Thesis (Ph. D. in History, Anthropology, and Science, Technology and Society (HASTS))--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Program in Science, Technology and Society, June 2007. / "May 2007." / Includes bibliographical references (p. 298-318). / This dissertation asks how the United States physically built its global empire. Between 1840 and 1930, empire building involved the establishment of a network of naval bases and coaling stations. By focusing on energy, I reconceptualize the American overseas empire as neither inevitable nor geographically predetermined. I trace how coal shaped U.S. expansion, how this expansion influenced ideas about national security, and how these security concerns affected the global environment. Coal reveals continuities in American foreign relations that link overseas expansion to responses to the introduction of steam power into ocean travel. As the Navy sought coal, it progressively assembled the familiar contours of America's global reach. The dissertation addresses both global and local history. It shows how policy makers before the Civil War demonstrated tremendous creativity in initiating geological investigations, diplomatic arrangements, and commercial agreements in foreign territories. Between the Civil War and 1898, these approaches gradually gave way to a more singular effort by the Navy to control strategic ports around the world. Soon, coal was so central to the Navy that coaling strategy and technology formed a foundation for the education of elite officers at the Naval War College, where its study shaped the planning for future wars. Attention to Americans in Borneo, Japan, the Isthmus of ... / Peter Adam Shulman. / Ph.D.in History, Anthropology, and Science, Technology and Society (HASTS

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Engineering Systems Division, Technology and Policy Program, 2006. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 154-159). / The demand for spectrum resources has increased in the past decade due to the flourishing wireless industry worldwide. This change requires Japan's Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications (MIC) to establish a transparent, fair and efficient spectrum allocation process that will enable it to select an optimal set of licensees to realize efficient spectrum use. This thesis proposes an auction system that assigns exclusive spectrum licenses to firms competing in the Japanese wireless industry. MIC currently uses a comparative examination system, which unfortunately lacks certain features the Ministry is required to address. An auction system is an alternative, already employed by many countries to allocate spectrum resources optimally, to secure a transparent and fair decision-making process, and to raise revenue for national coffers. The Diet's approval of legislation authorizing MIC to use auctions is one obstacle because it requires much time and effort to persuade political parties, incumbents, and newcomers of the value of the auction system over the current system. Another challenge to the effectiveness of the auction system is its design, which must be built-to-order based on the goals of each government and specific market conditions. / (cont.) This research covers four areas: (1) The development and transition of the Japanese mobile industry; (2) Analysis of stakeholders' attitudes toward the introduction of the auction system; (3) A proposed strategy for developing an auction design based on an analysis of English, Germany and Clock Auction Design; (4) The design of an auction system for Japan's specific cases. / by Hironori Matsunaga. / S.M.

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Engineering Systems Division, Technology and Policy Program, 2005. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 180-183). / Lean enterprise transformation entails a complementary set of initiatives and efforts executed over a substantial period of time, in a consistent and coordinated manner, at all levels of the enterprise. It builds upon ordinary organizational change in that a broader set of people and functions will be affected, and non-traditional approaches and mental models will continue to be exercised. I have developed and proposed a set of capabilities that must be possessed by any enterprise in order for that enterprise to successfully transform and sustain a new way of doing business. These capabilities have been drawn and compiled from a combination of organizational change literature and models, as well as personal experience and observations. Between 2003 and the present, three US Air Force Air Logistics Centers (ALCs) initiated lean enterprise transformation efforts. This notion was beyond the activities these sites pursued in the past, as the ALCs were challenged to see their enterprises as a system that needed to be optimized. I have used the capabilities developed to assess each ALC and make suggestions regarding their future needs in executing lean enterprise changes. / (cont.) In particular, I have focused on two of the twelve capabilities (a leadership team with a shared mental model and a balanced and cascading system of metrics), and compared each ALC to an ideal state and utilization of these capabilities. Further, I have examined the Warner Robins ALC with respect to all twelve capabilities, in light of past work conducted at the site. The results of this research are two-fold. First, I have learned that there are certain conditions that must be met before lean enterprise transformation can be attempted and sustained. The readiness necessary can be assessed within a combination of the qualitative results derived from a comparison with the ideal capabilities I have defined, along with the quantitative results reported with the LAI Lean Enterprise Self Assessment Tool. Second, I have determined that there are special practices and cultural aspects of government enterprises that makes lean enterprise transformation particularly difficult for them. This is the result of policies in place, and a tradition of strategic direction being handed down from above. / by Jessica Lauren Cohen. / S.M.

