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One-Page Reading Summaries
Significant time for student participation and discussions will be built into each class. Students will be expected to read the articles or chapters listed for each class, as listed under Readings. All students for each class will email at least a day in advance to the instructor and student discussion leaders, a one-page summary in bullet-point outline form of all the readings for that class—please put your name, date and the class number on the top. This summary should list three or four key points about each reading and below that list two or three key questions about each reading.
In addition, particular students, rotating around the class, using the students’ one-page summaries, will be asked to lead class Q&A discussion on the readings for each class—so each class will have one or two student discussion leaders. Starting with the first class, please submit your one-page reading summaries emailed to the instructor in advance of class; the instructor will go over the discussion leader system at the first class and name initial discussion leaders, starting with the second class. So starting with the second class, please email your reading summaries to both the instructor and discussion leaders. The discussion leaders will use your questions in leading the class discussions of the reading.
Research Paper
The course will require a major research paper. The paper must be approximately 12 single-spaced pages, combine considerations of science and technology with social sciences approaches, particularly focused on innovation policy, and consist of an inquiry based on original research. In the paper, you should make extensive use of the innovation systems framework we studied and applied in class (and look, particularly, at Chapters 11 and 12 of the Technological Innovation in Legacy Sectors text). The paper should include an international dimension, or be applicable to an international or global problem. The paper should go beyond a summary or synthesis of the literature by arguing for an original theme, thesis, and argument based on well-thought-out argumentative points based on evidence. Analysis of some primary sources is an important aspect of the paper. (e.g. particularly original interviews but also potentially surveys, archival records, or other primary source information) or, when applicable, quantitative data analysis (e.g. statistical analysis of existing data collected by the student).
Students will write about:
- A particular governmental U.S. or international innovation agency, sub-agency, or institution, new or established (such as the NCATS program at NIH, or the Fraunhofer Institutes in Germany or the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) or ARPA-E at the U.S. Department of Energy or the new Manufacturing Institutes program, or the new Biological Technologies Office at DARPA); the paper would then examine this institution’s place in the innovation system and its effectiveness in promoting technology advances, elaborating on its national and technology innovation system context, or
- A highly innovative firm, in the U.S. or another nation (such as First Solar, Solar Cities, or Genentech in the U.S. or Vestas in Denmark) and its key innovation(s), placing it in its overall technology innovation system context, or
- A particular sector of emerging innovation technology (for example, solar photovoltaics, photonics, genome-based medicine, or next generation nuclear), and then explore the steps by which that technology might emerge at scale, in the U.S. and internationally; such an examination would include the R&D support, incentives and regulatory requirements that may be required, or
- A nation (not the U.S.) and an innovation area it is strong in, such as energy, biotechnology, or advanced manufacturing, and examine the innovation area, the institutions in, and elements of the innovation system for that national sector (including technology “push” or support for R&D and the front-end of the innovation process, and market “pull” or strategies to create demand for technology implementation and the back-end of the innovation process).
All papers should include a national and international innovation perspective for the technology involved, discuss the key technologies evolving from the entity or group, and discuss issues directly related to the subjects and areas covered in this class, systematically applying the innovation systems framework used in class. The paper must examine front- and back-end innovation elements, and relevant innovation design models, from pipeline through innovation organization. The outline and final paper should make frequent use of headings following an outline-type format, to assist the reader. Footnotes and a bibiliography listing primary, secondary, and original sources must be included, in both the paper outline and final paper.
A detailed 3+ page single-spaced outline will be due at Class 9, and the final paper will be due after Class 12. Late outlines and papers will result in lower grades.
Structuring and Organizing Your Paper:
- Please single-space your paper, follow an outline type format, inserting frequent headings in outline format that help the reader follow your points, as noted above.
- Use footnotes to cite your sources for your findings.
- Include a list of the references (including in footnotes) at the back of your paper.
- If at all possible, as part of the original research aspect for the paper, speak by phone or in person to someone fluent with or who works in the technology or sector you identify or for your company or agency or nation. Include references and footnotes to these discussions.
Additional Directions for Topics:
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Topic 1: A U.S. (or other nation’s) specific agency or institution, public or private, established or new, which has a significant role in the innovation process. For example, in the U.S.:
- The SunShot Initiative within the Energy Department’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE).
- The ARPA-E program (focus on a specific program area there since there is now literature on the ARPA-E model).
- The NCATS program in translational medicine at NIH.
- An office in DARPA (such as the new Biological Technologies office).
- An Innovation Hub within the Department of Energy or the Department of Defense programs (within the Office of the Dep. Undersec, Facilities and Environment or the equivalent offices in the military services) that are installing energy efficiency technologies in its vast array of facilities and operations.
- One of the new manufacturing institutes.
