Browsing Institute for Data, Systems, and Society - Ph.D / Sc.D. by Title
Now showing items 6-25 of 40
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Characterizing the materials footprint of a university campus : data, methods, recommendations
(Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2020)Universities are major consumers and disposers of many materials, but their specific flows are not well characterized. Both energy and material consumption drive a university's environmental impact. Many universities collect ... -
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 ... -
Dynamic and robust network resource allocation
(Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2019)Networks are essential modeling tools in engineering, business, and public policy research. They can represent physical connections, such as manufacturing processes. They can be relationships among people, such as patient ... -
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 hardware and soft features on the performance evolution of low-carbon technologies
(Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2020)This dissertation studies how physical and non-physical features of low-carbon technologies evolve and influence performance evolution. This fundamental question about the role of hardware- and non-hardware ('soft') ... -
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 ... -
Healthcare Systems : three studies of patient management and policy change
(Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2018)For my PhD thesis, I conducted behavioral science research and wrote three first- author journal format papers, of which one paper has been published and the other two will be submitted to healthcare management journals ... -
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 ... -
Individual and organizational Uses of Evidence-Based Practice in healthcare settings
(Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2020)In the three decades since its introduction, Evidence-Based Practice (EBP) has become standard clinical practice and the subject of targeted interventions at all levels of the health system. Despite its prevalence, EBP is ... -
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 ... -
Market design opportunities for an evolving power system
(Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2020)The rapid growth of renewable energy is transforming the electric power sector. Wind and solar energy are non-dispatchable: their energy output is uncertain and variable from hour-to- hour. New challenges arise in electricity ...
