Thesis: S.M. in Engineering and Management, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, System Design and Management Program, 2019 / Cataloged from PDF version of thesis. / Includes bibliographical references (pages 87-89). / The United States military services, government, and civilian population rely on the US military's historic technical dominance in outer space. Space-enabled capabilities have become fundamental across the spectrum of military and civilian activities. The space superiority gap that the US military has held for decades is narrowing as access to space technology, and to space itself, becomes more widespread, allowing more nations, private industry, and non-state actors to become significant players in space. In response to this trend, the US Department of Defense and Congress are seeking to establish the Space Force as an independent branch of the Armed Forces. This thesis applies a systems thinking method to designing the structure and function of the Space Force. Through review of open-source literature, the study summarizes the current state of the military space enterprise and assesses the arguments made by advocates of various approaches to organizing the space forces. / The US military possesses extensive space power, executing critical missions such as navigation, imagery, and communications. US government space functions also include space intelligence, managing space traffic, and regulating the space industry. The literature review enables understanding of the existing architecture, five proposed alternative architectures and the eight key decisions on which they are based, and eight utility and cost metrics for evaluating the options. Tradespace analysis reveals the relative value of the six architectures and how they compare to other possible configurations to inform the Space Force debate. This limited investigation expressly does not include classified information or insider perspectives, and therefore does not offer policy recommendations, but within its limitations and assumptions the tradespace analysis offers some useful conclusions. / First, creating the Space Force as a separate branch of the military is consistent with national security priorities and the current circumstances of the military and industry. Second, making the Space Force a whole-of-government organization yields the highest utility, though at the highest cost, amongst the six architectures under consideration. Third, military space capability commercialization can allow reduced cost and improved utility compared to the current architecture. Finally, consolidated space acquisitions only, without additional steps toward a separate Space Force, might not improve the military space enterprise compared to the existing baseline. Recommendations for future study include incorporating classified data and key stakeholder input into the framework, further decomposing the military space functions to elaborate the tradespace in greater detail and defining criteria for commercialization of space capabilities. / These additional steps will enable the research to reliably inform policy decisions. / by Robert F. Thornton. / 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, 2019 / Cataloged from PDF version of thesis. / Includes bibliographical references (pages 78-82). / Power demand is experiencing strong growth in the MENA region, while local fuel resources are depleting. Traditional sources of power no longer meet the demands of an environmentally sensitive future. Meeting the rapidly growing domestic energy demand, particularly for electricity and desalination, is a real challenge facing all MENA countries. Renewable energy will play a key role in the MENA region's sustainable energy transition, and should be viewed as an integrated solution for water and energy. This thesis presents an overview of the challenges associated with adopting renewable energy on a large scale, and proposing potential solutions that are most suited for the needs of the MENA region. The main challenge being evaluated in this work is the concept of curtailed energy risk as a result of the intermittency associated with the adoption of renewable energy. Storage technologies, such as pumped hydro and battery storage, are the most common solution for this challenge. However, this report proposes the use of desalination to solve both curtailment and the critical need for water in the region, while also reducing the negative effects of economic uncertainty associated with battery storage adoption. A Strategy was proposed for adopting large scale battery energy storage within uncertainty. This research used two methodologies for the analysis. System causal loop modeling, which was used to understand the complex behavior when utilizing curtailed energy for desalination and storage, and excel modelling using a probabilistic cost-benefit analysis that was employed to apply flexibility to the adoption of battery storage capacity, and increasing the expected net present value. / by Yazeed Abdullah Ghanem Zureikat. / 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, 2019 / Cataloged from PDF version of thesis. / Includes bibliographical references (pages 41-42). / DevOps, a paradigm in which development and operations processes and teams are considered elements of the same stack, is a new way of thinking in the software engineering domain. It has recently gained significant momentum