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Topic 2: A highly innovative company in the private sector (in the U.S. or another nation). For example:
- In energy, a start-up company like Ambri in the energy storage space, or a larger but still new company such as Tesla or First Solar or a division (ex., wind or nuclear) of a very large company, such as General Electric.
- In health science, Genentech or Biogen, or a biotech startup like Alnylam Pharmaceuticals.
- In space, Space-X.
- In robotics, i-Robot or Rethink Robotics.
- In entertainment, Pixar.
- In IT, Google.
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Topic 3: A particular sector of innovative technology. For example:
- In energy, power electronics, solar thin film photovoltaics, offshore wind turbines, storage, or next generation nuclear or modular reactors.
- In life science, synthetic biology or advanced medical devices, or in manufacturing, 3-D printing, photonics.
- In IT, advanced robotics for production.You will need to explore the steps by which that technology might emerge at scale in the U.S. (or abroad); such an examination would include the R&D support, incentives, and regulatory requirements that may be required. The technology you select should be emerging, and in the innovation phase, not an established, fully commercialized technology.
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Topic 4: An innovative nation (not the U.S.) strong in an innovation area, such as energy, biotechnology, or advanced manufacturing, and the innovation area, the institutions in, and elements of the innovation system for that nation. For example:
- The innovation system for advanced manufacturing in Germany.
- Korea’s innovation system in semiconductors and IT.
- Switzerland’s biotech sector.
- Denmark’s wind sector.
- Brazil’s aviation sector.
- Finland’s IT sector (post-Nokia).
You may get some ideas on technologies and companies from the recent MIT-Stanford book Game Changers on energy technologies or read their summaries which have some quick updates on where technologies stand. DARPA’s website and ARPA-E’s website will have useful summaries of where their research is going, and EERE’s wesbsite will have additional energy technology ideas—for example, in solar, look at DOE’s Sunshot. For nations, you could look at the “Knowledge Economy” series of books issued by the World Bank on particular nations, such as India or China.
If you select a large agency, firm, or nation, e you should consider choosing a particular technology program within the selected agency, such as in energy, sustainable manufacturing efficiency in EERE, or wind in GE or the Fraunhofer system in Germany. Examine this institution’s (or national focus) specific role in the energy innovation system and its effectiveness in advancing innovation advances. As part of this examination, look at problems/challenges that the institution may be encountering in advancing the energy innovation process (e.g., insufficient capitalization for a start-up; an oscillating budget for a public institution; weak links/connections on the front- or back-end of the sector’s innovation system).
As part of your paper, examine whether and how the technology, or the agency or firm or nation, will be able to press a program through to commercialization at scale, or whether there are gaps in its innovation system efforts (e.g., lack of testbeds for demonstrating and proving building efficiency technologies). Provide specific policy suggestions as to how these problems can be rectified, through public or private-sector or joint efforts.
Recommended Organizational Framework:
Below are recommendations for a logical organizational framework for your paper on one of these four topics—be sure to cover these issues in your paper. I strongly suggest as background for framing your discussions you read over chapters 2, 4, 5, 11, 12, and 14 (especially 11 and 12) in the class text, Technological Innovation in Legacy Sectors (note: also, chapters 6 through 8 and 10 may also provide ideas on possible technology sectors to write about).
- Introduction: Clearly and specifically set out the paper topic and basic issues you will cover—introduce and summarize point by point your key findings up front in the introduction. You need a clear thesis for your paper stated right at the close of your introduction.
- Technology Overview: Provide an overview of your technology or your entity’s technology strand that you are focusing on (e.g., thin film PV’s), or nation’s technology program. Discuss where this technology stand now in both R&D stage and technology implementation? Where does it need to go—what are the critical technology challenges for your technology strand to advance?
- Innovation Organization - Review how the innovation system is organized for your technology or your entity’s or nation’s technology strand. Who are the major innovation actors? The innovation system, of course, includes the firms, not only the government support role. Explore the firms in this technology sector and the leading firms that make it up—who are the technology leaders and what progress are they making to commercialize at scale, with what barriers?
Also, where relevant and it at all possible, do an international comparison—what countries are standing up technology efforts (for example, in energy, PV thin film firms), with what success? What is the picture for international competition—what other nations/firms are making advances in this technology area that will affect your agency/firm? Chapter 11 of the Technological Innovation in Legacy Sectors text should be very relevant in this section. - Matching Launch Paths to Policy Packages (look at Class 10 readings): In general, apply the framework in Chapter 12 of Technological Innovation in Legacy Sectors. You need here to also set out the cost structure for your technology or your entity’s technology against other competing technologies, and explore how far your technology is coming down the cost curve and how fast. Also, you need to examine the cost of the technology not only at the production stage but the installed cost, and see if there are ways to drive down the latter and through what mechanisms. The pattern of existing governmental interventions—for example, tax incentives for renewables - needs to be spelled out, if possible and relevant.
