[E&S-seminars] IAP - Technology and Policy Seminar Series

[Renee Robins]

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IAP 2004

Issues in Technology and Policy Seminar Series

Sponsored by the Technology and Policy Program
Tuesdays, Noon - 1:30 pm
E40-298

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Many policy issues at the public and private levels involve the
application, commercialization, and control of technologies. This seminar
series will explore selected issues in technology and policy, including
examples from areas such as the environment, telecommunications, energy,
and materials.

Jan. 6:	Addressing Health, Safety and Environmental Problems through Regulation
	Nicholas Ashford, Professor of Technology and Policy, School of
Engineering

Health, safety and environmental problems related to the industrial state
continue to remain inadequately addressed by both government and the
private sector.  Regulation, economic instruments, and voluntary approaches
compete to be the preferred policy approaches.  In this presentation, the
preference of regulatory approaches for stimulating the needed
technological innovation and the role of expanded stakeholder participation
in ensuring an activist and effective government role are discussed.

Jan. 13:	IT & Telecom: Cases in Broadband Policy
	Sharon Gillett, Research Associate, Center for Technology, Policy,
and Industrial Development

The Internet's layered architecture enables separation of communications
services from the networks they run on.  Communications policies, on the
other hand, rarely make this distinction.  In this seminar, two current
examples - Voice over IP and municipal broadband - that illustrate tensions
between what technology makes possible, what policies implicitly assume,
and what business models may be sustainable will be presented.

Jan. 20:	Electricity and Natural Gas: Issues in Regulation and
Economics
	Richard Tabors, Senior Lecturer, Technology and Policy Program

Both the natural gas and electricity sectors in the United States (and much
of the rest of the developed economies) have undergone significant market
restructuring.  The resulting regulatory restructuring has created smoothly
functioning and highly liquid markets in some cases and markets that appear
to be highly dysfunctional in others.  This seminar will look briefly at
the successes and failures and provide an overview of the lessons learned
from the US markets.

Jan. 27:	Sustainability of Materials Systems
	Randy Kirchain, Assistant Professor, Department of Materials
Science & Engineering and Engineering Systems Division

Achieving a sustainable global economy will require many changes to current
patterns of consumption.  One mechanism of change will be the clever
selection and management of materials.  Unfortunately, few tools exist to
guide engineers & designers in realizing those changes. This seminar will
explore the important role which materials play in influencing the effects
of consumption and explore the use of systems methods to uncover possible
routes to improving material use in the context of a case -- the production
and use of aluminum.

Bring brown bag lunch; light refreshments provided.

For further information contact Renee Robins, rrobins at mit.edu
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