Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Engineering Systems Division, Technology and Policy Program, 2005. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 91-93). / During the last decades, distributed energy (DE) resources received considerable attention and support because of the confluence of technology development - particularly gas turbines - and deregulation - which would allow access to the distribution systems. DE was seen as addressing numerous issues, including transmission constraints, reliability, power quality, energy efficiency, and environmental quality through combined heat and power (CHP) applications. Numerous barriers, such as stranded asset requirements and lack of uniform interconnection standards, were recognized but viewed as manageable. Nevertheless, the penetration of DE/CHP has been considerably less than anticipated by many. More recent developments in the DE technology, regulatory environment, and fuel prices call for a re-examination of the cost-benefit balance for DE owners and of the societal implications that underpin public policy. This study addresses the MIT Cogeneration Plant in that context, motivated by the fact MIT was an early mover in adopting CHP technology in institutional settings. After a decade addressing numerous obstacles, the plant was put into operation about a decade ago with the expectations of reducing energy costs, improving the quality of power, and reducing net atmospheric emissions. / (cont.) This study reviews the major drivers for deciding on-campus power generation, and analyzes the project retrospectively in the context of today's market and regulatory conditions. Alternative scenarios are also evaluated in terms of technology improvements, standby rates, and fuel prices with the further goal of understanding their impact on the viability of DE/CHP projects. Our baseline results lead us to conclude that MIT Cogeneration Plant is a better alternative than generating the steam and purchasing the electricity needs separately. The present value of the economic savings are about $43m for the period 2006 to 2020, while the environmental benefits in terms of C02 emissions represent in average about 65,000 metric tons/yr. These numbers represent about 10% cost savings and 22% CO2 reduction under the set of assumptions and projections in the base case. Then, we performed four sensitivity analyses to understand the impact of technology efficiency, electricity rate structure, market fuel cost uncertainties and a carbon tax on the viability of DE/CHP projects: - Better turbine electrical efficiency represents more economic and CO2 emission benefits for the cogeneration alternative, with economic savings increasing up to about $73m and C02 benefits up to 93 metric tons/yr. / (cont.) - If the utility's new rate structure were applicable to the MIT cogeneration facility, it would have additional economic benefits of about $4.6m. - The project can be particularly sensitive to market conditions, especially natural gas prices. If fuel price conditions are not favorable, the cogeneration alternative becomes uneconomic with incremental costs of almost $56m. - Finally, the economic recognition of the CO2 reductions can change the economics of a cogeneration project. A DE/CHP project may displace emissions from less efficient technology and fossil fuel sources - depending on the utility's energy portfolio. For example, a $100/tonne carbon-tax brings additional economic savings of about $16m for the Cambridge utility fuel mix (about two thirds fossil). However, this particular cogeneration project would have additional costs of $2m if the Cambridge utility used entirely "carbon-free" sources. In summary, this study illustrates that CHP systems provide real economic and environmental benefits, through better efficiency, reutilization of exhaust gases, and displacement of polluting technologies. However, changes in current operational, market and regulatory conditions may greatly affect the benefits and viability of DE projects, requiring institutions to perform an in-depth analysis to weigh the pros and cons of specific projects. / by Karen de los Angeles Tapia-Ahumada. / S.M.