This “technology economics” discussion is critical, but should be part of a larger discussion on “Matching Launch Paths to Policy Packages”(be careful to review the discussion of this in the Energy Class 10 readings, and, as noted, especially chapter 12 of the Legacy Sectors book). In other words, put the economics discussion into the review of the existing innovation system and its strengths and weaknesses, with the economics as a key to the tech evolution. Look at the launch pathways for your technology or your entity’s technology, and the support mechanisms and incentives available for its launch, and consider what the missing elements may be.
If you are writing about an agency, or a tech focus, in a nation consider whether the agency or focus is more directed to breakthrough technologies than support for incremental advance at existing firms; ask what other support elements may need to come to bear—for example, if it is an energy agency, what part of DOE is at work here—would EERE or an applied DOE agency likely be needed for support in your technology area? - Identifying Institutional Gaps (on the front-end and on the back-end): Summarize in this section the innovation system’s institutional and policy gaps—and this includes discussion of the gaps on both the front-end and back-end of the emerging innovation system you are reviewing.
A summary (or simple chart) of various agency programmatic elements and funding that could help your technology or commercial entity would be useful here. If you selected an agency, spell out its menu of technology support. Material to help frame this section can be found in Chapter 12 of the Legacy Sectors text. - Proposed National and Other Policies: Summarize the federal, national, and other policies that may be needed here for public or private entities or sectors or nations. The U.S. and many nations are in a difficult budget climate—make your policies politically realistic, not extravagant or unrealistically ambitious.
- Conclusion: A strong and detailed conclusion is needed that recapitulates each of your key points and answers your thesis questions.
- Bibliography: You should insert both footnotes in the text and a bibliography listing reference sources at the close.
Ses # | Topic | Key Dates |
---|---|---|
Unit A: Economic Growth Theory and the Innovation System | ||
1 | Economic Growth Theory and the Direct Elements in Innovation | |
2 | Innovation Systems and Direct/Indirect Elements in the Innovation Ecosystem | |
Unit B: Challenges Facing the U.S. Economy | ||
3 | The Competitive Challenge to U.S. Manufacturing | |
4 | The Challenge from Globalization for Advanced Manufacturing and New Services | |
Unit C: Federal-Private Sector Roles in the Innovation System | ||
5 | The Innovation System at the Institutional Level: The Organization of Federal Science Support | |
6 | Crossing “The Valley of Death” Between Research and Development: The Public-Private Partnership Approach | |
7 | The Organization of Innovation Systems at the Face-to-Face Level | |
8 | DARPA as the Connected Model in the Innovation System: Government-Private Sector Interaction and the Example of Computing | Research Paper Outline Due |
Unit D: The Life Science and Energy Innovation Systems | ||
9 | The Life Science R&D Model: National Institutes of Health (NIH) | |
10 | The Challenge of Energy Technology Transformation | |
Unit E: Improving the Innovation System: The Talent Base | ||
11 | Improving the Talent Base: New Education and Training Models | |
12 | The Future of Work: The Employment-Productivity Debate | Research Paper Due |
Lecture 1: Economic Growth Theory and the Direct Elements in Innovation
Lecture 1 will review two classic readings (by Solow and Romer) in economic growth theory, turn to a discussion of the innovation-related basis for growth in the 90’s, and note through NSF data the effect of the economics of globalization and the comparative efforts of other competitor nations. Two elements of direct innovation policy will be introduced: R&D funding (including the physical science R&D funding challenge) and science and technology education levels, with international comparisons. An investment firm paper will suggest how businesses look at these innovation issues. (Note: when reading Solow and Romer, focus on the underlying economic concepts not the econometrics).
Lecture 1 Slides (PDF - 2.4MB)
Lecture 2: Innovation Systems and Direct/Indirect Elements in the Innovation Ecosystem
Lecture 2 will discuss how innovation is organized into a system and the elements and actors in this system. It will also include a summary of indirect or implicit elements in this system. These include, on the governmental side, fiscal policy, tax policy, standards, technology transfer policies, trade policy, procurement, intellectual property, the legal system, regulation, antitrust, export controls, etc. On the private sector side, these include markets, management approaches including support for incremental versus radical innovation, accounting systems and information transparency, business models, and venture and angel capital, etc.
The class will also review innovation wave theory (“Kondratiev Waves”). The World Economic Forum’s latest national competitiveness rankings will be used to look at a range of competitiveness factors. Particular “indirect elements” will receive focus, including the ongoing debate over how the accounting system values innovation, the ramifications of current fiscal policy, and the role of venture and angel capital. The lack of innovation metrics will be reviewed. The class will also discuss policy justifications for governmental versus private sector roles, including the long-standing debate over industrial policy, and the “market failure” and the “public value” (as pursued by science and technology mission agencies) justifications for a public role.
