Thesis (Ph. D. in History, Anthropology, and Science, Technology and Society (HASTS))--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Program in Science, Technology and Society, 2010. / Cataloged from PDF version of thesis. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 312-340). / This dissertation argues that alongside the dominant discourse occurring in and through media in the midst of immense transformation, social networks and affiliations provide a vital translation of science in varied vernaculars such that climate change is becoming invested with diverse meanings, ethics, and/or morality. Based on ethnographic research, this dissertation analyzes such processes of translation and articulation occurring among five different discursive communities actively enunciating the fact and meaning of climate change through their own vernaculars. The five groups are: 1) Arctic indigenous representatives that are part of the Inuit Circumpolar Council, 2) corporate social responsibility activists working with Ceres 3) American evangelical Christians active in the nascent movement known as Creation Care, 4) leading science journalists, and 5) scientists who often act as science-policy experts. This dissertation tracks the formation by which evidence comes to matter and have meaning for groups, and the ways in which this process transforms the definition of and questions posed by climate change. It posits that climate change constitutes an emergent form of life replete with multiple, competing instantiations that feed into, configure, and continually revise definitions of and models of/for climate change. Such articulations and attempts at defining climate change are full of friction as epistemologies, forms of life, advocacy, and expertise evolve and bump up against one another in a process of socialization, negotiation, and meaning-making. In this framework, climate change is a simultaneous intellectual, scientific, and moral challenge - it is both a problem of assessing what is happening, what might happen, and how to act in the world. The presentation and circulation of information provide only partial answers. Partnering facts with multiple codes for meaning, ethics, and morality delineate what the stakes and risks entail, articulating rationales to act. These diverse partnerships produce attendant translations, assemblages, modes of speech, and material forms of training and disciplining that enroll scientific findings and policy aspirations. / by Candis L. Callison. / Ph.D.in History, Anthropology, and Science, Technology and Society (HASTS

Thesis (S.M.M.O.T.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management, Management of Technology Program, 2007. / Vita. / Includes bibliographical references. / This thesis is concerned with the commercial applications of MEMS (Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems) manufacturing processes to advanced energy technologies. This field of engineering has come to be known as Power MEMS. Four such technologies are singled-out for detailed consideration, based on the efforts that have gone into demonstrating the benefits which MEMS has to offer them. The first are micro engines or turbines which generate of order 10-100 Watts of power by driving an electric generator, as exemplified by the famous MIT microturbine. The second are micro fuel cells, electrochemical devices which air oxidize chemical fuels, particularly the direct methanol fuel cell which operates at modest temperatures and hence is suitable for use in portable electronics. The third are solid-state devices which convert heat into electricity via either the Seeback (thermocouple) or photovoltaic effects, or else via thermionic emission. Finally, we consider devices which scavenge vibrational or electromagnetic energy from their environment, and are an attractive means of powering remote autonomous sensors or medical implants such as pacemakers. / (cont.) Following a survey of recent commercial activity in these technologies, we consider the markets they may serve, the economics of their MEMS-based production, and possible business models for their commercialization. Detailed case studies are presented of two recent startups, one of which is developing a heat-to-electricity conversion system based on the photovoltaic effect, and the other of which is studying a novel MEMS device which would use springs made out of carbon nanotubes to store energy. The conclusion is that the time is ripe for a power MEMS technology roadmap which can inspire energy technology companies to work together towards an industrial ecosystem like that now seen in the semiconductor industry. Specifically, we propose that by using MEMS as a unifying technology, it will become possible to easily buy, sell and trade knowledge, personnel, components and foundry services, facilitating experimentation with new products and business models and greatly accelerating the development of power MEMS itself. This may in turn lead to solutions to some of the pressing energy and environmental problems which society now faces. / by Timothy Franklin Havel. / S.M.M.O.T.

Thesis (S.M.M.O.T.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management, Management of Technology Program, 2000. / Also available online at the DSpace at MIT website. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 51-53). / Standards have been a very important issue in many industries as the innovators of the standard technology have tremendous power in the industry. The standard holders are supposed to have the dominant market position and technology leadership for further generation of the product as well as direct royalty income from the intellectual property. However, other various forces are also included in the evolution of the market and the technology. This thesis deals with the issues related to the evolution of standards in the optical storage device industry and other forces leading the market competition. Philips and Sony, the innovators of the CD technology, had taken the technology leadership of the industry for more than a decade. However, early followers such as Toshiba, Hitachi, and Panasonic took the leading position of the market, and competed with Philips and Sony for the standardization of DVD. The increased number of participants and the influence of complementors made the DVD standardization process much more complex. This trend will continue as current market leaders, who are late entrants, are added to the standard competition. This case shows that not only taking advantage from standardization but also proper market entry timing and continuous innovation is important for success in the optical storage market. / by Do-Joon Lee. / S.M.M.O.T.

