Purpose
This webpage was created as a portion of the final project
for MIT class 6.933 - The Structure of Engineering
Revolutions-- taught by Professor David Mindell and Professor George Pratt.
This class studies the effects of social and political forces on
technology. The following are examples of readings that
have served as a basis for discussion:
The purpose of this final project is to closely examine the history of one person, project, or technology in order to reinforce the ideas studied in this class. Our group chose to examine the Aurora Project at Teradyne, which is a project that attempted to integrate new technologies into Teradyne's existing product line.
Motivation
Teradyne has grown into an industry-leading supplier of
automatic test equipment (ATE) for semiconductor manufacturing. As a very
successful company founded by MIT alumni, Teradyne serves as a particularly
relevant and interesting case study. The
MIT connection runs even deeper, as Teradyne co-founder Alex d'Arbeloff now
serves as chairman of the MIT Corporation.
Furthermore, Teradyne's worldwide headquarters are located in downtown
Boston -- not far from MIT.
Essentially,
the Aurora
Project
strove to produce an automatic tester for integrated circuits
using the revolutionary advances in hardware and software technology.
The Aurora
Project is a logical extension of the 6.933 course curriculum due to its
direct connection with the central thesis proposed in Clayton Christensen's
book, The Innovator's Dilemma.
Teradyne's Aurora Project has been hailed as having solved "the
innovator's dilemma."
Thesis
The Aurora Project strove to develop testers that utilized Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor (CMOS) circuits (rather than bipolar circuits) within the machines and utilized testing software based on the Windows NT platform (rather than UNIX). These two technologies represented emerging disruptive technologies within the semiconductor testing industry. The astounding success of the Aurora Project led both Teradyne managers and the media to label the Aurora Project as an innovative solution to Christensen's dilemma. “Teradyne and Integra [Aurora] are doing what history and professor Christensen say can’t be done." To assess the validity of this statement, a thorough analysis of Christensen’s theory, Teradyne as a firm, its technology and all aspects of the Aurora Project was conducted. This analysis revealed that Teradyne did succeed in solving the Innovator’s Dilemma. However, a question arose as to whether the Aurora methodology could be successfully applied to other projects both within Teradyne and from other firms. Further examination showed that the Aurora methodology could not be applied as a general solution to the Innovator’s Dilemma because of the many variable factors that either contribute to a project’s success or demise.About Us
We are a group of seniors and Masters students studying
Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at MIT. Our team members are:
- Sailu Challapalli
- Michael Chu
- Annie Kuo
- Emily Liu
- Arundhati Singh
- Erick Tseng