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 (p. 99-101). / The technology platform in the research and development of pharmaceutical drugs is changing dramatically -- from the traditional trial-and-error method to modem sophisticated methods that use Combinatorial Chemistry (CC), High Throughput Screening (HTS), and Gene Technology. Since the beginning of the 1990s, pharmaceutical companies have actively invested into such technologies. Some investment has been in-house, but many companies have acquired high-tech ventures or formed strategic alliances. Today it is necessary for every firm to make the best use of all these technologies in order to improve their R&D productivity. However, it is expensive to use all of them. Over the past five years, many leading global companies have begun to merge. There are various reasons for merging, but the most common is to enhance R&D activity and marketing by reducing redundancy and reinvesting the savings. These attitudes indicate that the critical mass of the industry will increase rapidly. Similar technological change is occurring in Japan. In addition, other changes in the Japanese pharmaceutical industry are also having a significant effect, such as the national health insurance system and the R&D regulatory environment. However, compared to the magnitude of radical change among global companies, much less has occurred in the Japanese industry. That is, fewer mergers have occurred between leading Japanese pharmaceutical companies. Instead, Japanese companies seem to be mired in a dilemma in a rapidly changing environment. To break through this situation, Japanese pharmaceutical companies must consider making some deals. I analyzed the R&D strategies of five pharmaceutical companies, to learn how they acquire genetic technology strategy, and I found some interesting points. The research found that increasing the critical mass of the industry through M&As and strategic alliances, coupled with excellent strategies and effective R&D management, is indispensable for the industry as a whole, specifically for medium-sized firms. Finally, I conclude with some specific recommendations for Welfide Corporation, as it seeks to solve the dilemmas and enter the global markets of the pharmaceutical industry. / by Yoshifumi Togo. / 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 96-99). / History has shown, and much management research has pointed out, that the structure of industries is not static. In some cases, striking shifts in industry structure have led to value creation explosions, the entry of new firms, and dramatic shifts in the value capture capability of firms within the industry. Perhaps the most oft-cited example of this phenomenon is the dis-integration of the personal computer industry into a horizontally organized cluster of hundreds of firms, and the emergence of Intel and Microsoft as dominant value-capture powerhouses within that industry. A large and ever-growing body of research studies the structure of industries. That is, the composition and structure of products created by firms in the industry, the structure of the design processes that generate these products, and the markets in which components and design services are offered to the industry. Of great concern to research in this area are the concepts of modularity and value chain structure. Some argue that the degree of modularity inherent in both an industry's products and the design processes that produce them have a profound effect on industry structure. They argue that modularity affects the structure of design and production value chains within the industry, the markets in which components and design services are made available, on the firms that participate in those markets, and the ability of those firms to create and capture value. Motivated by the striking example of the PC industry itself and this growing body of research, this thesis studies possible shifts in industry structure in the field of microprocessors, or, more generally, very-large-scale-integrated circuits (VLSICs) for computing. High-end microprocessor design, like PC design in the early 80's, is currently vertically integrated within a few dominant firms. But a fundamental trend is at work: the rate at which transistors are becoming available exceeds the rate at which the designers and design processes of incumbent firms are able to use them. This situation creates pressures on the boundaries of design and production that may lead to shifts in value chain boundaries that have previously not been considered by the industry. Will the microprocessor industry itself dis-integrate? If these shifts were to manifest, they may consequently impact the value-capture capability of new and incumbent firms, improving some firms' profitability at the expense of others. This thesis surveys and summarizes the existing body of research on the relationship between modularity and industry structure, and applies it to the field of computing VLSICs. It analyzes the microprocessor industry using those mechanisms proposed in the body of research, suggesting scenarios for how the industry structure may evolve in the near future. It studies and suggests how firms might influence this evolution. This leads to recommendations for firms currently in the industry, and for firms considering entry. / by Michael J. Bass. / S.M.M.O.T.