in development of Product-Service-Systems (PSS) where operations play a significant role in product and service delivery. We hence study a DevOps software development process for a PSS using a design structure matrix (DSM) representation to find out the structure of information exchange in DevOps processes. We find unique features such as nested iterations at differing rates which are not evident in conventional engineering development projects. We describe the impact of integrating ongoing operations into a development process and identify some of the enablers that lead to adoption of a DevOps process. We conclude by discussing the implications of our findings and raise questions for further research. / by Rajaram Srinivasan. / 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, 2019 / Cataloged from PDF version of thesis. / Includes bibliographical references (pages 73-74). / The pace of technology development shapes the landscape of almost every industry today. The words innovation, digital transformation, process automation are synonyms of success. The most successful corporations nowadays understand that technology should not be a standalone initiative gated within the IT department, to achieve an impact, technology must become a part of company's DNA along with its brand strategy or culture. The study examines the role of the CTO, which has been relatively poorly characterized by research to date. This research characterizes how CTOs view their job description, notably how they balance internally-focused attention with external responsibilities. This work draws on a quantitative analysis of 100 CTOs from Linkedln to understand their tenure duration and career history. We also collected primary data through interviews with 20 CTOs to understand their activities, responsibilities and the context that influences the span of impact. This work posits five Personas of CTOs: The Evangelist, the Anchor, the Coordinator, the Visionary, and the Strategist in various corporate settings. The study further examines the relationship between the career path of the CTO, his/her responsibilities and impacts in current role. The study indicates that the CTOs' responsibilities align most closely with the Coordinator and the Anchor personas. Both responsibilities and personas showed coherent distribution relative to the company maturity giving the opportunity to draw a CTOs' lifecycle where the Anchor is more likely to be found in early companies and the Coordinator in mature companies. Among the CTOs studied, 10% to 20% do not have a pure technical background, 40% are not involved in product delivery and only 36% had previously served as a CTO in another firm. The data also shows that CTOs would like to be highly collaborative and cross-functional, and desire proximity to the CEO. / by Jean-Michel Prouillet-Leplat. / S.M. in Engineering and Management / S.M.inEngineeringandManagement Massachusetts Institute of Technology, System Design and Management Program

This electronic version was submitted by the student author. The certified thesis is available in the Institute Archives and Special Collections. / Thesis: S.M. in Engineering and Management, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, System Design and Management Program, 2019 / Cataloged from student-submitted PDF version of thesis. / Includes bibliographical references (pages 133-137). / More than 300 million people in the world suffer from depression. While traditional psychotherapies like cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) continue to be effective for treating depression, a newer therapy known as acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) has surfaced in recent decades that employs mindfulness and values-based techniques, inter alia, not explicitly targeted in CBT. Significantly influenced by ACT, this thesis offers a direct, externalized means by which individuals can interact with their value systems. Specifically, I present Psyche - a novel computer-based psychological intervention that is designed to help individuals not only better understand what they value but also better align their actions with their values. This thesis posits that such intentionality vis-à-vis our values will improve mental wellbeing. A two-week randomized controlled trial conducted on 29 participants compared Psyche (mind mapping one's value system) to an active control task (journaling). Both groups performed similarly for every therapeutic outcome measure. Given the fact that journaling is widely held to be therapeutically efficacious on its own and that the trial was a short two-week trial, the findings were encouraging. In addition to examining Psyche through the lens of therapeutic efficacy, I assess its ability to engage users. / by Alan Yan. / 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, 2019 / Cataloged from PDF version of thesis. / Includes bibliographical references. / This study explores the broader questions and implications involved in selecting sustainable materials for designing everyday products for consumers, through a qualitative review of leather and new modern alternatives. Leather is a resilient material that has been used for thousands of years. However, the processes involved in producing the material on a mass scale create adverse environmental and social impact when not carefully managed and considered. Although the modern leather alternatives may have