Center for Technology, Policy, and Industrial Development

MIT faculty and researchers at the Center for Technology, Policy, and Industrial Development (CTPID) work collaboratively with over 65 sponsoring corporations and government agencies to develop new knowledge and technological strategies that support global economic growth and advance policies that preserve the environment and benefit society at large.

CTPID's nine interdisciplinary research programs focus on contemporary industrial problems-such as how to build safe, affordable, and environmentally friendly automobiles-that span social, natural, and technological interests. Established in 1985, CTPID's programs, which generated nearly $8.8 million in research funding in FY2001, address industrial issues in the aerospace, automotive, materials systems, mobility, telecommunications, and technology and law sectors.

Over 50 faculty and researchers at MIT's Schools of Engineering; Management; and Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences are affiliated with the center and a hundred more scholars at MIT and other prestigious universities participate in research projects. Faculty and CTPID researchers lead these programs: the Cooperative Mobility Program (CMP); Ford-MIT Alliance (administered by CTPID); International Motor Vehicle Program (IMVP); Labor Aerospace Research Agenda (LARA); Lean Aerospace Initiative (LAI); Lean Sustainment Initiative (LSI); Materials Systems Laboratory (MSL); Research Program on Communications Policy (RPCP); and Technology and Law Program (T&L).

Highlights

Nearly 100 industry, government, and academic representatives attended CTPID's November 8-9, 2000, conference, "The Third Wave: Industry Opportunities for the Internet-Enabled Future," described as "A Multidisciplinary and Cross-Industry Exploration of How Information Technologies and the Internet Are Challenging-And Changing-the Aerospace, Transportation, Communications, and Resources Industries." Keynotes focused on the impact of the Internet on the automotive industry, trust-based marketing on the Internet, and the future of the Internet itself. A panel on 21st century government-industry-academe partnerships presented talks by Engineering Systems Division (ESD) Associate Dean Daniel Roos; Dr. Christopher Magee, Executive Director of the Ford-MIT Alliance; and Dr. William Berry, Associate Deputy Assistant Secretary of US Air Force. Afternoon panels featured recent research by CTPID programs and discussion of the impact of information technologies on each research sector. The conference was co-sponsored by MIT's Office of Corporate Relations and generated a number of new contacts between programs and potential sponsors.

The International Motor Vehicle Program launched a new research phase titled Navigating Auto's Next Economy, focusing on these research areas: Managing the Extended Enterprise, E-Automotive, and Visions for a Sustainable Future. Researchers and sponsors met in MIT and in London to review new research and set program priorities. John Paul MacDuffie, Associate Professor in Management, Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, is Co-Director and Fred Moavenzadeh is acting Co-Director. Donna Carty, a former IMVP administrator, is program manager. MacDuffie spoke on global supply networks at the April conference, "Sloan Foundation Industry Centers Executive Briefing: Corporate Strategies for the Digital Economy."

Lean Aerospace Initiative Co-Director Earll Murman, Professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics, won a Royal Aeronautical Society Written Paper Prize 2000 for an article co-authored with Myles Walton and Eric Rebentisch, "Challenges in the better, faster, cheaper era of aeronautical design, engineering, and manufacturing" published in the October 2000 issue of The Aeronautical Journal. A book titled Lean Enterprise Value: Insight's from MIT's Lean Aerospace Initiative and co-authored by a team of LAI researchers was written and submitted to Palgrave, a new global academic publisher at St. Martin's Press. Publication is scheduled for the spring of 2002.

Key speakers at LAI's "Growing the Lean Community" conference in April included Mike Sears, Senior Vice President and CFO of the Boeing Company, and MGen Michael Mushala, Air Force Program Executive Officer for Fighter and Bomber Programs, SAF/AQ (Secretary of the Air Force/Acquisition). More than 250 industry, government, and academic leaders gathered to focus on the growth of lean initiatives throughout the aerospace enterprise.