Thesis: Ph. D. in History, Anthropology, and Science, Technology and Society (HASTS), Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Program in Science, Technology and Society, 2017. / Cataloged from PDF version of thesis. / Includes bibliographical references (pages 306-317). / This dissertation investigates Twitter parody accounts as a form of social critique and linguistic play across English, Japanese, and Arabic-one that is collaboratively created by the users, policymakers, and architects of Twitter. Together, apart, and in different constellations with governments and news media, these actors use parody accounts to recreate and experiment with everything from law to what constitutes a person. I argue that the Twitter parody account, both as negative critique and ambiguous personification play, is an off-platform use-an unintended use of platform, site, or app that is allowed to endure, with varying degrees of official encouragement, silence, and ignorance. Drawing on ethnographic, linguistic, and legal analysis, the dissertation details the contours of this use, its adversaries and proponents among traditional structures of authority, and how the platform has ratified and deployed it globally. Chapter 1, Aspect Shift, examines how a parody account works at a linguistic level through the name and profile photo play of a classic political parody account. Chapter 2, The Account-Person, proposes that personhood on Twitter is a cyborg entity and investigates five elements the shape this account-person: number, body, position, world, and time. Turning to parody accounts' relationship with authority, chapter 3, Warranting Parody, investigates why some in positions of authority mobilize apparatuses of power against parody accounts. Not all governmental employees, however, see parody accounts as threats. Chapter 4, Tweeting Like a State, explores the development of norms around parody among a key, but often overlooked group of contemporary interpreters of representative government: governmental social media managers. Chapter 5, The Social Media Contract, argues that the history of Twitter's parody policy is the history of its still-emerging social contract, a contract shaped by user demands, the abdication of traditional authorities, and Twitter's own interests. This social contract has uneven globality-as chapter 6, Of Policyness and Global Polysemy, shows through examining Twitter's parody policy across languages. Finally, in the conclusion I bring these various strands together through the concept of usership, a member relationship entangled with citizenship yet largely asserted and negotiated with corporations rather than governments. / by Amanda Johnson. / 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, 2013. / Cataloged from PDF version of thesis. / Includes bibliographical references. / The thesis utilises newly available legal and municipal archives to study the historical geography of colonial Bombay through five interlocking themes and periods from 1870-1930. This spans the period between the boom and bust in the cotton trade during and after the American Civil War - when Bombay was a colonial mercantile port - to its emergence as of one of India and Asia's largest industrial cities after the First World War. Separate chapters explore the history of railway and telegraph networks, standardisation and time-keeping, land acquisition and valuation, cadastral surveying and property registration, and the urban built environment. From the perspective of the colonial city, the history of these formations looks less like the smooth unfolding of singular standards of money, time or space, than a protracted war of position fought out across a century by experts, elites and the masses. This thesis seeks to deepen the social and political history of urbanization in South Asia beyond concepts of colonial technology transfer or nationalist resistance by examining the everyday politics of stock and real estate speculation, public clocks, land and private property, maps and topographical surveys, and buildings and streets in colonial Bombay. These "modern" technologies of calculation, coordination and control in the urban environment both created and depended on new scales of power and capital accumulation, or particular configurations of industrial technologies, civic institutions and urban space. / by Shekhar Krishnan. / 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, 1999. / Includes bibliographical references (leaf 80). / Microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) comprise a set of technologies for the micromachining and electromechanical integration of sensors and actuators. MEMS allow for the radical miniaturization of such devices, as well as for significant improvements in performance and cost over conventionally fabricated mechanical and electrical components. In this thesis, I attempt to assess the value inherent in MEMS innovations and to understand how companies have tried to capture that value. In doing so, I assess the pathways and prospects for the commercialization of MEMS-based devices. I have chosen to focus on two classes of devices: (1) micromachined accelerometers for crash sensing and subsequent air bag deployment in automobiles, and (2) microfabricated chemical sensing and analysis devices for detecting and quantifying gas phase molecules, analyzing complex molecular mixtures, and carrying out high throughput screening of chemical compounds. Accelerometers are an example of a MEMS-based sensor that has almost completely displaced existing electromechanical substitute devices. Applications of MEMS to chemical sensing and analysis, however, are less mature and widespread adoption is less assured. In both cases, I evaluate the opportunities in the new technology from several different perspectives: (1) the factors that affect the transition from innovative technologies to marketable products; (2) the economic, market, and strategic forces that influence the adoption of these products; and (3) the business models of companies that have attempted to profit from MEMS innovations. I conclude the thesis with a chapter on potential strategic market barriers to successful commercialization of MEMS-based devices. / by Gary N. Robinson. / S.M.M.O.T.