http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/7742 Sun, 09 Jun 2013 14:06:24 GMT 2013-06-09T14:06:24Z http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/78503 The role of philanthropic capital in entrepreneurship : an empirical analysis of financial vehicles at the nonprofit/for-profit boundary of science and engineering Wood, Sarah J Not-for-profit funding from wealthy individuals and their foundations is widely used to support science and engineering research within the university, but is not currently being used to fund the translation of those ideas towards greater impact. Entrepreneurship is a powerful engine for moving from idea to impact, but for-profit investments in early-stage companies fail to account for investors' charitable objectives and are not rewarded for social returns. Conversely, tax-shielded "charitable" funds are rarely used in for-profit technology companies regardless of their desirable social outcomes. As a result, there is often a limited amount of capital available to companies in areas such as energy, water and human disease because neither pure philanthropic nor pure profit motives sufficiently justify investment. Traditional explanations for funding gaps fail to recognize that the shortfall due to both the risk profile of potential investments, and the poor match between the social and private interests of "investors" and the types of vehicles that might allow a mix of philanthropic and financial motives to sit side-by-side. To address this challenge, we asked a simple question: What financial approaches and organizational structures can be deployed at the intersection of the non-profit and for-profit boundary to address the funding gaps in science and engineering commercialization? To explore this issue, we conducted interviews, reviewed legal texts and relevant literature, and compiled data from online sources. Our findings reveal a sophisticated set of tools that are historically under-used, but which have the potential to advance many areas of science and engineering that hold solutions to global issues, such as health, environment, water, and energy. Thesis (S.M. in Technology and Policy)-- Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Engineering Systems Division, Technology and Policy Program, 2012.; Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.; Includes bibliographical references (p. 66-70). Sun, 01 Jan 2012 00:00:00 GMT http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/78503 2012-01-01T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/78500 New product development methods : a study of open design Smith, Ariadne G. (Ariadne Geneviève) This thesis explores the application of open design to the process of developing physical products. Open design is a type of decentralized innovation that is derived from applying principles of open source software and crowdsourcing to product development. Crowdsourcing has gained popularity in the last decade, ranging from translation services, to marketing concepts, and new product funding. However, it is only in the past few years that open design has been considered as a method to create more innovative products in less time and for less money. While truly open design requires participants to collaborate and make contributions at each stage of the product development process, applications of open design to physical product development have been limited to accepting external contributions at only certain, less technical phases of design, such as planning, idea generation, or obtaining idea feedback. This thesis seeks to explore two questions related to creating a tool for open design in physical product development: what kind of tool can be developed to support crowdsourcing the full development of a physical product, and what types of design environments can benefit from this tool? Through a collaboration with GE Global Research for DARPA's Adaptive Vehicle Make (AVM) program, this thesis presents an early prototype of an online tool that allows for the open design of an entire product development process, in application to the development of a vehicle. Then, a framework is developed in order to identify the tool's applicability to other product development industries. Interviews with potential lead users in a number of different industrial sectors were conducted to better understand how this open design environment might be used and adapted for applications outside of a DARPA-driven vehicle design domain. Though the sensitive nature of projects in the defense and medical device industries prohibits this tool from used for its intended crowdsourcing purposes, there is promise for further development of the tool for uses in academic and education environments, and as an internal project management tool in other product development industries, such as aviation and consumer product design. Thesis (S.M. in Technology and Policy)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Engineering Systems Division, Technology and Policy Program; and, (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Mechanical Engineering, 2012.; Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.; Includes bibliographical references (p. 70-75). Sun, 01 Jan 2012 00:00:00 GMT http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/78500 2012-01-01T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/78499 Collaborative competition for crowdsourcing spaceflight software and STEM education using SPHERES Zero Robotics Nag, Sreeja Crowdsourcing is being researched as a technique to develop small-scale spaceflight software by issuing open calls for solutions to large crowds of people with the incentive of prizes. There is widespread investment of resources in the fields of Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics (STEM) education to improve STEM interests and skills. This thesis tackles the dual objectives of building crowdsourcing cluster flight software and educating students using collaborative gaming and competition, both in virtual simulation environments and on real hardware in space. The concept is demonstrated using the SPHERES Zero Robotics Program which is a robotics programming competition. The robots are nanosatellites called SPHERES - an experimental testbed to test navigation, formation flight and control algorithms - onboard the International Space Station (ISS). Zero Robotics allows students to access SPHERES through a web-based