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Engineering Systems Division, Technology and Policy Program, 2006. / Page 184 blank. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 179-181). / Over the last decade, many companies in industries that produce complex and technologically-advanced products have begun to integrate their operations along the value chains of the primary products they design, produce or sustain. Increasingly, integration efforts have moved beyond the boundaries of the core or focal enterprise serving as the prime contractor or system integrator to span the entire value chain, to form virtual extended enterprises. These structures allow the members of the virtual extended enterprise to focus on their core competencies in order to collaboratively deliver a world-class product at a competitive price. While integration offers many benefits to enterprises, a high degree of integration is not always desirable or advantageous in a limited duration virtual extended enterprise composed of autonomous companies. Virtual extended enterprises must find a balance between decoupled collaboration and highly coupled integration, balancing the need to closely coordinate their efforts with the need protect the autonomy of their members. The objective of this research is to explore the extent to which a focal enterprise, such as a prime contractor or system integrator, should consider integration across its virtual extended enterprise, identify major barriers to integration, and define key enablers of integration overcoming these barriers. / (cont.) Analysis focuses on the extent of integration based on the characteristics of the virtual extended enterprise, such as the duration and scope of the program in question, product system architecture, the organizational architecture, and the external environment. In particular, three key conceptual dimensions of integration are developed and explored-technological integration, strategic integration, and organizational integration. This framework is applied in an in-depth case study of integration strategies on the virtual extended enterprise of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) Program. The knowledge gained from the case study is used to make recommendations for the development of integration strategies for future programs. / by Christopher G. Glazner. / S.M.

Thesis: Ph. D. in History, Anthropology, and Science, Technology and Society (HASTS), Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Program in Science, Technology and Society, 2013. / Cataloged from PDF version of thesis. / Includes bibliographical references (pages 255-288). / Beginning in the late 19 th century, changing conceptions of relatedness between people and other animals -- and animals' assumed capacities for, or susceptibilities to, mental or emotional distress-- were influenced by debates over what it meant to be both human and sane in Britain and the United States. Through a historical, partly-ethnographic, investigation of animal insanity in various times and places in the Anglo-American world from the late I 9 th century through the early 21st, I argue that identifying animal madness, insanity, nervous disorders, anxiety disorders, phobias, depression, obsessive compulsivities, suicidal behaviors and more, has not only served as a way of affixing meaning to puzzling animal acts, but has been used to denote borders (or lack thereof) between certain groups of humans and certain groups of animals. As with other divisions, such as those hinging on race, gender, nationality or class, ideas surrounding which humans and which other animals could experience particular forms of insanity have been used to justify certain forms of treatment (or mistreatment), to rationalize needs for confinement or freedom, or to determine what sorts of people and other creatures were deserving of rights and to what degree. I suggest that the history of attempts to identify certain emotional phenomena such as melancholy and suicidal behavior in horses and monkeys, to, more recently, obsessive-compulsivity in parrots and PTSD in military dogs, demonstrates that other animals have acted as mirrors and proxies for disordered Anglo-American minds for more than a century. Drawing upon archival sources, published literature in the fields of ethology, psychology, psychiatry, psychopharmacology, and the veterinary sciences, as well as environmental history, history of medicine and animal studies, combined with interviews and participant observation, I argue that attempts to locate insanity, mental illness, dysfunction and "normalcy" among nonhumans has had wide-ranging effects on diagnostic and therapeutic practices in humans and other animals alike in the United States and Britain. / by Laurel Braitman. / Ph. D. in History, Anthropology, and Science, Technology and Society (HASTS)