Lecture 2 Slides (PDF - 1.7MB)
Lecture 3: The Competitive Challenge to U.S. Manufacturing
Lecture 3 will first review the nature of the competitiveness debate of the 80’s and early 90’s, which focused on the manufacturing sector, particularly on process efficiency and quality. The role of manufacturing in the U.S. economy will be discussed, including its declining share of the economy. The nature of the international competition in manufacturing and the strategies of other international competitors, both in the 80’s and now, including in advanced manufacturing sectors, will be reviewed in detail. Approaches in Japan and Korea will be explored. The hierarchical, layered, and networked models for industrial organization will be noted along with the “disruptive technologies” approach to innovation, as well as corresponding possible approaches for manufacturing process technology productivity breakthroughs.
Lecture 3 Slides (PDF - 3.6MB)
Lecture 4: The Challenge from Globalization for Advanced Manufacturing and New Services
Lecture 4 will first explore a noted Samuelson article on free trade theory and comparative advantage in innovation. It will review advanced US manufacturing capability concerns in detail, and also look at services, noting the dominant role of services in the U.S. economy. The debate on whether the economy is facing a major competitive challenge to advanced technology-based manufacturing and services that are tied to it, and to innovation capacity, will be examined, including a discussion of emerging manufacturing innovation models in China. The class will close on the importance of the growing international competition in software development which will also be reviewed.
Lecture 4 Slides (PDF - 3.9MB)
Lecture 5: The Innovation System at the Institutional Level & The Organization of Federal Science Support
Lecture 5 will review key organizational developments in science, technology, and health federal support, focusing on the organizational models for the missions of those science-support organizations. Potential strengths of government-supported R&D (selection neutrality and long-range focus) as well as concerns (peer review tending toward incremental progress not breakthroughs and disconnect from application) will be discussed. The focus will be first on the post-WWI organization and the ideologies of federal science support that evolved in that period, then the transformation of science during WWII under Vannevar Bush and Alfred Loomis, and the creation of the postwar science agencies, with a particular focus on the National Science Foundation.
The review will also touch on a number of the following developments:
- Alfred Loomis and the FFRDC (Federally-Funded Research and Development Corporation) model at MIT’s RadLab—the outside contracted R&D entity.
- Vannevar Bush and the “Endless Frontier”—in the wake of WWII’s focus on applied research, Bush’s opposing proposal for government science support focused on fundamental research.
- Origins of NSF based on federal support of outside university-based fundamental research, under Vannevar Bush’s model.
- The origins of most of the other federal research agencies based on the Bush fundamental research model, including the Office of Science at DOE, health research at NIH, and the Navy’s ONR.
- The contributions to major technology advance of federal basic research. The class will close with a classic critique of weaknesses in the Bush model.
Lecture 5 Slides (PDF - 2.6MB)
Lecture 6: Crossing the “Valley of Death” Between Research and Development & The Public-Private Partnership Approach
Lecture 6, picking up on the innovation organization issues discussed in the prior class, will discuss the longstanding problem of the “valley of death”, i.e., of moving technology from the research stage through the development stage, and discuss the pipeline (linear) model versus dynamic model for research and development. The class will review the very different organizational model of defense R&D compared to other federal science and technology mission agencies. More recent models for crossing the “valley of death” will be briefly noted, including the biotech model, NIST’s Advanced Technology Program (ATP now ended), the Small Business Innovation and Research Program (SBIR), NIST’s state-based Manufacturing Extension Program (MEP), and the CIA’s In-Q-Tel. The class will close with a discussion of overall innovation models and overcoming the difficulty of innovating in complex legacy sectors.
Lecture 6 Slides (PDF - 3.3MB)
Lecture 7: The Organization of Innovation Systems at the Face-to-Face Level
Lecture 7 will note that although innovation systems function at the institutional level in the public and private sectors, they also must function at the personal, face-to-face level. The class will review a series of breakthrough innovations and look at the R&D teams that assembled them, discussing the organizational rule sets that appear to be common to these great innovation groups. The focus groups include Edison’s “Invention Factory,” Oppenheimer and Los Alamos, Bardeen, Brattain and Shockley at Bell Labs, Boyer and Swanson founding Genetech, Venter and the genome project, and Robert Taylor at Xerox PARC.
NOTE: This class will be student-led, organized with a larger group of students (not just two discussion leaders) presenting the particular readings, and with less of a lecture format. There is a longer reading list, so students don’t need to read all the readings—but all students should read the following three readings, as follows: the William Rosen book sections, the Warren Bennis/Patricia Biederman closing chapter on pp. 196–218, and the Edgar Schein book sections, in that order. Then students should, in addition, select and read about any three of the six innovation “great groups” listed below the first three readings. Full citations are available under Readings. A number of students will be asked to present on particular innovation groups.