comparatively smaller environmental footprints, designing a sustainable product may not be as simple as replacing one material for another and involves complex value judgements amongst industry players and consumers. This, therefore, brings up questions about what is material or immaterial when it comes to sustainable design decisions, and emphasizes the need for systemic thinking across the value chain in order to have a truly meaningful attempt towards designing for environmental, social and economic sustainability. / by Frances Jillian S. Qua. / 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, 2019 / Cataloged from PDF version of thesis. / Includes bibliographical references (pages 77-79). / Patients with comorbid physical, behavioral, and social needs-often referred to as high-need patients-tend to be the most frequent utilizers of the health care system. The US health care system, with fragmented behavioral and medical health care sectors, is unable to effectively meet the complex needs of high-need patients. This results in high health care utilization, increased health care costs, and poor health outcomes among this population. Behavioral Health Integration in Primary Care (BHIPC) is widely promoted as a means to improve access, quality and continuity of health care services in a more efficient way, especially for people with complex needs. Hundreds of BHIPC programs are being implemented across health care settings in the US. However, the concept of BHIPC is wide-ranging, and it has been used as an overarching approach to describe integration efforts that vary in design, scope, and value. Research on how BHIPC is implemented in practice is limited. Practitioners and policymakers find it challenging to evaluate BHIPC programs and identify and scale-up its most critical elements. In this thesis, I develop a design-based framework that deconstructs the ambiguous concept of BHIPC into a set of tangible design elements and decisions. Furthermore, in order to inform how BHIPC is implemented in practice, I use this design-based framework to examine the behavioral health integration programs in four community health centers in Massachusetts. I found that by just comparing the underlying design elements, it is difficult to assess BHIPC programs and distinguish a successful program from an unsuccessful one. I therefore recommend and propose an outcomes-based framework for differentiating and evaluating BHIPC programs. I also recommend that future researchers refine and standardize the process measures I introduce so that they can be used as guideposts by primary care practitioners to develop their BHIPC programs. / by Anubhav Arora. / 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, 2019 / Cataloged from PDF version of thesis. / Includes bibliographical references (pages 119-121). / The human-centered design approach is a powerful methodology for developing products that are considerate of humanity. Yet, in spite of the proven success of empathetic design, we still see products that fail, amplify negative social behaviors, or take advantage of human tendencies for the sake of profit or competitive success. These outcomes are often the result of poor negotiation between conflicting organizational and value-driven goals. The purpose of this analysis is to consider how goal conflict inhibits the product development process and leads to suboptimal or destructive results. This exploration seeks to learn from an analysis of the deadly product failure of Firestone ATX, ATX 11, and Wilderness AT tires in the late 1990s. Drawing from Congressional testimony, expert evaluation, and depositions of relevant engineers, this analysis considers the impact of goal conflict on product design requirements and testing. Recommendations include methods for identifying goals and framing conflict to encourage balance between organizational goals and human wellbeing. This project is the beginning of a larger body of work that aims to equip "makers" with skills they need to reconcile conflicting goals in order to focus on making the world better by making better things. / by Rachel M. Moore. / 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, 2019 / Cataloged from PDF version of thesis. / Includes bibliographical references (pages 87-89). / This thesis explores how MIT can build community and increase access to information on healthy food options by mapping affordability, sustainability, and location-based attributes of MIT's food system in order to generate a community-based food resource. This work builds on recommendations from MIT's sustainability and food-focused working groups, which identified a shared solution space for mapping the campus food landscape. User experience design methods and extensive stakeholder research were implemented and form the basis for product and service recommendations to bolster MIT's food community moving forwards. / by Andrea C. McClave. / S.M. in Engineering and Management / S.M.inEngineeringandManagement Massachusetts Institute of Technology, System Design and Management Program

Direct, construct by construct translation from one high level language to another often produces convoluted, unnatural, and unreadable results, particularly when the source and target languages support different models of programming. A more readable and natural translation can be obtained by augmenting the translator with a program transformation system.