Use
of EPP Washington Office Grows
Educational
and research uses of EPP's Washington, DC Office (Room
360, 1200 New York Avenue, NW) continues to grow. In the
monthly "How Government Works" seminars, Washington insiders
present informal seminars in the Washington office to
an audience in Pittsburgh over a video link. Recent examples
of these popular lunchtime talks include Norine Noonan,
Associate Administrator of EPA for Research and Development,
discussing EPA's research agenda, and Mark Frankel of
AAAS discussing a new AAAS program to provide technical
expertise to the Federal Judiciary.
Last summer
the office hosted its second set of Tom Johnson Washington
Fellows. EPP graduate student Joshua Mindel worked at
the FCC on the revision of telecommunication regulations
in light of modern data services. Undergraduate biology
major Bradley Malin, who is pursuing EPP's Technology
and Policy Minor, worked with a research group at Georgetown
University Law Center on genetics, law and privacy.
Brief "Study
Tours" designed to provide new EPP doctoral students with
a hands-on introduction to the Washington policy scene,
are another regular activity in the office. Last year
nine EPP graduate students, along with faculty leaders
Mitchell Small (CEE/EPP) and James Goodby (EPP) and Washington
Office Director Alexandra Carr, spent two and a half days
meeting with a cross-section of engineers, scientists,
lawyers, and others working on policy issues with strong
science and engineering dimensions. A repeat is planned
for the spring of 2000.
The Office
has also proven to be a resource for strengthening long-standing
Departmental activities. Last year, faculty members Baruch
Fischhoff (SDS/EPP) and Ed Rubin (EPP/MechE) conducted
the EPP project course "Improving the Usefulness of the
Toxics Release Inventory," which included six Washington-based
members on the review panel in addition to ten Pittsburgh-based
members. Student presentations in October and December
were done with a video-conferencing link to the Washington
Office, making possible participation by experts from
a variety of DC-based governmental and private-sector
organizations. The students' final report identified ways
to make the Toxics Release Inventory a better tool for
understanding and reducing risks to public health and
the environment from toxic chemicals. EPP graduate students
Daniel Fryxell and Kanchana Wanichkorn served as the Project
Managers for this course.
The office
is being used regularly for workshops, briefings, and
similar gatherings.
Stanford
Consolidating EPP-like Departments
A few years
ago, Stanford consolidated its Department of Engineering-Economic
Systems and its Department of Operations Research into
a single department. Now, in a further consolidation,
these are being combined with the Department of Industrial
Engineering and Engineering Management to form a single
department in the Engineering College.
While the
name of the new department is still to be determined,
its mission is "research and education associated with
the development of the knowledge, tools, and methods required
to make decisions and shape policies, configure organizational
structures, design engineering systems, and solve operational
problems associated with the information-intensive, technology-based
economy." Marie-Elisabeth Paté-Cornell is head of the
new department. |
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Development
of Engineering System Division Continues at MIT
In an effort
to strengthen research and education related to engineering
systems, including the long-standing MS program in Technology
and Policy, MIT has created a new Engineering Systems Division
(ESD), which is designed to cross-cut the traditional engineering
departments and to have joint appointments with them as
well as with the Sloan School of Management and various
other social science units. Daniel Roos serves as Associate
Dean for the new Division.
On the educational
front, one of the Division's first tasks is to more tightly
integrate five existing masters-level programs that currently
serve over 400 students. "These programs educate engineering
systems professionals who view the technological system
as part of a larger problem. For them, the context in which
the system operates is a design variable rather than a constraint,"
Roos explains.
Roos notes that
ESD will work with industry "in a partnership mode where
industry serves as a real world laboratory to test new concepts...and
help faculty and students better appreciate the context
of their research."
"Initial ESD
appointments are all senior faculty members," Roos reports.
While there have been discussions about adding junior faculty
in the Division, there are concerns about potential problems
with promotion and tenure. Observing that system and product
complexity are increasing at an accelerating pace, Roos
hopes that the new Division will have a revolutionary impact
on engineering education similar to the introduction of
engineering science.
Florig and
Xue Awarded W. Alton Jones Grant
The W. Alton
Jones Foundation has awarded $124,000 to EPP Senior Research
Engineer Keith Florig and Tsinghua University Professor
XUE Lan (EPP Ph.D. 1991; Adjunct Associate Prof.) for a
project entitled "Nuclear Power in China: The Social Dimensions
of Technology Choice." China is embarking on a long-term
expansion of its nuclear power base to help supply a burgeoning
electricity demand. Although the cost of nuclear power in
China is currently higher than fossil-fuel alternatives,
nuclear power proponents argue that China needs nuclear
power to provide energy security, reduce air pollution,
hedge against possible future carbon taxes, reduce coal-mining
fatalities, and alleviate congestion and accidents on coal-laden
rail systems.
Decisions on
nuclear power investments in China are being conducted largely
without public involvement. Media reporting on nuclear power
in China is quite positive and contains little information
on the social and political history of nuclear power in
other nations. With their new grant, Florig and Xue seek
to broaden the energy debate in China by reviewing for Chinese
opinion leaders the social dimensions of nuclear power development
in industrialized countries, and by exploring the implications
of that foreign experience for China. In addition to Florig
and Xue, the project team includes scholars from the Chinese
Academy of Sciences, Beijing University, and the Institute
of Nuclear Energy Technology at Tsinghua University. Recently,
the team spent one month in Pittsburgh, Washington, DC,
and Harrisburg, PA collecting information and interviewing
key figures in nuclear power policy.
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