Thesis (Ph. D. in History, Anthropology, and Science, Technology and Society (HASTS))--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Program in Science, Technology and Society, 2011. / Page 689 blank. Cataloged from PDF version of thesis. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 652-688). / Natural gas extraction in the United States in the early 21st century has transformed social, physical, legal and biological landscapes. The technique of hydraulic fracturing, which entails the high-pressure injection into subsurface shale formations of synthetic chemical mixtures, has been viewed by the natural gas industry as a practice of great promise. But there is another side to the story. The first half of this dissertation explores an innovative scientific approach to studying the possible deleterious impacts on human health and the environment of the release of chemicals used in gas extraction. Via participant-observation within a small scientific advocacy organization, The Endocrine Disruption Exchange (TEDX), I follow the development of a database of chemicals used in natural gas extraction, a database that seeks to document not only what these chemicals are (many are proprietary), but also what sorts of bodily and ecological effects these substances may have. I analyze ethnographically how TEDX transformed an information vacuum around fracturing and generated fierce regional and national debates about the public health effects of this activity. The second portion of the dissertation expands TEDX's databasing methodology by reporting on a set of online user-generated databasing and mapping tools developed to interconnect communities encountering the corporate forces and chemical processes animating gas development. Shale gas extraction is an intensive technological practice and requires the delicate calibration of corporate, governmental, and legal apparatuses in order to proceed. The industry operates at county, state, and federal levels, and has in many instances been able to organize regulatory environments suited to rapid and lucrative gas extraction. In the midst of such multi-scalar deterritorializing forces, communities may have little legal or technical recourse if they think that they have been subject to chemical and corporate forces that undermine their financial, bodily, and social security. ExtrAct, a research group I co-founded and directed with artist and technologist Chris Csikszentmihalyi, sought to intervene in these processes by developing a suite of online mapping and databasing tools through which "gas patch" communities could share information, network, study and respond to industry activity across states. Using ExtrAct as an example this dissertation explores how social sciences and the academy at large can invest in developing research tools, methods, and programs designed for non-corporate ends, perhaps redressing in the process the informational and technical imbalances faced by communities dealing with large-scale multinational industries whose infrastructure and impacts are largely invisible to public scrutiny. The dissertation describes one potential method for such engaged scientific and social scientific research: an iterative, ethnographically informed process that I term "STS in Practice." / by Sara Ann Wylie. / Ph.D.in History, Anthropology, and Science, Technology and Society (HASTS

