Technology and Policy Program
The MIT Technology and Policy Program (TPP) provides an integrative education to scientists and engineers who wish to lead in the development and implementation of responsible strategies and policies for exploitation of technology for the benefit of their communities. TPP's guiding vision is the education of "Leaders Who Are Engineers and Scientists."
The TPP graduate educational program in the School of Engineering acknowledges that the development of the skills necessary for effective implementation of technology tie into the emerging engineering systems educational thrusts and, consequently, TPP is part of the Engineering Systems Division (ESD) of MIT. The program focuses on providing a high impact, high quality education to its students. Its goal is to make TPP the most prestigious and sought after technology policy program in the world and to produce the technological decision makers of the future.
TPP sponsors both a Master of Science program and the Technology, Management and Policy (TMP) doctoral program. This year's class of Master of Science in Technology and Policy included 48 graduates, and 2 continued on as doctoral students. This year's "Best Thesis in Technology and Policy" was awarded to Robert Hyman. The TMP program has a current enrollment of twenty students, reflecting a steady-state admission rate of about five students per year. Seven students received their Technology, Management and Policy Ph.D. in June 2001.
Esther Kim received the Grossman Award and will be using it to undertake an internship in Nepal.
The close of Professor Hasting's first full academic year as Director of TPP is also marked by a number of achievements stemming directly from the strategic plan developed during the first semester of his tenure. The TPP Faculty Council has helped to broaden the intellectual footprint of TPP within the Institute, drawing upon faculty not only from the School of Engineering and the School of Management, but also from the School of Humanities and Social Sciences. As a consequence to the Sussman Curriculum Committee report, TPP has funded several curriculum development efforts, including a complete reworking of a key core course, ESD.11 (now ESD.10). This curriculum development has also been coordinated with a concurrent effort with the Cambridge-MIT Initiative, and new offerings will start at Cambridge during the upcoming Michaelmas Term. Finally, TPP and ESD hosted the first of what will be an annual event designed to raise both the external and internal profile of the Program. This year, TPP and ESD hosted a symposium marking the 25th year of the Office of Science and Technology Policy, bringing together not only almost all the past heads of the office, but also academics and professionals in the field of technology policy to reflect upon the history of the office, as well as to consider the challenges facing practitioners of technology policy today.
Finally, this year marked another transition for TPP—Ms. Gail Hickey, who had worked with TPP for the last 15 years, left the program to pursue other interests. Her years of outstanding service were recognized at the 2001 MIT Awards Ceremony where she was given the James N. Murphy award.
More information about Technology and Policy Program can be found at http://mit.edu/tpp/www/.