A rap star was among RPCP's four new Internet and Telecoms Convergence Consortium members to speak at a January meeting hosted by British Telecom in Astral Park, UK. Rap star Chuck D of Rapstation.com, the dinner speaker, discussed artists' rights and the Internet. Vanu Bose of Vanu Inc. spoke on Software Radio; Dave Hays, Pelago Networks, discussed Enhanced Local Services; and Steve Lanning, Aerie Networks, addressed Bandwidth Demand Elasticity and its Implications for Infrastructure Provisioning.

Ford-MIT Alliance Executive Director Chris Magee has been appointed a Professor of the Practice in Mechanical Engineering and is teaching classes in that department. In other Ford news, MIT's three Nobel Prize-winning economists-Professors Emeriti Paul A. Samuelson, Franco Modigliani and Robert M. Solow-made a rare public appearance together when they delivered the inaugural Ford-MIT Nobel Laureate Lecture, September 18, in Kresge Auditorium.

The Cooperative Mobility Program served as the basis for a large-scale global study of passenger and freight mobility this year. CMP was a core contributor to a report on Mobility 2001 that was prepared for the World Business Council on Sustainable Mobility.

Labor Aerospace Research Agenda completed its second year, secured funding through 2002, and produced five case studies including From Three to One: Integrating a High Performance Work Organization Process, Lean Production and Activity Based Costing Change Invitations on the Boeing Corporation.

New sponsors and member companies: RPCP/Internet and Telecoms Convergence Consortium (ITC) new sponsors include Fundacion Retevision, Marconi, Dantis, Ellacoya Networks, Rapstation.com, Vanu Inc. and Zephyr Telecommunications. LAI welcomed two new consortium members this fall: Curtiss-Wright Flight Systems, which manufactures hydraulic actuators and hydraulic motors, and Spectrum Astro, which develops space systems for defense, scientific, and commercial use. Two new sponsors will support the Lean Sustainment Initiative next year: Boeing and Chromalloy.

CTPID researchers from three programs presented their work at the MIT Series on Technology and the Corporation conference "Technology and Design: MIT's Vision for the Automobile," May 16–17 in Kresge Auditorium. Daniel Roos, Associate Dean of Engineering Systems and Cooperative Mobility Program Director, spoke on "The Auto in the 21st Century: Challenges and Opportunities." Charles H. Fine, IMVP researcher, addressed "Automotive Supply Chains in the Internet Age." CTPID Senior Research Engineer Frank Field, III, talked about "Recycling Strategies in Automotive Industries."

Communications Office activities included the development and promotion of the Third Wave conference and ongoing efforts in several areas.

The CTPID web site focused on center and program news and continued to build a repository of information through publications and links to CTPID research and activities. A book-length Technology and Law study titled "Public Participation in Contaminated Communities" is now online at http://web.mit.edu/ctpid/www/tl/TL-pub-PPCC.html.

CTPID published three issues of the newsletter IMPACT: Emerging Work from CTPID. Two 12-page issues included interviews with industry leaders, program news, researcher profiles, and new publications. A special 28-page winter issue presented the proceedings of the Third Wave conference.

CTPID Community Lunches fostering intellectual conversation among diverse programs featured four programs: Ford, Mobility, LAI, and LSI.

The center and Industrial Liaison Program (ILP) co-sponsored, promoted, and publicized two MIT Industry Leaders in Technology and Management Lectures featuring Texas Instruments Chairman Tom Engibolus, February 8, and Michael C. Ruettgers, CEO of EMC Corporation, May 2.

CTPID was accepted as an early adopter of the MIT Library's DSpace project, an innovative project that will house MIT's intellectual products in a web-based database.

CTPID continues to play a key role in the Engineering Systems Division's development by helping to define ESD's research agenda and contributing to its development. Both CTPID's research programs and 26-year-old graduate program are now part of ESD. The Master's Technology and Policy Program and the Doctoral Technology, Management, and Policy Program enrolled 143 students in 2000–2001; 48 students earned S.M. degrees and seven earned Ph.D.s.