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Engineering Systems Division, Technology and Policy Program, 2004. / Page 95 blank. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 76-77). / The motivation for this work is to quantify the complexity of complex systems and to understand its sources. To study complexity, we develop a theoretical framework where the complex system of interest is embedded in a broader system: a complex large-scale system. In order to understand and show how the complexity of the system is impacted by the complexity of its environment, three layers of complexity are defined: the internal complexity which is the complexity of the complex system itself, the external complexity which is the complexity of the environment of the system (i.e., the complexity of the large- scale system in which the system is embedded) and the interface complexity which is defined at the interface of the system and its environment. For each complexity we suggest metrics and apply them to two examples. The examples of complex systems used are two surveillance radars: the first one is an Air Traffic Control radar, the second one is a maritime surveillance radar. The two large-scale systems in which the radars are embedded are therefore the air and the maritime transportation system. The internal complexity metrics takes into account the number of links, the number of elements, the function and hierarchy of the elements. The interface complexity metric is based upon the information content of the probability of failure of the system as it is used in its environment. The External complexity metric deals with the risk configuration of large- scale systems emphasizing the reliability and the tendency to catastrophe of the system. / (cont.) The complexity metrics calculated based on specific analysis of the ATC radar are higher than those calculated for the maritime radar for all the three levels of complexity indicating that the external complexity is the source for the internal complexity. Thus, not surprisingly it appears that the technical complexity of a system mainly stems from the socio-political complexity of the large-scale system in which it is embedded. More interestingly, the more rigorous and quantitative complexity metrics (Internal and Interface) are approximately linearly related for these two systems. This result is potentially important enough to be tested over a wider variety of complex systems. / by Pierre-Alain J.Y. Martin. / S.M.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management, Technology, Management, and Policy Program, 2001. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 173-183). / We may have a serious problem with education in the United States. However, the literature suggests one can arrive at differing conclusions about the efficacy of the American educational system depending on what we measure, how we measure it, when we decide to measure, and why we measure. As will be shown, many testing methods currently in vogue in the United States generate data that can lead policy makers, parents, educators, and even students to arrive at invalid conclusions about schools; teachers, and student ability, especially when evaluating the ability of a student to apply (versus just know) concepts. It was hypothesized that, if applied in a manner aligned with accepted validity standards, modern computer technology could both dramatically improve the accuracy of our inferences, and provide significant new insights into student learning and understanding given present national and California state standards. As a "proof of concept", a quasi-experimental, interrupted time series study was conducted using a computerized learning and assessment tool to observe second semester high school chemistry students solving qualitative chemistry problems. The results presented here suggest that: -- Without intervention, once a student chooses a strategy to solve a problem, the student will continue to use the same type of strategy (in both the near- and long-term), whether or not that strategy has proven effective. These findings imply we now have the opportunity to both diagnose ineffective strategies as they are developing, and tailor interventions to individual student needs. -- Because technology allows us to look both at a student's answer and how s)he arrived at that answer, we conclude that we can accurately infer whether a student really understands the concepts of a particular knowledge domain. Our findings suggest that, if properly employed, technology can offer new, real-time insights into student understanding. The paper concludes by discussing the applicability of this research to other knowledge domains, some avenues of future research, and particular pedagogical interventions which the results suggest might be most promising. / by Terry P. Vendlinski. / Ph.D.

Thesis (S.M.M.O.T.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management, Management of Technology Program, 2000. / Also available online at the MIT Theses Online homepage <http://thesis.mit.edu>. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 109-112). / Research was done on several public sources to identify the 828 practices of two players in the computer hardware industry. As key players in a technology intensive industry, such as computer hardware, yet coming from different starting points, IBM as an incumbent and Dell as an attacker should provide insights in key success factors in e-commerce and their application to a more general group of players in other industries. A framework for analyzing the specifics of the 828 strategy for these two companies was developed. This framework was an adaptation and evolution of the Value Chain and the Integrated Value Chain concepts. This framework provides a better understanding of the relationship between the 828 strategy and the overall strategy of the company. From the results achieved by these companies' 828 practices, several conclusions and recommendations were drawn for IBM and Dell. Specific recommendations on the key issues brought about by the Internet in areas such as channel restructuring, customer relationship management and trends towards providing full customer solutions are provided. This work also shows how specialization and partnerships will play an increasingly important role for computer hardware vendors, as clients look for integrated solutions and one stop buying for products and services. An assessment of the future challenges brought about by new marketplaces such as e-marketplaces, specifically 828 exchanges, shows how companies need to be prepared to embrace e-business rather than e-commerce in order to survive. Other new challenges are analyzed, particularly those related to the commoditization of the computer hardware industry, the birth of PC substitutes, such as wireless appliances, and the use of the Web as the software holder. Finally, a partnership or strategic alliance between these two companies is discussed as a plausible strategy to leverage on their distinct core strengths: Dell's capability to effectively manage outsourcing and the direct channel, and IBM's skills on building in-house capabilities for creating new service lines and developing world class software. / by Adriana Maria Noreňa [sic]. / S.M.M.O.T.

