Browsing Institute for Data, Systems, and Society - Ph.D / Sc.D. by Title
Now showing items 1-20 of 31
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Accounting for non-hazardous industrial waste in the United States
(Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2016)This dissertation presents a method for estimating the tonnage and composition of non-hazardous industrial waste (NHIW) flows in the United States. For thirty years, it has been an accepted fact that NHIW is generated at ... -
Backroom space allocation in retail stores
(Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2018)Space is one of the most scarce, expensive, and difficult to manage resources in urban retail establishments. A typical retail space broadly consists of two areas, the customer facing frontroom area and the backroom area, ... -
Beyond gates, guards and guns : the systems-theoretic framework for security at nuclear facilities
(Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2018)Current approaches to nuclear security can produce elegantly designed physical protection systems (PPS) that may be limited by untenable assumptions or well stated-albeit vague and imprecise-descriptions of how to improve ... -
Beyond industry : an expanded definition of authentic engineering design education
(Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2019)Authentic approaches to design education are typically defined as experiences centered on industry involvement. This industry connection is commonly either in the form of projects provided by industry partners or practicing ... -
Bioenergy and its use to mitigate the climate impact of aviation
(Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2017)The use of modern bioenergy presents an opportunity to mitigate CO2 emissions contributing to anthropogenic climate change by offsetting fossil fuel use, and the work presented in this thesis contributes to the literature ... -
Combining tradespace exploration with system dynamics to explore future space architectures
(Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2016)This work proposes a merger of Tradespace Exploration with System Dynamics modeling techniques in a complementary approach. It tests the value of this mixed method for modeling the multiplicity of inputs and complexity of ... -
Creating markets for wind electricity in China : case studies in energy policy and regulation
(Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2018)China's rapid economic growth -- largely industrial, energy-intensive, and reliant on coal -- has generated environmental, public health, and governance challenges. While China now leads the world in renewable energy ... -
Drivers of photovoltaics cost evolution
(Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2018)Photovoltaics (PV) have experienced notable development over the last forty years. PV module costs have declined 20% on average with every doubling of cumulative capacity, while global PV installations have increased at ... -
Dynamics of technology innovation and diffusion with emphasis on wind energy
(Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2016)This thesis takes an interdisciplinary look at wind energy innovation and diffusion through a historical case study and system dynamic quantitative model. The former uses a framework known as actor-network- theory (that ... -
Effects of road-network circuity on strategic decisions in urban logistics
(Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2018)This thesis proposes a research framework that leverages high-resolution traffic and urban infrastructure data to improve analytical approximation methods used to inform strategic decisions in designing last-mile distribution ... -
Electricity system planning with distributed energy resources : new methods and insights for economics, regulation, and policy
(Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2018)This dissertation demonstrates a novel integrated electric power system planning framework that incorporates distributed energy resources (DERs), flexible and price-responsive demand, and distribution network losses and ... -
Evaluating storage technologies for wind and solar energy
(Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2018)Rapidly falling wind and solar energy costs over the past four decades have led to exponential growth in installation of these technologies. However, these intermittent renewables do not reliably produce power on demand. ... -
Firms, industries, and technological change : a patent-based approach to studying disruption and disruptors
(Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2019)This thesis presents a new empirical approach as well as a new patent-based dataset for studying disruption and technology transition cases. At the core of this approach lies a novel engineering systems framework of ... -
Greenhouse gas equivalency metrics for evaluating energy technologies
(Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2017)This thesis addresses a long-standing question about how to compare energy technologies that emit different types of climate forcers during their life cycles. This problem is challenging because these forcers have dissimilar ... -
The impact of strategic investment on success of capital-intensive ventures
(Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2017)Established companies in technology-enabled industries such as software, telecommunications, pharmaceuticals, and semiconductors, have used corporate venture capital as a lever to access and screen technological advances, ... -
Improving the performance of regional electricity markets in developing countries : the case of the Southern African Power
(Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2017)Power pools can reduce the cost of providing electricity and improve system reliability through coordinated use of energy resources. Realizing these benefits requires careful market design supported by technical, economic ... -
Intellectual property and architecture : how architecture influences intellectual property lock-in
(Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2017)Intellectual property lock-in is a wicked problem particularly pervasive under monopsony market structures, such as the Department of Defense (DoD). However, little research exists on the mechanisms of action that induce ... -
Learning and flexibility for water supply infrastructure planning under diverse uncertainties
(Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2018)Water supply infrastructure planning faces many uncertainties. Uncertainty in short-term in rainfall and runoff, groundwater storage, and long-term climate change impacts water supply forecasts. Population and economic ... -
Locating the source of large scale outbreaks of foodborne disease
(Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2016)Foodborne illness outbreaks impose enormous health and economic burdens in the US. Identifying the origin of the contaminated food causing an outbreak is a challenging problem due to the complexity of the food supply and ... -
Model use in sustainability negotiations and decisions
(Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2015)Sustainability negotiations and decisions require the integration of scientific information with stakeholder interests. Mathematical models help elucidate the physical world and therefore may orient the negotiators in a ...