The inaugural Technology and Policy Program annual conference celebrated the 25th anniversary of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy on May 1 in the Wong Auditorium. Presidential Science Advisers from Truman advisory William Golden to Neal F. Lane, Clinton's science and technology advisor, spoke on the critical issues they faced in science and technology policy.

ESD is moving to co-locate its research and education programs in E40 with plans to site research centers and ESD headquarters near CTPID on the second floor and education programs on the third floor. The establishment of the Laboratory for Energy and the Environment (LFEE) in E40 has created an opportunity for CTPID's Materials Systems Lab to move to the fourth floor, thus bringing more CTPID programs in closer proximity.

return to top

Cooperative Mobility Program

The Cooperative Mobility Program brings together transportation scholars from MIT and other universities with private sector specialists and corporate sponsors to explore current and future issues of worldwide mobility. CMP proposes a new vision: a sustainable multimodal transportation system that will provide the mobility necessary to foster global economic development compatible with social needs and environmental concerns.

CMP is grounded in empirical research on travel behavior, technological approaches, and public policies that affect mobility in both developed and developing countries. It compiles an annual Mobility Observatory that tracks innovative developments in transportation policy, management, and technology.

This past year the program served as the basis for a large-scale global study of passenger and freight mobility. A report on Mobility 2001 was prepared for the World Business Council on Sustainable Mobility.

More information about the Cooperative Mobility Program can be found online at http://esd.mit.edu/ctpid/cmp/cmp-home.htm.

return to top

Ford-MIT Alliance

In an innovative program, the Ford Motor Company has engaged the Institute in addressing an array of 21st century challenges confronting the automotive manufacturer. The multimillion-dollar, five-year alliance begun in 1997 focuses on three research areas: product development process technology, virtual education, and the environment. Priorities include the study of engineering design and educational environments of the future and funding to support a major MIT-directed consortium to study and address global environmental challenges. An objective of the alliance is the development of effective mechanisms for long-term, corporate-university partnerships.

CTPID administers the overall grant and is home to several of the Ford-MIT Alliance projects. As part of Ford's engineering research, CTPID Senior Research Scientist, Daniel Whitney is leading a project on Assembly Advisor, incorporating assembly information in computer-aided design systems. He is also involved, with Professor Steven Eppinger, in a project called Information-Based Product Development that explores appropriate information technology tools for synthesizing complex information in product development programs. Janice Klein, Senior Lecturer at the Sloan School of Management, heads research on Virtual Teams. George Roth, Executive Director of the Ford-MIT Alliance Program and Research Associate in the Sloan School of Management, also leads a research effort on the organizational changes implied by MIT's alliances with corporations.

As part of strengthening the linkage between MIT and Ford and developing new collaborative research areas, Chris Magee, Ford's Executive Director of the Alliance, is resident at MIT. In addition to his involvement in the projects and programs funded by Ford, Dr. Magee has been appointed a Professor of the Practice in Mechanical Engineering and is teaching classes in that department.

As a partner in this Institute-wide initiative, CTPID supports over a dozen projects and twenty researchers working on Ford-MIT projects. MIT faculty involved in the Ford-MIT Alliance use conferences, videoconferences, web sites, and virtual forums to communicate the results of this work to both Ford and the general public.

More information about the Ford-MIT Alliance can be found online at http://ford-mit.mit.edu/.

return to top

International Motor Vehicle Program

IMVP, the largest international research group studying and reporting on the automobile industry and its global milieu, launched Phase IV, titled Navigating Auto's Next Economy (NextAuto), in September.

IMVP's Phase IV provides industry-wide knowledge and insight essential to helping companies make strategic decisions. Today the global auto industry is facing critical decisions about its future. Tightening profit margins, rising customer demands, and realignments along the value chain are challenging automakers and suppliers alike. Global operations and technological options from telematics to green drive trains call for new value propositions. Competitive dynamics and the ground rules for collaboration are in flux as automakers consolidate and form alliances and as new mega-suppliers emerge.