Thesis: Ph. D. in History, Anthropology, and Science, Technology and Society (HASTS), Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Program in Science, Technology and Society, 2014. / Cataloged from PDF version of thesis. / Includes bibliographical references (pages 157-162). / Early 20th century America is a critical context for understanding industrial innovation. Departing from a focus on innovation itself as manifested through the creation of new products and consumer opportunities, this project focuses instead on an important infrastructure for innovation - academic-industrial cooperation. Its particular emphasis is on the Mellon Institute for Industrial Research and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The Mellon Institute, an independent nonprofit entity devoted to the promotion of industrial research, contributed not only through its novel scientific work, but also through its efforts aimed at engaging broad audiences through popular writing. As a competing model, this dissertation also examines interdisciplinary laboratories and administrative structures at MIT to argue that these schemes for academic-industrial cooperation that began as an informal series of ad hoc arrangements between researchers and corporate partners were increasingly formalized and centralized into a unique educational model that combined fundamental science and industrially relevant research. Rarely used archival materials are drawn on to argue that "narratives of progress," shared stories and rhetoric that were conceived for, and deployed in the service of, a particular idea of creating a better world through the enterprise of science were essential components of institutional and industrial change. Mechanisms for academic-industrial cooperation, no matter how well organized or funded, could not stand alone without a foundational narrative to give them broader purpose and context. Building on an institutional approach and employing a novel analysis of narrative as text, the built environment, and exhibit, this study offers new perspective on sites of academic-industrial cooperation as institutes for innovation. / by Ellan F. Spero. / Ph. D. in History, Anthropology, and Science, Technology and Society (HASTS)

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Program in Science, Technology and Society, 2004. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 310-337). / This is a study of the role that the interpretation of material evidence plays in historical consciousness and social memory. It consists of three case studies from the Chilcotin Plateau in the west-central part of present-day British Columbia. In each, a conflict in the mid-1990s over the nature of the past and its relevance for the present allowed underlying stories to emerge. As different groups struggled to control the fate of the region and its resources, they invoked very different understandings of its past, understandings based in part on the material traces that they found there. Taken together, the case studies illustrate the fact that there is an extensive division of interpretive labor when it comes to the material evidence of the past. Like other kinds of labor, this interpretation takes part in a political economy. Studies of material evidence are done to further the interests of individuals or groups, are valued and exchanged with one another, and are important in the delineation of property rights, the enforcement of laws and the justification of ideologies. What emerges is not an authoritative or univocal environmental history of a place, but rather a contest to find a past which will be usable in the present and future. The constant interpretation of material evidence allows people to situate themselves with respect to place, time and other people. / by William J. Turkel. / Ph.D.

Thesis: Ph. D. in History, Anthropology, and Science, Technology and Society (HASTS), Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Program in Science, Technology and Society, 2016. / Cataloged from PDF version of thesis. / Includes bibliographical references (pages 361-394). / This dissertation examines how the proliferation of digital mapping technologies and the contraction of government research institutions have reformatted contests over resources, sovereignty, and local belonging in the neoliberal era. The two groups at the heart of this multilocale ethnography, government forest ecologists and Indigenous Geographic Information Systems (GIS) specialists, share entangled histories throughout rural North America. This is particularly true on the Gitxsan and Gitanyow traditional territories in northwest British Columbia. As climate change and emergent forest diseases destabilize both Indigenous and settler communities' abilities to predict and plan for environmental shifts, disparate experts are learning to leverage marginalized maps and ecological succession models to reconstitute modes of professional succession rendered precarious by government reforms and internal tribal conflicts. The opening chapters of the dissertation examine two experimental institutions - an independent forest ecology research center in Smithers, B.C., and a defunct GIS analysis team based on a nearby Gitxsan reserve - to examine how rural scenes of collaboration complicate the modalities of influence and organizational coherency often attributed to professional scientific networks. Later chapters explore experimental forest and traditional territories where ecologists and Indigenous GIS specialists have sought to articulate risks and project landscape futures by producing technical knowledge. For both communities, transects, grids, and other techniques of marking space have forced them to negotiate tensions between the temporal decay of these spaces and the lifespans of individual researchers. The concluding chapter examine the agencies of archives and simulations produced by two separate long-term forestry modeling groups. By treating their discarded models as anchors of a kind of professional legitimacy no longer stably recognized by a changing provincial government, I argue that senior forestry modelers are struggling to frame their work within longer historical narratives which supersede the temporalities of the state. Twentieth century conservationism drew heavily on essentialized discourses of "nature" and "culture" to construct old-growth rainforests and other contested spaces as objects worthy of protection. This dissertation examines the destabilization of these classification systems, and the palimpsest of legal definitions and lived concepts of territory left behind as regulatory responsibilities devolve and dissolve. / by Thomas Charles Özden-Schilling. / Ph. D. in History, Anthropology, and Science, Technology and Society (HASTS)