Lecture 7 Slides (PDF - 2.4MB)
Lecture 8: DARPA as the Connected Model in the Innovation System & Government-Private Sector Interaction and the Example of Computing
Lecture 8 will focus on the role of DARPA as a keystone institution for connected R&D, merging basic and applied research and development in a model comparable to the Rad Lab and Los Alamos. The class will use as a case study the evolution of personal computing and its internet application, using Waldrop’s text to consider various elements of the innovation system as it came to bear on the development of this technology. The roles of the individual visionaries (such as JCR Licklider), of government supported R&D (through DARPA), of DARPA’s University researchers, (including at MIT and Stamford), and of DARPA’s industry-based research contractors (including at BB&D and Xerox PARC), will be examined in succession. The R&D organizational rule sets that have evolved in the DARPA culture will be explored based on this computing case study. The concept of innovation commons infrastructure will also be introduced.
Lecture 8 Slides (PDF - 1.4MB)
Lecture 9: The Life Science R&D Model & National Institutes of Health (NIH)
Lecture 9 will note the organizational origins of NIH in the fundamental research model, and discuss the implications of that model for the role NIH plays in the bio-medical innovation system. Key topics, including NIH’s role in training life science researchers for university and industry, the origins of the human genome project, the rise of the biotech sector around a new computational science model, the role of biotech firms in the development stage, and the power of the patent system in life sciences, will be discussed. NIH problems—in pursuing cross-disciplinary, translational, and physical science-based research, with organizational stovepipes, and in attacking niche and small disease population diseases—will also be reviewed.
The genomics initiative will be reviewed as a particular case study on organizational issues. Proposals from the Institute of Medicine and others for NIH reorganization will be discussed. Problems in developing therapies for infectious disease and with developing new approaches to drug validation and approval will be discussed through reports from the Infectious Diseases Society and FDA. The class will also review recommendations for system reform from PCAST and a “white paper” on integrating life sciences with engineering and physical science as a promising new R&D and innovation model.
Lecture 9 Slides (PDF - 2.3MB)
Lecture 10: The Challenge of Energy Technology Transformation
Lecture 10 will review the challenges to the energy innovation system, including both institutional organizational challenges and underlying economic challenges affecting energy technology advance, and will apply lessons from prior classes as well as additional approaches relevant to advances in complex established economic systems like energy.
Given the central role of energy in the economy and the variety of new technologies needed for an energy transformation, an expanded federal program to stimulate innovation in energy technology may be needed. It must arguably go beyond research and development to include all aspects of the innovation process, and should be technology neutral as far as possible, consistent with the need for measures to overcome obstacles specific to particular technologies. Ideally, such a technology supply-side program should be accompanied by policies that ensure demand pricing for carbon-based energy, to foster technology demand. However, those programs will not be forthcoming soon, given the interests concerned with such measures, and political support for such demand-side policies in Congress and the executive branch appears indefinitely postponed.
The political barriers to a technology supply-side strategy, on the other hand, may not be as high. Numerous authoritative publications have called for an expansion of energy research and development as a complement to demand-side measures. However, the specific mechanisms by which the development, deployment and diffusion of these technologies might be facilitated by government action have been left largely unstudied. A hard look at these specific mechanisms will be the subject of the class.
This class will provide students with a close look at the systemic challenges now faced by the energy innovation system and draw on lessons from prior classes for possible organizational solutions. It will review the “wedges” theory for introduction of new technologies and efficiencies, a framework for introducing energy technologies, the potential supporting energy technology role of the Defense Department, the new ARPA-E energy research model, and alternative options for meeting energy goals.
Lecture 10 Slides (PDF - 3.9MB)
Lecture 11: Improving the Talent Base & New Education and Training Models
Lecture 11 will consider overall science education trend data, and the reasons for the decline in college level science graduates, as well as graduate students, particularly in the physical sciences. A recent summary by Norman Augustine for the National Academies summarizes US talent gap problems. The class will then examine studies by economists Paul Romer and Richard Freeman in fixing the basis for these trends. It will also review an economic study suggesting a link between education attainment and growing income differentiation. The class will review an appeal by economist William Bamol for a new kind of “innovation education.” The class will also discuss reforms to teaching science education and new approaches to IT-based education models. At the close of the session there will be a wrap-up summary of key concepts that the course was based on.
