Dr. Chintan Vaishnav

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Office: Room: 32-G822, 77 Massachusetts Ave. Cambridge MA 02139; Email: chintanv at mit dot edu

 

  

Dr. Chintan Vaishnav is a postdoctoral researcher at MIT's Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL), Department of Political Science, and the Sloan School of Management. His research and action broadly focuses on two existing challenges: understanding the implications of rapidly changing technology for public policy and managerial decisions, and utilizing technology to effectively solve the problems stemming from gross socio-economic inequities.

His PhD research addressed how telecom regulators could achieve regulatory compliance without killing innovation as the Internet disrupts traditional communications technologies (thesis summary, Full Thesis). More recently, his research has focused on the following areas: (a) introducing the tools of complex socio-technical systems to modeling interdependencies between Cyberspace and International Relations (see a recent paper); (b) creating a comprehensive model of technology and industry disruption in the communications value chain; and (c) understanding and addressing the limitations of the current theories of cyber democracy when explaining the impact of Internet on political engamenet (see a recent paper). His current collaborations span the following groups: Explorations in Cyber International Relations (MIT-Harvard University); Value Chain Dynamics Working Group, Communications Futures Program (CFP), MIT ; and Advanced Network Architecture (ANA), CSAIL, MIT .

As somone who can create technology and analyze its social, managerial and policy implications, he is deeply interested in translating this breadth of exposure to action for overcoming the problems of gross socio-economic inequities. He is currently involved in creating several social/academic entrepreneurial ventures such as the following: SMSVani, an sms2web micro-philanthropy platform where small local needs reported via text messages from mobile phones are aggregated and broadcasted globally for donors to make risk-free donations (see a You Tube Video); and Design for the Disadvantaged (DfD) Labs, a laboratory being established in association with India's National Innovation Foundation (NIF), where formal and grassroots innovators can collaborate to design technology prototypes for overcoming the occupational hazards inflicting disadvantaged populations.

Dr. Vaishnav is a PhD in Technology, Management and Policy from MIT's Engineering Systems Division. He also has an MS in Electrical and Computer Engineering with several years of engineering research experience at the Bell Labs.
     
    [Resume] [CV]
     
    Recent Talks
   
  • February 23, 2012, ITS 2012, New Delhi, India, “Regulator's Dilemma: How to Balance Compliance and Innovation as Internet Disrupts Traditional Technologies.”
  • July 14, 2011, Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), New Delhi, “From Herding Sheep to Herding Cats: Balancing Regulation and Innovation in the Modular Age of the Internet.”
  • July 1, 2010, London Business School, UK, “Innovation and Industry Dynamics: Endogenizing Entry, Architecture, Price, and Quality to Assess Disruptive Opportunities and Defenses.”
  • June 30, 2010, Computer Laboratory, Cambridge, UK. “Contemporary Challenges in Telecommunications Regulation.”
  • June 28, 2010, Cambridge University, UK, “From Herding Sheep to Herding Cats: Balancing Regulation and Innovation in the Modular Age of the Internet.”
  • October 24, 2008, Communications Futures Program, MIT, Cambridge, MA, USA, "Who Will Profit from Social TV Service?: Insights and Queries From A Technology Disruption Model"
  • July 23, 2008, International Conference of System Dynamics Society, Athens, Greece, "Does Technology Disruption Always Mean Industry Disruption?" [PDF]
  • March 20, 2008, Communications Futures Program, MIT, Cambridge, MA, USA, “System Dynamics in Value Chain Dynamics Toolkit”
  • January 16, 2008, The Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, Tokyo, Japan, “Regulating VoIP – A discussion”
  • December 10, 2007, Federal Communications Commission (FCC), Washington, DC, USA, "The End of Core: should disruptive innovation in telecom invoke discontinuous regulatory response?" [PDF]
  • July 29, 2007, International Conference of the System Dynamics Society, Boston, MA, USA, "The End of Core: should disruptive innovation in telecom invoke discontinuous regulatory response?- A Doctoral Research Proposal"
  • July 25, 2007, Oxford Internet Institute Summer Doctoral Program (OIISDP), Berkman Center for Internet and Society, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA, "The End of Core: should disruptive innovation in telecom invoke discontinuous regulatory response?- A Doctoral Research Proposal"
  • June 26, 2007, Technology, Management and Policy Graduate Consortium (TMPGC). TMPGC 2007 Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA, USA, "The End of Core: should disruptive innovation in telecom invoke discontinuous regulatory response?"
  • May 31, 2007, Communications Futures Program Bi-Annual Meeting, Comcast Head Quarters, Philadelphia, PA, USA, “Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) Value Chain Dynamics”
     
    Selected Publications
   

Over years, my work has spanned the areas of technology, management and policy. Listed below are some publications representing each area:

Technology and Policy

  • (Forthcoming) Chintan Vaishnav, Nazli Choucri, and David Clark, “Cyber International Relations as an Integrated System,” The International Engineering Systems Symposium, Delft, The Netherlands, July 2012. [PDF]
  • Chintan Vaishnav, “Regulator’s Dilemma: How to Balance Compliance and Innovation as the Internet Disrupts Traditional Technologies”, International Telecommunications Society Regional Conference, New Delhi, India, 2012.
  • Chintan Vaishnav and Pedro Ferreira, “Internet and Political Engagement: A New Integrated Model of Cyber-Democracy”, Telecom Policy Research Conference, Arlington, VA, 2011. [PDF]
  • Chintan Vaishnav, “From Herding Sheep to Herding Cats: Balancing Regulation and Innovation in the Modular Age of the Internet”, Technology Policy Research Conference, Arlington, VA, 2010.
  • Chintan Vaishnav (2007). 'The End of Core: Should Disruptive Innovation in Telecom Invoke Discontinuous Regulatory Response?' PhD Proposal, Engineering Systems Division (ESD), MIT. [Email]
  • Chintan Vaishnav . and C. H. Fine (2006). ‘A dynamic assessment of VoIP innovation, adoption and their interaction with CALEA regulation,’ Technology Policy Research Conference (TPRC), Arlington, VA. [PDF]
  • Chintan Vaishnav . (2005). ‘Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP): The Dynamics of Technology and Regulation’ Technology and Policy Program. Cambridge, Massachusetts Institute of Technology: 166. [PDF]

Technology Strategy

  • (Selected for Plenary Presentation) Chintan Vaishnav, A. Khakifirooz, et al. (2008). ‘Does Technology Disruption Always Mean Industry Disruption?’. International Conference of System Dynamics, Athens, Greece. [PDF]
  • Chintan Vaishnav, A. Khakifirooz, et al. (2006). ‘Punishing by Reward: When your Performance Bell-curve Stops Working for You’. International Conference of System Dynamics, Nijmegen, The Netherlands. [PDF]

Technology and Socioeconomic Development

  • Chintan Vaishnav. (2004). ‘Information Flows in the Traditional Knowledge and the Grassroots Innovations Value Chains for Agriculture - A Report from Gujarat,’ Part of a report on understanding the impact of information technology on the agricultural sector to the Department of Science and Technology, Government of India and Microsoft Research . The work was carried out with the National Innovation Foundation (NIF) at the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIMA), India.

Technology (Computer Networks)

  • Chintan Vaishnav, Matt Nieberger, A. P. Jayasumana, and Jon Sauer, ‘Design and Performance of a Robust WDM Network,’ presented at SPIE's International Symposium on Optical Science, Engineering, and Instrumentation 1996, Aug. 4-9, 1996.
  • S. A. Abd-Elmalak, C. Vaishnav and A. P. Jayasumana, `Performance of Robust WDM Fast Circuit-Switched Networks with Token Passing in Control Channel,' International Journal of Communication Systems, Vol. 15, pp.239-255, 2002. [PDF]  
  • S. A. Abd-Elmalak, C. Vaishnav and A. P. Jayasumana, ‘Performance of a Symmetric Robust WDM Network when the Channel Access Pattern at Nodes is Known,’ Proc. 22nd IEEE Conference on Local Computer Networks, Oct. 1997. [PDF]
  • T. S. El-Bawab, C. Vaishnav, A. P. Jayasumana, H. Temkin, J. Sauer and H. Willebrand, ‘Medium Access Control Protocols for Robust Wavelength Division Multiplexed Local-Area Networks,’ Fiber and Integrated Optics, Vol. 16, No. 3, pp.237-260, 1997.
  • Tarek El-bawab, Chintan Vaishnav, Anura P. Jayasumana, Henryk Temkin, Jon R. Sauer, and Heinz A. Willebrand, ‘Medium Access Control Protocols for Robust Wavelength Division Multiplexed (WDM) Local Area Networks,’ Proc. International Communications Conference (ICC)'96, v. 2, pp 1099-1106, June 23-27, 1996.
  • Samir A. Abd-Elmalak, Chintan Vaishnav, and Anura P. Jayasumana, ‘Performance of a Symmetric Robust WDM Circuit-Switched Network with Token-Passing in Control Channel,’ to be presented at 5th International Conference on Computer Communications and Networks (IC3N'96), Oct 16-19, 1996. [PDF]
  • Samir A. Abd-Elmalak, Chintan Vaishnav, and Anura P. Jayasumana, ‘Performance of a Robust WDM Network with Token-Passing and a Limited Number of Lasers per Station,’ to be presented at IEEE 21st Conference On Local Computer Networks, Oct 13-16, 1996.
  • Samir A. Abd-Elmalak, Chintan Vaishnav, and Anura P. Jayasumana, ‘Performance of Packet Switched WDM Network with Dynamic Wavelength Selection,' Proc. IEEE 20th Conference On Local Computer Networks, pp 73-81, 1995. [PDF]
  • Samir A. Abd-Elmalak, Chintan Vaishnav, and Anura P. Jayasumana, ‘Performance of a WDM Network with Dynamic Wavelength Selection for Packet Switching,’ Submitted to IEEE/ACM transactions on networking.