Since 1980, IMVP has provided an unbiased, detailed, and integrated view of the dynamics of the worldwide automotive industry and its important drivers. IMVP and its predecessor, the Future of the Automobile program, have received funding from the Sloan Foundation, automakers worldwide, and their suppliers since the late '70s.

Navigating Auto's Next Economy (NextAuto) reflects sponsor feedback urging IMVP to draw upon its historic strengths to examine the industry's next challenges. Through NextAuto, IMVP researchers and their industry partners will integrate research capabilities on the extended enterprise with the new opportunities afforded by e-business and catalyzed by environmental and sustainability issues. Three-year research priorities were set in a London meeting in March.

Over twenty projects are underway in 2000-2001 in the following research areas:

Managing the Extended Enterprise

E-Automotive

Visions For a Sustainable Future

Associate Professor John Paul MacDuffie at the Wharton School is IMVP Co-Director and Professor Fred Moavenzadeh is acting Co-Director. Donna Carty is program manager.

More information about this program can be found online at http://web.mit.edu/ctpid/www/imvp/.

return to top

Labor Aerospace Research Agenda

The goals and objectives of LARA have not changed since last report. They are to facilitate the transfer of lean concepts into the defense aerospace industry. LARA will advance the knowledge of the leaders and members of the two principle unions that represent workers in the aerospace industry-the International Association of Machinists (IAM) and the United Auto Workers (UAW)-around the challenges and opportunities associated with lean principles and other aspects of new work systems. It also serves as a platform to educate government and industry leaders on these same issues.

Accomplishments

Second phase funding for project secured October 3, 2000–October 2002.

21st Century Aerospace Workplace presentation given at the LAI Plenary and LAI Executive in April and May 2001 respectively. Commitment made to support newly established Presidential commission on the future of the aerospace industry with data on 21st Century Aerospace Workforce issues.

The following case studies were completed:

Additionally, analysis continues on data from individual surveys (nearly 500 respondents) and facility surveys (national random sample of 196 aerospace facilities), as well as progress on a global mapping of first-tier suppliers for a cross-section of commercial and military platforms.

Future Plans

A panel follow-up survey, a white paper for Presidential Commission, additional Case Studies, and dissemination of products and findings.

return to top

Lean Aerospace Initiative

The Lean Aerospace Initiative (LAI) is a consortium-guided MIT research program managed under the auspices of the Center for Technology, Policy, and Industrial Development in collaboration with the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics. Research is conducted by over a dozen faculty members from the Schools of Engineering and Management, graduate students from several MIT courses and graduate programs, and staff members of CTPID. LAI is an active partnership among 23 aerospace companies, 13 U.S. government agencies, labor representatives, and MIT. It also collaborates internationally with LARP (Lean Aerospace Research Program) at Linköping University and the UK LAI.

The initiative was formally launched in 1993 out of practicality and necessity as declining defense procurement budgets collided with military industrial over-capacity prompting a demand for "cheaper, faster, and better" products using a philosophy called lean. Lean means adding value by eliminating waste, being responsive to change, focusing on quality, and enhancing the effectiveness of the workforce. It was documented in the U.S. by researchers from MIT's International Motor Vehicle Program and in the book, The Machine That Changed The World.

Since lean is much broader than production, integrative research addresses the entire and extended business enterprise. This research examines Manufacturing Systems; Supplier Networks; Product Development with Test and Space Operations; Acquisition; Organizations and People. Research rich products such as the Lean Enterprise Model (LEM) result, creating a foundation of reference tools for common awareness, language, and understanding of lean principles.

Research Results and Related Products

The key research findings are: subsystem commonality is a lean design strategy, one that reduces cost, variability, excess assets and infrastructure; (Data show 15-40 percent savings in acquisition cost of subsystem and 20-45 percent savings in annual operating and support costs,) proper management policies can enhance intellectual capital growth and prevent poor performance in one program from impacting other programs in the portfolio; and in an analysis of spacecraft operations, LAI researchers found that for most programs, 70-90 percent of problems are associated with the ground system thereby making spacecraft subsystems a very small percentage of root cause.