interface and the robust programs run on the hardware in microgravity, supervised by astronauts. The apparatus to investigate the influence of collaboration was developed by (1) building new web infrastructure and an Integrated Development Environment where intensive interparticipant collaboration is possible, (2) designing and programming a game to solve a relevant formation flight problem, collaborative in nature - and (3) structuring a tournament such that inter-team collaboration is mandated. The web infrastructure was built using crowdsourcing competitions too, to demonstrate feasibility of building software end-to-end through crowdsourcing. The multi-objective design of experiments had three types of collaborations as variables - within matches (to achieve game objectives), inter-team alliances and unstructured communication on online forums. The data used to evaluate objective achievement were simulation competition scores, website usage statistics, post-competition surveys and satellite telemetry from ISS hardware demonstrations. All types of collaboration showed positive influence on the quality of solutions achieved. Educationally, they showed mixed results and lessons on improving their process of implementation for more impact have been documented. Overall, this thesis ratifies the applicability of the developed framework for crowdsourcing spaceflight software and educating students and maps the utility of collaboration in this framework. A systems dynamics model for generalizing the framework into other programs for simultaneous crowdsourcing and education outreach has been proposed and management policy concerns highlighted. Thesis (S.M. in Technology and Policy)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Engineering Systems Division, Technology and Policy Program; and, (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Aeronautics and Astronautics, 2012.; Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.; Includes bibliographical references (p. 231-236). Sun, 01 Jan 2012 00:00:00 GMT http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/78499 2012-01-01T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/77070 Monitoring under the Plutonium Management and Disposition Agreement : the prospects of antineutrino detection as an IAEA verification metric for the disposition of weapons-grade plutonium in the United States Copeland, Christopher Michael, S.M. Massachusetts Institute of Technology After the end of World War II, the world entered an even more turbulent period as it faced the beginnings of the Cold War, during which the prospect of mutually assured destruction between the world's largest nuclear weapon states was ever-present, and often provoked tense confrontations. Although fears of a nuclear holocaust significantly subsided after the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, the world faced a potentially more dangerous prospect: the proliferation risks associated with the insecurity and unauthorized acquisition of Soviet-era nuclear warheads. Although all Soviet-era weapons were eventually acquired by Russia, concerns about the excessively large weapons stockpiles of the United States and Russia, combined with the goal of nuclear disarmament, led to the Plutonium Management and Disposition Agreement (PMDA). During the Cold War, the US and the Soviet Union respectively produced approximately 100 and 150 metric tons of weapons-grade plutonium (WGPu). Under the terms of the PMDA, both nations formally each agreed to irradiate 34 MT of excess military plutonium in the form of mixed oxide fuel (MOX) in nuclear power reactors. One of the major issues of concern associated with this agreement relates to the verification measures that will be implemented to ensure actual WGPu disposition. Additionally, despite a commitment (Article VII.3 of the PMDA) to engage and consult with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to establish arrangements to monitor its plutonium disposition process, a formalized IAEA role within a potential multilateral verification regime has yet to be determined. In this work, the ability of the US to achieve the goals of its plutonium disposition campaign by 2018 is assessed. The suitability of the IAEA as an objective party to a multilateral verification regime under the auspices of the PMDA is also analyzed. In an attempt to aid the IAEA with such expected verification procedures, the applicability of antineutrino detection as a potential monitoring technology which could significantly enhance current monitoring procedures is considered. Although there has not yet been a formal demonstration of this technology under the auspices of the PMDA, the technology has been successfully fielded and nonintrusively operated at US and Russian reactors for years at a time, with the explicit aim of demonstrating potential relevance to a range of safeguards and verification tasks. The sensitivity of an antineutrino detector to antineutrino count rate measurements was analyzed through a hypothesis testing procedure which sought to identify statistically significant differences between the count rate evolutions of a designated baseline and potential diversion scenarios. With a specified set of parameters, the test demonstrated that the detector was capable of identifying the replacement of 7 WGPu MOX fuel assemblies with conventional LEU fuel assemblies within 360 days of the fuel cycle operation at a >95% true positive rate and a 5% false positive rate limit. These results were essentially still maintained even with a nonreactor- based antineutrino event background signal as high as 25%. Although pitfalls with regard to systematic uncertainty and operator malfeasance were revealed, potential solutions to such issues are also presented and discussed. All in all, the results obtained in this work confirm the potential efficacy and viability of antineutrino rate based measurements for a range of reactor safeguards and verification tasks. Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Nuclear Science and Engineering; and, (S.M. in Technology and Policy)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Engineering Systems Division, Technology and Policy Program, 2012.; Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.; Includes bibliographical references (p. 104-111). Sun, 01 Jan 2012 00:00:00 GMT http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/77070 2012-01-01T00:00:00Z