Browsing Institute for Data, Systems, and Society - Ph.D / Sc.D. by Title
Now showing items 13-31 of 31
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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 ... -
Modeling human attention and performance in automated environments with low task loading
(Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2016)Automation has the benefit of reducing human operators' workload. By leveraging the power of computers and information technology, the work of human operators is becoming easier. However, when the workload is too low but ... -
Modeling transmission heterogeneity for infectious disease outbreaks
(Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2018)The transmissibility of a given infectious disease is often described by its basic reproduction number (Ro) - namely, the average number of secondary infections caused by an index case in a fully susceptible population. ... -
Multi-stakeholder contribution to biotechnology environmental assessment
(Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2017)Environmental assessments, such as those for biotechnology applications, are typically conducted by small groups of expert assessors, but scholars and practitioners are increasingly interested in involving diverse stakeholders. ... -
Negotiated collaboration : a study in flexible infrastructure design
(Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2015)This thesis frames design in infrastructure public-private partnerships (P3s) as an exercise in negotiated collaboration. I investigate whether the collaborative design process in P3s can systematically deliver the benefits ... -
Potential housing bubble with Chinese characteristics : analysis and policy design through an operational model
(Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2018)This thesis analyzes the potential housing bubble in the Chinese urban housing market. Using an operational model built on system dynamics (SD), it explores the unique housing market structures, information flows, key ... -
Science to support toxics governance : tracking mercury and other pollutants from policy to impacts
(Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2017)Persistent and bioaccumulative toxins like mercury pose unique challenges for environmental governance. The complexity of their movement through coupled social, technological, and natural systems can make it difficult to ... -
Simulation based micro-founded structural market analysis : a case study of the copper industry
(Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2018)This work aims to provide a widely applicable modeling framework that can be used to credibly investigate materials scarcity risks for various types of commodities. Different from existing literature, this work contributes ... -
Strategies to reduce product waste in the consumer packaged goods industry
(Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2015)The cost of waste for products such as soft drinks, shelf stable dry food, and dairy in the consumer packaged goods industry is massive, about $15 billion annually in the U.S.A. This thesis focuses on waste associated with ... -
Supply chain financing in Developing countries
(Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2017)There is no definitive blueprint for ending poverty and increasing prosperity across the globe, but the World Bank argues that inclusive economic growth is critical to achieving global development goals. This thesis focuses ... -
Transport demand in China : estimation, projection, and policy assessment
(Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2018)China's rapid economic growth in the twenty-first century has driven, and been driven by, concomitant motorization and growth of passenger and freight mobility, leading to greater energy demand and environmental impacts. ... -
Using inclusive wealth as a measure of sustainability for infrastructure planning and evaluation
(Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2015)Inclusive wealth (IW) measures the productive base of an economy, which is a linear index of its capital asset stocks. Changes to IW per capita over time track changes to intergenerational human well-being, thus non-declining ...