During the past year, LAI's Knowledge Deployment and Lean Enterprise product teams translated research results into educational, leadership, and transformational tools including:

As of May 2001, LAI has 46 graduated M.S. and Ph.D. students with:

Moving Forward

In summary, LAI has made significant progress on research rich products and has provided a solid knowledge base for implementation efforts. This is complemented by member outreach events, such as Plenary Conferences, to accelerate knowledge transfer. LAI has also actively grown its lean community with new consortium members and by engaging additional leadership in open dialogue and strategy through an Executive Roundtable.

Professor Earll Murman from the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics and Professor Tom Allen from the Sloan School of Management are Co-Directors. Fred Stahl is the Stakeholder Co-Director for LAI.

More information about the Lean Aerospace Initiative program can be found at http://web.mit.edu/lean/.

return to top

Lean Sustainment Initiative

Lean Sustainment Initiative's (LSI) mission is to enable fundamental transformation of the U.S. commercial and military maintenance, repair, and overhaul (MRO) industries into a cost-effective, quality-driven, timely, and responsive support system.

Highlights

LSI developed a universal framework by which the MRO of generic corporate assets may be defined, analyzed, synthesized, and transformed. This universal framework applies to MRO activities in aviation, land-based transportation, seaport and docks, airports, real estate, hospitals, and many other large complex corporate enterprises.

LSI established three research teams to focus on sustainment operations, business processes, and enterprise level MRO activities at U.S. Air Force depots. The sustainment operations team addressed the problem of insufficient parts and materials in U.S. Air Force depots. The business processes team investigated the unsatisfactory performance of forecasting models and methods employed by the U.S. Air Force (USAF) to correctly define requirements. The enterprise level team continued its study of goals, objectives, and metrics that drive behavior and performance at the flight line; this study has produced "metrics thermostats" for MRO operations at the flight line.

LSI delivered presentations based on LSI research at major national conferences held on the campus of Arizona State University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Princeton University.

LSI produced several master's theses, white papers, and technical briefings.

LSI expanded the stakeholder base to include two U.S. commercial aircraft MRO companies.

LSI was described by the Commander, USAF Materiel Command before the House Armed Services Committee, 23 March 2001, as an undertaking to identify critical breakthroughs and change the paradigm of maintenance, repair, and overhaul support for the 21st century.

Future Plans

Expand the stakeholder base to include national and international corporations and foundations; develop curricula based on LSI research findings and the LSI-derived universal framework for MRO activities research.

return to top

Materials Systems Laboratory

The Materials Systems Laboratory (MSL), directed by Richard Roth, is internationally recognized for its innovative work analyzing the competitive position of materials and the strategic implications of material choice. For nearly two decades, MSL has addressed the issues arising from materials choice in a range of applications, particularly those in the automotive, electronic, and aerospace industries, but with a recent emphasis on automotive applications. MSL's research sponsors include major automakers and materials suppliers. Recent agreements with General Motors should provide MSL will the basis for doing more in-depth research into various aspects of automotive manufacturing.

MSL's work builds upon a unique combination of materials processing knowledge, engineering design practice, manufacturing process analysis, and environmental information to construct analytical tools for decision support and competitive analysis. To develop these tools, MSL has worked extensively to refine its extensions to classic engineering process modeling for the past two decades. Modeling elements have been married to elements of product design, material properties, and manufacturing assumptions to yield tools that can estimate the costs of product manufacture under a wide range of conditions. These tools analyze primary materials production, primary materials processing, component and subassembly manufacture, and end-of-life vehicle processing. In each case, these tools estimate the costs of production as a function of processing technology, material flows, operating conditions, and energy and capital requirements.

MSL also has developed techniques for understanding how markets respond to the different combinations of engineering and economic performance available by using different materials. Further, MSL researchers analyze the environmental consequences of materials and process choice, incorporating the emerging life-cycle analysis paradigm. These tools make it possible, when used with economic and engineering assessments, to develop robust, credible,

More information about the Materials Systems Laboratory can be found online at http://web.mit.edu/ctpid/www/msl/.

return to top

Research Program on Communications Policy

The Internet and Telecoms Convergence Consortium (ITC) is a sponsored research program at MIT consisting of industry and academic partners who collaborate on research into the technical, economic, strategic, and policy issues that arise from the convergence of telecommunications and the Internet. ITC is the principal research vehicle for the MIT Research Program on Communications Policy.