Thesis (S.M.M.O.T.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management, Management of Technology Program, 2000. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 63-65). / Innovation and rapid fielding ("commercialization") of superior technology has been a key element in the United States military's strategy throughout its history. Maintaining this edge in the current environment of increased rate of technological change but dramatically reduced military procurement budgets will require strategically developing the most cost effective systems and optimizing the productivity of new product development teams. An emerging framework for a "metrics thermostat" based on an agency theory model for selecting and prioritizing metrics for product development teams has shown promising results in two commercial applications. This study focused on applying this framework to one of the government's largest procurement organizations, the Naval Sea Systems Command (NA VSEA), the Navy Department's central activity for designing, engineering, integrating, building and procuring U.S. naval ships and shipboard weapons and combat systems. A working metrics hierarchy and construct was developed. Desired outcomes or profit analogies were defined to value and differentiate strategic priorities, enabling metrics and covariates. Five strategic priorities aligned with NA VSEA' s stated goals were selected for the study and enabling metrics and covariates directly impacting these strategic priorities and desired outcomes were defined. Approximately 50 product/systems were identified and investigated to varying degrees. Significant progress was made toward populating the defined data fields for the selected data points/systems. Preliminary analyses offer hope that the combination of a large data set and broad, robust metrics will reveal meaningful correlations and leverages. The data sources have been largely been identified but substantial data collection remains to be done. As this is completed, comprehensive regression analyses will be performed to determine the relative effectiveness of the strategic priorities and enabling metrics. These results, and corresponding directions to program mangers on which strategies and metrics to emphasize and which to de-emphasize, will be validated by NA VSEA experts. / by Carl B. Frank. / S.M.M.O.T.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Program in Science, Technology and Society, 2002. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 485-497). / (cont.) In the process, this thesis intervenes in social theoretical debates not simply around the nature and production of knowledge and value, but also around the place of larger belief-systems - relating to religion, nation and ethics - in such productive enterprises. It simultaneously intervenes in conceptual debates within cultural anthropology regarding methodological questions that surround the undertaking of comparative ethnographic projects of powerful sites of knowledge production and value generation in a globalized world. / This thesis is concerned with tracking and theorizing the co-production of an emergent technoscientific regime - that of biotechnology in the context of drug development - with an emergent political economic regime that sees the increased prevalence of such research in corporate locales, with corporate agendas and practices. Hence biocapital, which asks questions of the implications for life sciences when performed in corporations, and for capitalism, when biotechnology becomes a key source of market value. The methodology followed in this dissertation is multi-sited ethnography. I study a range of actors - including academic and industrial scientists, entrepreneurs, venture capitalists and policy makers - in two distinct national environments, the United States and India, as they shape and come to terms with these emergent technologies and emergent political economies. I attempt, through such a study, to theorize biocapital, drawing primarily upon Marxian and Foucauldian understandings of life, labor and value, and upon literature in Science and Technology Studies, that has constantly drawn attention to the constructed, contingent and politically consequent nature of technoscientific activity. / by Kaushik Sunder Rajan. / Ph.D.

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 462-499). / This dissertation presents a history of the community of nuclear arms control experts in the United States during the middle and later years of the Cold War, the age of thermonuclear ballistic missiles. Arms control experts were, in many interesting ways, both insiders and outsiders to the American "nuclear state." The dissertation begins by exploring the formation of strategic arms control in the years leading up to 1960, showing how arms control emerged from the mixing of local communities of disarmament advocates and theorists of nuclear deterrence. Rather than inevitable doctrinal unity, early arms control was highly local and contingent. In particular, the crucial concept of "stability" was open to multiple interpretations. In the 1960s, arms control problems motivated groundbreaking scientific research. Elite contract consultants to the government contemplated the use of lasers as weapons against ballistic missiles. As consultants performed calculations and experiments in the context of classified discussions and studies, they founded a new field of physics called nonlinear optics. In the late 1960s, strategic arms control became a public issue during a complex political dispute over missile defense. Arms control experts mediated and fueled this controversy by participating in a surprising range of activity, rallying alongside local residents whose neighborhoods would be impacted by missile defense installations, and criticizing defense policy in Congressional testimony-even as they worked their connections to the White House. In the 1960s and 1970s arms controllers shaped a changing institutional landscape for the support of arms control expertise. They built arms control into a new government agency, and later drew on the resources of philanthropic foundations to create major university arms control centers. By the 1980s, arms control reached peak public visibility amid controversy over the Reagan administration's Strategic Defense Initiative. This dissertation uses the private papers and correspondence of numerous experts, a wide range of arms control publications, and government records to explore the diverse practices of arms control. It engages a wider discussion among historians about the status of Cold War elites, the relationship between experts and the American state, and the character of scientific knowledge during the Cold War. / by Benjamin Tyler Wilson. / Ph. D. in History, Anthropology, and Science, Technology and Society (HASTS)