Thesis: Ph. D. in History, Anthropology, and Science, Technology and Society (HASTS), Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Program in Science, Technology and Society, 2016. / Cataloged from PDF version of thesis. / Includes bibliographical references (pages 253-300). / This dissertation explores how body maps served as a site for theoretical, experimental, and cultural entanglements between "Chinese medicine" and "biomedicine." It explores how body atlases produced under varying social and cultural conditions involved similar ontological questions with diverging social and cultural implications. These ontological questions set into motion disparate theories about the body that continue to destabilize contemporary medical practice. I explore the fate of maps that medical practitioners in China and Britain traced on paper and on people. Rather than representing what could be directly observed, these maps made visible what could be felt. Body maps offer a unique approach to transnational histories of science and medicine because they existed as meticulously crafted artifacts of visual perception and material evidence that carried social and political currency. In particular, I follow how Chinese physiologists re-presented meridian paths for acupuncture moxibustion practice and the conceptual friction that these maps introduced once they were compared with sensation maps that British neurologists produced to identify peripheral nerve clusters and distinct areas of pain. Amidst state-building efforts in the early twentieth century, medical practitioners in China reproduced meridian maps to emphasize the technical and systematic virtues of acupuncture moxibustion. Yet, meridian maps presented an ontological problem, as standardizing its paths required fixing locations along courses that shifted in living bodies. This dissertation picks up where political historians leave off, examining transformations in medical theory and tracking how individuals concerned with constructing the legacy of medicine in China eventually came to resurrect abandoned neurophysiological maps produced in late nineteenth century Britain. Through a careful excavation of image and text, I demonstrate how efforts to locate shifting areas on the surface of the body conflicted and cohered with discourses of science. I argue that "intimate cartographies," or maps based on individual encounters of the body, challenged standards of visualizing and describing unseen physiological systems. These maps sat at the intersection of epistemic practices, where the circulation of images, ideas, and individuals contributed to the complex convergence of body maps across regimes of knowledge. / by Lan Angela Li. / Ph. D. in History, Anthropology, and Science, Technology and Society (HASTS)

Thesis: S.B. in Science in Humanities and Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Program in Science, Technology and Society, 2014. / Cataloged from PDF version of thesis. / Includes bibliographical references (pages 52-53). / Introduction: The "deaf economy" is an emerging, new niche economic system taking shape within deaf communities globally. My research attempts to understand and describe the relationship of economic networks of deaf businesses, entrepreneurs, employees, and customers embedded in the "deaf economy." I came to discover that many social-cultural aspects of the deaf communities in my research, such as social ties and attitudes of solidarity, are one of the driving forces behind the "deaf economy." There were some studies done about the employment of the deaf in both United States and Europe in the past years. There are also few research studies done on the phenomenon of American deaf business-owners and entrepreneurs, but that was not the case for European deaf business-owners and entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurship has become a popular concept and research topic today in the mainstream society. However, there is very little research into entrepreneurship within the deaf communities. Hence, there is not much understanding of how the government, institutions, and other people could advocate for entrepreneurism within the deaf communities, especially in the United States and Europe. Despite such little information, in the last few decades, there has been a substantial increase in employment and education of the deaf in both United States and Europe, which also incidentally shows an increase in phenomenon of deaf business-owners and entrepreneurs. However, I believe there is virtually no research into the concept of the "deaf economy", an economic network of deaf businesses, employees, and consumers. In 2012 and 2013, I was looking for a possible research topic on the deaf population for my summer projects. By chance, in 2012, I had happened to come across Professor W. Scot Atkins's dissertation on the lived experiences of fourteen American deaf entrepreneurs.1 Professor Atkins is currently a Rochester Institute of Technology business professor interested in deaf entrepreneurism. In our email correspondence, he had indicated the need for research into the concept of the "deaf economy," so I had decided to take on the initiative to answer this simple research question: "What is the deaf economy?" Secondary questions include: "What are the composition and attributes of the 'deaf economy' for Europe? How does it compare to American 'deaf economy'?" In order to answer those questions, I have selected certain sites of my case studies in different geographic locations using a qualitative or ethnographic approach: California and Las Vegas, Nevada (United States) and London, France, and Bulgaria (Europe). Also, I was hoping to discover the premises of the "deaf economy" similar to the concept of an "ethnic economic enclave" and conduct a short comparative analysis between the United States and Europe at the conclusion of the research. My research focuses only on the "deaf economy" of first-world, developed, capitalistic countries, such as the United States and England/France. I also had time constraints, since all of my research was done during summer vacations, so I was not able to go in-depth as much as I wanted to. Also, during my fieldwork, I came to realization that the "deaf economy" is a very broad topic and encompasses wide range of areas worthy of further examination in the future. My qualitative research is by no means rigorous as a dissertation research would be. Also, it is based on my own selected interviews and field observations, so my research may or may not be generalizable, especially if my research were to be replicated in the future. However, I would like to use this research opportunity to point out my interesting observations of the "deaf economy" and help to open up a potential new research topic for future research initiatives. / by Sheila Zhi Xu. / S.B. in Science in Humanities and Science