Highlights of the Year

Internet Appliances and Applications: David Clark and John Wroclawski of MIT received National Science Foundation (NSF) funding to continue their Laboratory for Computer Science (LCS) project to develop an advanced mobile communications device.

Local Access and the Broadband Transition: William Lehr of MIT and Lee McKnight of Tufts investigated quality of Internet service in their work on consumer service level agreements within a broadband access market framework. David Gabel of MIT and Queens College analyzed accessibility of broadband communication by various segments of the U.S. population. Ben Compaine of MIT addressed the issue of the disappearing digital divide in the United States. Broadband was a central focus of the June ITC Members meeting hosted by Motorola, Inc.

Global Internet Economics and Industry Structure: Attention to the technologies and policies evolving for expanded use of spectrum was also prominent at ITC members meetings. Flippo Illardi of Tufts, reporting on ITC-funded research, assessed the future of bandwidth trading markets, while Bill Lehr (MIT) reported early work on the evolving economic and policy issues involved in of secondary markets for spectrum. Shawn O'Donnell of MIT completed a first draft of a map of the cash flows of the Internet players.

The ITC web site was redesigned, updated and expanded. It includes periodically refreshed links to current news and information on its home page, as well as links to slides from most weekly research seminars, student papers and staff publications.

Internet and Telecoms Convergence Consortium Books, Papers, and Publications

Vogelsang, Ingo and Benjamin Compaine, editors. The Internet Upheaval: Raising Questions, Seeking Answers in Communications Policy. MIT Press, 2000.

McKnight, Lee W., Paul M. Vaaler and Raul L. Katz , editors. Creative Destruction: Business Survival Strategies in the Global Internet Economy. MIT Press, 2000.

McKnight, Lee W., William Lehr, and David D. Clark, editors. Internet Telephony. MIT Press, 2001.

O'Donnell, Shawn. "Broadband Architectures, ISP Business Plans, and Open Access." Presented at TPRC 2000, Alexandria, VA., September 23–25th, 2000.

Cukor, Peter and Lee McKnight. "Knowledge Networks, the Internet, and Development." Presented at TPRC 2000, Alexandria, VA., September 23–25th, 2000.

McGarty, Terrence. "The Evolution of International Internet Telephony." Presented by Russ Neuman at TPRC 2000, Alexandria, VA., September 23-25th, 2000.

Lehr, William and Lee McKnight. "A Broadband Access Market Framework: Towards Consumer Service Level Agreements." Presented at TPRC 2000, Alexandria, VA., September 23-25th, 2000.

Gillett, Sharon Eisner, William Lehr, John Wroclawski, and David Clark. "A Taxonomy of Internet Appliances." Presented at TPRC 2000, Alexandria, VA., September 23-25th, 2000.

Clark, David and Marjory Blumenthal "Rethinking the Design of the Internet: end to end arguments vs. the brave new world." Presented at TPRC 2000, Alexandria, VA., September 23-25th, 2000.

Compaine, Ben. "Re-Examining the Digital Divide." Paper presented at TPRC 2000, Alexandria, VA, Sept. 23-25th, 2000.

Gabel, David and Florence Kwan. "Accessibility of Broadband Communication Services by Various Segments of the American Population." Presented at TPRC 2000, Alexandria, VA, Sept. 23-25th, 2000.

Uzuner, Ozlem and Lee McKnight. "Sales Tax on the Internet: When and How to Tax?" Proceedings of Hawaiian International Conference on System Sciences, HICSS'34, January 2001, Maui.