Lecture 11 Slides (PDF - 3.4MB)
Lecture 12: The Future of Work & The Employment-Productivity Debate
This class will discuss the ongoing debate over the “future of work.” Has the IT revolution advanced to the point that its productivity gains will be creating large scale unemployment? The class will examine arguments advancing this position, including that the nature of work has fundamentally shifted with the entry of IT at scale into both services and production sectors. It will then look at the response by a prominent economist that the linkage between productivity gains and rising net employment over time, in place since the industrial revolution, has indeed not significantly shifted.
It will also look at the linkage between education and higher-skill employment, and the argument that this is a key explanation for rising income inequality. The class will also look at the issue of “jobless innovation” and its linkage to fundamental problems in the production sector, and at a new book arguing that fully autonomous robotics is unlikely, and that robotics will continue for a long time on the path of deep integration with people, where robotics is an extension of human capabilities not a displacer of them.
Required Texts
[TILS] Bonvillian, William and Charles Weiss. Technological Innovation in Legacy Sectors. Oxford University Press, 2015. ISBN: 9780199374519.
Ses # | Topic | Readings |
---|---|---|
Unit A: Economic Growth Theory and the Innovation System | ||
1 | Economic Growth Theory and the Direct Elements in Innovation |
Solow, Robert M. “Robert M. Solow Prize Lecture: Growth Theory and After.” Nobelprize.org. Nobel Media AB, 2014. Jorgenson, Dale. “U.S. Economic Growth in the Information Age.” Issues in Science and Technology 18, no. 1 (2001). Romer, Paul. “Endogeneous Technological Change (PDF - 7.1MB).” Journal of Political Economy 98 (1990): 72–102. “Science and Engineering Indicators 2016.” NSF.gov. National Science Board, 2016. Milunovich, Steven and John Roy. “The Next Small Thing: An Introduction to Nanotechnology.” Merrill Lynch, 2001. |
2 | Innovation Systems and Direct/Indirect Elements in the Innovation Ecosystem |
Nelson, Richard, ed. National Innovation Systems: A Comparative Analysis. Oxford University Press, 1993, pp. 3–21, 505–523. ISBN: 9780195076172. [Preview with Google Books] Atkinson, Robert. The Past and Future of America’s Economy: Long Waves of Innovation That Power Cycles of Growth. Edward Elgar Pub, 2005, pp. 3–40. ISBN: 9781845425760. “The Global Competitiveness Report 2015–2016.” World Economic Forum, 2016. Rycroft, Robert and Don Kash. “Innovation Policy for Complex Technologies.” Issues in Science and Technology 16, no. 1 (Fall 1999). Milbergs, Egils. “National Innovation Initiative: Valuing Long-Term Innovation Strategies (PDF).” National Innovation Initiative, 2004. Gupta, Udayan, ed. Done Deals: Venture Capitalists Tell Their Stories. Harvard Business Review Press, 2000, pp. 1–11. ISBN: 9780875849386. Shultze, Charles. “Industrial Policy: A Dissent (PDF).” The Brookings Review 2, no. 1 (Fall 1983): 3–12. McKenzie, Richard. “Industrial Policy.” The Concise Encyclopedia of Economics, 2007. |
Unit B: Challenges Facing the U.S. Economy | ||
3 | The Competitive Challenge to U.S. Manufacturing |
Jorgenson, Dale. “U.S. Economic Growth in the Information Age.” Issues in Science and Technology 18, no. 1 (2001). Hughes, Kent. Building the Next American Century: The Past and Future of American Economic Competitiveness. John Hopkins University Press, 2005. Chapters 3, 4, 6, and 7. ISBN: 9780801882036. Lynn, Barry. End of the Line. Doubleday, 2005, pp. 1–18. ISBN: 9780385510240. [Preview with Google Books] Berger, Suzanne. How We Compete: What Companies Around the World Are Doing to Make it in Today’s Global Economy. Crown Business, 2005, pp. 251–277. ISBN: 9780385513593. Fong, Glenn. “Follower at the Frontier: International Competition and Japanese Industrial Policy (PDF).” International Studies Quarterly 42, 3 (1998): 339–266. Kim, Linsu. Imitation to Innovation: The Dynamics of Korea’s Technological Learning. Harvard Business Review, 1997, pp. 192–213, 234–243. ISBN: 9780875845746. Moses, Joel. “Three Design Methodologies, Their Associated Organizational Structures, and Their Relationship to Various Fields.” Proceedings of Engineering Systems Symposium MIT, 2004. |
4 | The Challenge from Globalization for Advanced Manufacturing and New Services |