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Program in Science, Technology and Society, 2001. / "February 2001." / Includes bibliographical references (v. 2, p. 631-784). / This thesis traces the development of American bacteriology during the first quarter of the twentieth century. While bacteriology experienced a period of rapid growth, an enduring disciplinary anxiety equally characterized the field. In particular, bacteriologists feared increasing specialization and conceptual fragmentation. Leading practitioners repeatedly worried that their science constituted a collection of unrelated techniques, carried out in the service to other practical endeavors without the benefit of an underlying theory or unifying language. I suggest that the sources of bacteriology's rapid professional growth equally accounted for this sense of conceptual impoverishment and disciplinary privation. Typically, bacteriologists focused on what bacteria did rather than what they were in any biological sense. The first three chapters provide a comprehensive survey of the institutional contexts bacteriology (e.g., medical schools, public health laboratories, water sanitation works, dairies, land-grant colleges, and agricultural experiment stations). For the most part, bacteriologists studied bacteria only so far as to isolate, identify and eliminate pathogens. Dairy and soil bacteriologists, however, sought to distinguish productive types of bacteria, and render those forms more active, a direction that led them to consider a range of phenomena and organisms normally occluded by the practices of medical, public health, and sanitary bacteriology. / (cont.) The final three chapters of the dissertation trace the attempts of American bacteriologists to render their science less fragmented and more biological, focusing in particular on the actions of the Society of American Bacteriologists (SAB). Established in 1899, the SAB endeavored to bridge the divergent interests and practices of American bacteriologists. Through its inclusive membership, ecumenical leadership, diverse meeting programs, and society journal, the SAB served as an organizational exploration of those shared aspects of the discipline. Furthermore, the SAB issued a comprehensive chart for the identification of unknown cultures. While never endorsed as its official methods, the chart soon formed the basis of undergraduate and graduate training, while it guided research programs and published papers. In addition, the serial revisions of the chart led bacteriologists to consider many fundamental aspects of bacteria. Lastly, the SAB struggled to reform bacterial systematics. At the time of the SAB's founding, bacteriology languished under a state of taxonomic chaos, with each specialty offering its own system of naming and grouping bacteria. Believing that this linguistic fragmentation precluded the emergence of a unified discipline, the SAB overhauled bacterial systematics, arranging bacteria according to their detailed morphology, physiology, and likely evolutionary histories. / (cont.) While the SAB's taxonomy did not find immediate adherents, it did become authoritative by way of the classroom and laboratory. The SAB issued a new comprehensive determinative guide, the Bergey's Manual of Determinative Bacteriology, which incorporated the SAB's scheme. As the Bergey's Manual became ubiquitous to laboratory practice and course instruction, American bacteriologists unwittingly adopted a broader range of considerations ... / by Eric D. Kupferberg. / Ph.D.

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Engineering Systems Division, Technology and Policy Program, 2003. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 122-126). / This thesis proposes a technology strategy that is formulated to serve as the foundation for a holistic. global knowledge networking strategy for multinational enterprises (MNEs). This thesis is framed in the context of the increasing salience of knowledge for all enterprises, everywhere, today. The uncertainties of the marketplace, global e-business opportunities born of the Internet revolution, and the paradigmatic shifts in thought on organizational design have amplified the demand for the right knowledge of the right kind at the right time. The multi-dimensional nature of knowledge and the complexities of enterprise activities are compounded by the fact that enterprises today are increasingly globalized and seeking to globally expand its activities. The capabilities to acquire quality-controlled knowledge within the necessary time-horizons, and the capabilities to leverage and diffuse acquired knowledge throughout the organization have become critical. However, the mechanisms by which to perform and enable these functions are not strategically integrated across the organization, and on a global basis. This thesis focuses on the knowledge network as a mechanism and as a process by which to coordinate innovation and learning for enterprises and enterprise-value-networks on a global basis. While knowledge networks have been formed in both non-profit and for-profit sectors, this thesis will be concerned solely with knowledge networks for businesses. Knowledge networks can be analyzed into technology and human elements, but often there is no coordinating strategy that synthesizes both elements into integrative solutions that can capture the value of knowledge for the enterprise. The hypothesis . guiding this thesis is that existing models of knowledge networking are not sufficiently holistic. and proposes an integrated knowledge networking strategy that leverages both technology infrastructure and human competencies in meeting organizational knowledge requirements. The emergent nature of strategically initiated knowledge networks in business can adapt knowledge networking solutions that have been developed in the non-profit sector. One such framework for knowledge networking from the non-profit sector is the GSSD (Global System for Sustainable Development) initiative, developed in MIT with partners in academic institutions around the world, is one such methodology that aims to facilitate knowledge flows and knowledge sharing on a global scale. This thesis (a) develops a technology strategy that adapts the GSSD framework for enterprises that operate on a global scale, (b) illustrates its conceptual feasibility by proposing several designs for GSSD-E, or GSSD for the enterprise, and (c) applies the designs to a test case. The test case is a conceptual implementation of the GSSD-E design for Sony Environmental Management Systems. The thesis concludes by suggesting further possible directions in researching GSSD-E possibilities. / by Shung Yar Lim. / S.M.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Program in Science, Technology, and Society, 1995. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 222-241). / by George Michael O'Har. / Ph.D.

Thesis (M.S.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Technology and Policy Program, 1998. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 125-129). / by Bertrand Delcaire. / M.S.