Finances/Funding

ITC gained two new major members while losing one, for a total of seven large enterprise members: British Telecom, Fundacion Retevision, Hewlett Packard, Marconi, Motorola, Nokia, and Sprint. There are also five small company members: Dantis, Ellacoya Networks, Rapstation.com, Vanu Inc., and Zephyr Telecommunications. Motorola, Inc., as host of the June 2001 member's meeting, assumed many of the costs of that conference.

Future Plans

Forthcoming book: Benjamin Compaine and Shane Greenstein, Communications Policy in Transition: The Internet and Beyond (MIT Press, 2001).

Forthcoming papers: Benjamin Compaine and Emma Smith, "Internet Radio: A New Engine for Content Diversity?" (International Telecommunications Society, Dublin, Sept 2001); and Sharon Gillett, William Lehr, John Wroclawski and David Clark. "Do Appliances Threaten Internet Innovation?" IEEE Communications for special issue on Internet appliances, October 2001.

Planned conferences: Members Meeting, January 17–16, 2002, Cambridge, MA; June, 2002, Madrid, Spain.

Personnel Changes

Dr. Benjamin Compaine, an information policy and mass media specialist, began working with RPCP this year. Dr. Compaine has held academic appointments as well as executive corporate positions. Dr. David Gabel, an economist on leave from Queens College, is spending two years with ITC as a research affiliate. He studies Internet access issues. Dr. Jean Camp, Assistant Professor of Public Policy at Harvard's Kennedy School, will work with ITC on information policy issues, Internet commerce and Internet survivability, and the policy implications of technical decisions. Rita Adom became ITC's administrative assistant.

return to top

Technology and Law Program

The Technology and Law (T&L) Program offers research opportunities and graduate-level courses focusing on the interface of law and technology. Research activities include the design and evaluation of policies that encourage technological change for preventing chemical pollution through regulation, liability, and economic incentives, promote environmental justice by involving communities in governmental decisions that affect their health, safety, and environment; and address the effects of globalization on sustainability.

T&L offers a two-semester sequence in environmental law and policy: Law: Technology, and Public Policy, a core subject in the Technology and Policy Program; and Sustainability, Trade, and Environment, listed jointly with Engineering and Sloan.

Recent Publications include:

Ashford, N. A. "Government And Innovation In Environmental Transformations In Europe And North America," in Special Issue on Ecological Modernization, Sonnenfeld, David and Mol, Arthur, (Eds.) American Behavioral Scientist, Vol. 45, 2002.

Ashford, N. A. and Caldart, C. C. "Negotiated Environmental and Occupational Health and Safety agreements in the United States: Lessons for Policy," Journal of Cleaner Production, 2001, Volume 9, Number 2, pp. 99-120.

Miller, C. S. and Ashford, N. A. "Multiple Chemical Intolerance and Indoor Air Quality," in Indoor Air Quality Handbook, J. Spengler, J. M. Samet, and J. F. McCarthy (Eds.), McGraw-Hill, New York, 2000, chapter 27, 32 pages.

Now available in pdf: "Public Participation in Contaminated Communities": http://web.mit.edu/ctpid/www/tl/TL-pub-PPCC.html.

Future planned activities include completion of textbooks on environmental law and policy; and globalization, technology, and sustainability. T&L program is directed by Professor Nicholas A. Ashford and involves Charles C. Caldart, CTPID Research Associate and Lecturer in Civil Engineering.

More information about the Technology and Law Program can be found online at http://web.mit.edu/ctpid/www/tl/.

return to top

New Books

Moavenzadeh, Fred et al. Cities: Dynamics and Sustainability. Kluwer Academic Publishers, 2001.

McKnight, Lee W.,William Lehr, and David D. Clark, editors. Internet Telephony. MIT Press, 2001.

Vogelsang, Ingo, and Benjamin Compaine, editors. The Internet Upheaval: Raising Questions, Seeking Answers in Communications Policy. MIT Press, 2000.

McKnight, Lee W., Paul M. Vaaler and Raul L. Katz, editors. Creative Destruction: Business Survival Strategies in the Global Internet Economy. MIT Press, 2000.