Samuelson, Paul. “Where Ricardo and Mill Rebut and Confirm Arguments of Mainstream Economists Supporting Globalization (PDF).” Journal of Economic Perspectives 18, no. 3 (2004): 135–137, 144–145. Pisano, Gary and Willy Shih. “Restoring American Competitiveness.” Harvard Business Review (2009): 114–125. Nahm, Jonas and Steinfeld, Edward. “Scale-Up Nation: China’s Specialization in Innovative Manufacturing (PDF).” World Development 54 (2014): 228–300. [TILS] Chapters 4 and 13 (pp. 37–54, 215–239). Manufacturing as an Innovation Policy Change. Bonvillian, William. “Donald Trump’s Voters and the Decline of American Manufacturing.” Issues in Science and Technology 32 (2016). MIT Taskforce on Innovation and Production. “Report of the MIT Taskforce on Innovation and Production (PDF).” Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2013. President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology. “Report to the President Accelerating U.S. Advanced Manufacturing (PDF).” Executive Office of the President, 2014, pp. 1–12. |
Unit C: Federal-Private Sector Roles in the Innovation System | ||
5 | The Innovation System at the Institutional Level: The Organization of Federal Science Support |
Hart, David. Forged Consensus: Science, Technology, and Economic Policy in the United States, 1921–1953. Princeton University Press, 2010, pp. 17–29. ISBN: 9780691146546. [Preview with Google Books] Conant, Jennet. Tuxedo Park: A Wall Street Tycoon and the Secret Palace of Science That Changed the Course of World War II. Simon & Schuster, 2003, pp. 178–289. ISBN: 9780684872889. Bush, Vannevar. “Science: The Endless Frontier.” United States Government Printing Office, 1945. Read through Chapter 1. Blanpied, William. “Inventing US Science Policy.” Physics Today 51, no. 2 (1988): 34–40. Singer, Peter. “Federally Supported Innovations: 22 Examples of Major Technology Advances That Stem From Federal Research Support (PDF - 9.9MB).” The Information Technology & Innovation Foundation, 2014. Stokes, Donald. Pasteur’s Quadrant: Basic Science and Technological Innovation. Brookings Institution Press, 1997, pp. 1–25, 45–89. ISBN: 9780815781776. [Preview with Google Books] |
6 | Crossing “The Valley of Death” Between Research and Development: The Public-Private Partnership Approach |
Branscomb, Lewis and Philip Auerswald. “Between Invention and Innovation: An Analysis of Funding for Early-Stage Technology Development (PDF - 4.0MB).” National Institute of Standards and Technology, 2002. Ruttan, Vernon. Is War Necessary for Economic Growth?: Military Procurement and Technology Development. Oxford University Press, 2006, pp. 21–31, 91–111. ISBN: 9780195188042. [Preview with Google Books] Fong, Glenn. “Breaking New Ground or Breaking the Rules: Strategic Reorientation in U.S. Industrial Policy (PDF).” International Security 25, no. 2 (2000): 152–162. Yannuzzi, Rick. “In-Q-Tel: A New Partnership Between the CIA and the Private Sector.” Defense Intelligence Journal 9, no. 1 (2000). Bonvillian, William. “The New Model Innovation Agencies: An Overview.” Science and Public Policy 41, no. 4 (2014): 425–437. [TILS] Chapters 1–2, 11–12 (pp. 1–20, 181–213). Innovation Systems and the Challenge of Legacy Sectors. |
7 | The Organization of Innovation Systems at the Face-to-Face Level |
Rosen, William. The Most Powerful Idea in the World: A Story of Steam, Industry, and Invention. University of Chicago Press, 2012, pp. 35–39, 115–134. ISBN: 9780226726347. Bennis, Warren and Patricia Ward Biederman. Organizing Genius: The Secrets of Creative Collaboration. Basic Books, 1998, pp. 196–218. ISBN: 9780201339895. Schein, Edgar, Peter DeLisi, et al. DEC Is Dead, Long Live DEC: The Lasting Legacy of Digital Equipment Corporation. Berret-Koehler Publishers, 2004, pp. 123–169. ISBN: 9781576753057. [Preview with Google Books] Read three of the six choices below:
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8 | DARPA as the Connected Model in the Innovation System: Government-Private Sector Interaction and the Example of Computing |
Waldrop, Mitchell M. The Dream Machine: J.C.R. Licklider and the Revolution That Made Computing Personal. Viking Adult, 2001, pp. 119–134. ISBN: 9780670899760. [TILS] Chapter 8 (pp. 119–134). DARPA’s role as a change agent within DOD. Carleton, Tammy. “The Value of Vision in Radical Technological Innovation” PhD diss., Stanford University, 2010, pp. 62–116. Fong, Glenn. “ARPA Does Windows: The Defense Underpinning of the PC Revolution (PDF).” Business and Politics 3, no. 3 (2001): 213–237. Goodrich, Brandon. “Computer Networks—The Heralds of Resource Sharing (Arpanet, 1972).” YouTube. Jul 8, 2014. |
Unit D: The Life Science and Energy Innovation Systems | ||
9 | The Life Science R&D Model: National Institutes of Health (NIH) |
