satisfactory performances in terms of accuracy and reliability. Finally, the third paper addresses the price volatility from the view of risk management. It entails two objectives of identifying and ranking of potential management strategies. The former is achieved via in-depth literature review and questionnaire interviews with industry experts. The latter is done using Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP). Quantitative risk management methods, alike those offered in foregoing papers are considered as one of the candidates in dealing with the price volatility risk. Cost, risk allocation and duration were perceived as the most significant criteria (project indicators) in construction projects. Also, Integrated Project Delivery (IPD) with respect to project duration; quantitative risk management methods with respect to the cost; and Price Adjustment Clauses (PAC) with respect to the risk allocation, were recognized as the top strategies to manage the risk of price volatilities.

Recent advances in digital technology have had a significant influence on the quality and speed of sharing and communicating project information in the architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) industry. The process of acquiring the design intent in order to develop and communicate project schedules, as critical components of project delivery, have similarly been benefitting from such progress. With the relatively recent techniques of Building Information Modeling (BIM) and its capability to integrate the facility design with its construction schedule, meaningul strides have been made in improving the information flow and eventually visualizing the final schedule in 4D. However, the need for faster and more efficient ways of generating both the schedule and its 4D visualization has been growing as it directly impacts the overhead cost, and hence the bottomline, of projects. Lack of direct integration and logical interoperability between the various computer systems used for these processes deprives the industry of the power of synergy that could have resulted from such explicit assimilation of the product and process models and their respective sub-processes. This research develops an approach that interprets 3D building information models into a source of direct input information to generate initial construction schedules for commercial building projects, which ultimately leads to automated visualization of the produced schedule in 4D BIM. By integrating an intermediate product model and generically predefined activities at domains level, it generates initial activities that capture the scope of the work in the design. The method also incorporates semi-automated sequencing algorithms that take into account the logic of support in structural construction and other factors related to work access and user preferences. The methodology has been implemented in a computer application built to substantiate its feasibility and then evaluated with the help of volunteer professionals in the industry by using test cases. The implementation and the tests conducted demonstrated that the developed methodology is feasible and can be considered as a step forward towards complete automation in the industry, while there are still various aspects open for improvement.

A series of heat transfer tests using a single pass slot shaped channel utilizing varying configurations of trapezoid shaped turbulence enhancement strip or varying configurations of high velocity jets issuing from side channels are studied. Thermochromatic Liquid Crystal techniques are used to determine local heat transfer coefficients, which are converted to normalized Nusselt values. The results show a marked improvement over traditional heat transfer enhancements used in the mid-span region of first stage turbine blades.

This paper investigates the relationship between student-led consulting teams and community organizations as one part of Eller Social Innovation (ESI). The research conducted to analyze the relationship between these entities is most similar to program evaluation. Program evaluation has become commonplace in the nonprofit sector and it is important method for these organizations to establish the value of all of their activities (Carman, 2007). Through data collected from interviews and surveys of community organizations, this article seeks to understand the efficacy of student-led consulting projects and determine the effect that they have on these organizations. The answer to this question will inform stakeholders in ESI about the potential value that further collaboration with community organizations could create for both parties.

In my dissertation, I argue that the human body and physical sensations are not only objects or metaphors that appear in cultural artifacts, but also means of political representation. There are cultural artifacts with a corporeal dimension in which human bodily sensations and states, such as sexual arousal, disease, and pain, are represented. The body becomes a dimension integrated in the discursive form of the artwork. The (literary or cinematic) text evokes a texture, a sensitive skin. This corporeal means is politically engaged with the context in which the artwork has been produced: The body becomes a space of political inscription and struggle, and a device to discursively/corporeally fight back. Particularly, I explore a selection of the contemporary cinematic and literary productions in Argentina, Cuba, and Ireland that present political, social, and cultural transformations that took place from the end of the twentieth century to the beginning of the twenty-first. In order to explain my ideas, I refer to E. K. Sedgwicks Touching Feeling, and I expand on one of the concepts that she presents: texture. As I describe it in my dissertation, texture is the artworks corporeal dimension that appeals to the internal dimension of the body (i.e., pain, sickness, sexual arousal) through a discursive materiality (a particular artistic language in this case, the cinematographic and the literary) that entails a political postulate. Unlike Sedgwick, I consider texture in this dissertation as a plausible analytical notion, a sort of magnifying glass with which to observe the dynamics of corporeality and artistic discourse in literature and cinema. The writers studied include Irish novelist and journalist Colm Tóibín, the Argentine poet and essayist Néstor Perlongher, and the Cuban novelist Reinaldo Arenas. In terms of the filmmakers, I analyze some films directed by Santiago Loza, Iván Fund, Fernando Pérez, Peter Sheridan, Marco Berger, Paula Markovitch, Peter Mullan, Tomás Gutiérrez Alea, Lucrecia Martel, Deborah Warner, and Carlos Quintela.