Napier, Joan, Denise Shortt, and Emma Smith. Technology with Curves: Women Reshaping the Digital Landscape. Harper Collins Publishers Ltd., 2000.

Camp, L. Jean. Trust and Risk in Internet Commerce. MIT Press, 2000.

Compaine, Benjamin M. et al. Who Owns the Media? Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Third Edition, 2000.

Cutcher-Gershenfeld, Joel, Betty Barrett, et al. Trabajo Impulsado Por El Conocimient (Spanish translation of 1998's Knowledge-Driven Work: Unexpected Lessons from Japanese and United States Work Practices). Oxford University Press/Japan Business and Economics Series, 2000.

Eppinger, Steven D. et al. Product Design and Development, 2nd edition, Irwin/McGraw-Hill, 2000.

Sussman, Joseph. Introduction to Transportation System. Artech House Publishers, 2000.

Visiting Scholars

Christopher Boutleiller, Professor of Finance at Reims Management School, France, and Catholic University of Louvain, Belgium, was a visiting scholar studying intangible asset assessment in the services industry.

Tetsuo Hojo, Professor at the Institute of Technologists/Nippon Steel Corporation, worked with Dr. Moavenzadeh on Technological Innovation in the Japanese Mega-Project.

Flavio Augusto Picchi, Director, Picchi Consultoria S/C Ltda, worked with Dr. Moavenzadeh in the area of Lean Thinking—Opportunities for the Construction Sector.

Kobe University Professor Kentaro Nobeoka worked with IMVP on network strategy and supplier management in the automobile industry.

Ki-Chan Kim, Director of the Institute of Industry Management and Associate Professor of Management at the Catholic University of Korea, joined IMVP to study aspects of automotive supply chains.

Geoff Bentley, Manager of Business Research at Textron Systems, Inc., was a LAI visiting scholar.

Lee McKnight, Director of the Edward R. Murrow Center at Tufts University holds an ongoing appointment with RPCP.

Sangho Park, Assistant Professor at Chungnam National University, Korea, worked with Dr. Daniel Whitney in the area on topics relating to Assembly Advisor.

Personnel Changes

Su Chung was appointed Administrative Officer of CTPID in November of 2000.

LARA Co-Director Joel Cutcher-Gershenfeld, a Sloan senior research scientist, was appointed Executive Director of the Engineering Systems Learning Center.

Tributes

Lean Sustainment Initiative Director Wesley Harris, professor of aeronautics and astronautics, received a Leadership Award at MIT's 27th annual Martin Luther King celebration in February. This year he was also elected as a graduate alumni trustee of Princeton University.

Dave Clark was awarded the Istitute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 2000 Award for Public Service in the field of telecommunications for outstanding service to governmental bodies in helping them understand the Internet and its applications for the betterment of society.

Fred Moavenzadeh, James Mason Crafts Professor of Engineering Systems and Civil and Environmental Engineering, is center Director; Patricia Vargas is Assistant Director. CTPID's 17-person faculty council, which provides intellectual oversight and liaison with academic units across MIT, includes leaders from the School of Engineering, the Sloan School of Management, Lincoln Laboratory, and MIT's Office of Corporate Relations.

Future Plans

United Nations Development Programme Administrator Mark Malloch Brown, who also serves as Chair of the United Nations Development Group, has accepted CTPID's invitation to speak on technology and development at MIT. Plans are underway to host his visit and lecture.

A new research initiative headed by Professor Tom Eagar, Materials Engineering, will bring together multi-disciplinary faculty from the Boston area to focus on science and technology components of contemporary environmental issues. The Program in Environmental Studies (PIES) is being developed in conjunction with CTPID and LFEE and is the successor to CTPID's Technology, Business, and Environment Program (TBE). TBE was inactive after the retirement of Director John Ehrenfeld and the departure of Acting Director Jennifer Nash for a position at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government.

Fred Moavenzadeh

More information about the Center for Technology, Policy, and Industrial Development can be found online at http://web.mit.edu/ctpid/www/.

return to top
Table of Contents