Institute of Medicine and National Research Council. Enhancing the Vitality of the National Institutes of Health: Organizational Change to Meet New Challenges. The National Academies Press, 2003, pp. 1–101. Cook-Deegan, Robert. “Does NIH Need a DARPA?” Issues in Science and Technology 13, no. 2 (1997). Infectious Diseases Society of America. “Bad Bugs, No Drugs: As Antibiotic Discovery Stagnates… A Public Health Crisis Brews.” IDSA, 2004, pp. 3–28. Food and Drug Administration. “Innovation or Stagnation: Challenge and Opportunity on the Critical Path to New Medical Technologies.” U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2004. [TILS] Chapter 7, subchapter on Health Delivery (pp. 112–118). Morrow, Daniel. “Oral History: Dr. J Craig Venter.” Computerworld Honors Foundation International Archives, 2003, pp. 3–53, 56–58. President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology. “Report to the President on Propelling Innovation in Drug Discovery, Development, and Evaluation (PDF - 2.8MB).” Executive Office of the President, 2012, pp. v–xiv. “Convergence: The Future of Health.” Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2016. |
10 | The Challenge of Energy Technology Transformation |
Pacala, Stephen and Robert Socolow. “Stabilization Wedges: Solving the Climate Problem for the Next 50 Years with Current Technologies.” Science 305, no. 5686 (2004): 968–972. Bonvillian, William and Charles Weiss. “Taking Covered Wagons East: A New Innovation Theory for Energy and Other Established Technology Sectors.” Innovations: Technology, Governance, Globalization 4, no. 4 (2009): 289–300. Robyn, Dorothy. “Statement of Dr. Dorothy Robyn Deputy Under Secretary of Defense Before the House Armed Services Committee Subcommittee on Readiness March 29, 2012 (PDF).” Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology, and Logistics, 2012. Bonvillian, William and Richard Van Atta. “ARPA-E and DARPA: Applying the DARPA Model to Energy Innovation.” Journal of Technology Transfer (2011), Sections 1, 3, and 4B. Bonvillian, William. “Applying Innovation Policy to the U.S. Energy/Climate Challenge.” In Delivering Energy Law and Policy in the EU and U.S. Edited by Raphael Heffron and Gavin Little. Edinburgh University Press, 2016. ISBN: 9780748696789. Bonvillian, William. “Addressing the Scaleup Challenge for ‘Hard’ Technology Startups.” Annals of Science and Technology 1, no. 1 (2017). Recommended: Socolow, Robert and Stephen Pacala. “A Plan to Keep Carbon in Check (PDF).” Scientific American (2006): 50–57. |
Unit E: Improving the Innovation System: The Talent Base | ||
11 | Improving the Talent Base: New Education and Training Models |
Augustine, Norman. “Is America Falling Off the Flat Earth?” The National Academies Press, 2007. Romer, Paul. “Should the Government Subsidize Supply or Demand in the Market for Scientists and Engineers?” National Bureau of Economic Research, 2000. Freeman, Richard. “Does Globalization of the Scientific/Engineering Workforce Threaten U.S. Economic Leadership? (PDF)” National Bureau of Economic Research, 2005. Goldin, Claudia and Lawrence Katz. “The Future of Inequality (PDF).” Milken Institute Review, July 2009: 26–33. Baumol, William. “Education for Innovation: Entrepreneurial Breakthroughs Vs. Corporate Incremental Improvements (PDF).” National Bureau of Economic Research, 2004. Wilcox, Karen, Sanjay Sarma, and Philip Lippel. “Online Education: A Catalyst for Higher Education Reforms (PDF - 5.1MB).” Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2016. [TILS] Chapter 7, subchapter on Higher Education (pp. 96–112). |
12 | The Future of Work: The Employment-Productivity Debate |
Brynjolfsson, Erik and Andrew McAfee. “Race Against the Machine: How the Digital Revolution is Accelerating Innovation, Driving Productivity, and Irreversibly Transforming Employment and the Economy (PDF).” The MIT Center for Digital Business, 2012. Autor, David. “Why Are There Still So Many Jobs? The History and Future of Workplace Automation.” Journal of Economic Perspectives 29, no. 3 (2015): 3–30. Autor, David. “Skills, Education, and the Rise of Earnings Inequality Among the ‘Other 99 Percent.’” Science 244, no. 6186 (2014): 843–851. Mindell, David. Our Robots, Ourselves: Robotics and the Myths of Autonomy. Viking, 2015, pp. 1–11, 191–218. ISBN: 9780525426974.
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Course Meeting Times
Seminars: 1 session / week, 3 hours / session
Course Prerequisites
None
Course Description
Innovation and accompanying science and technology are now seen to have a profound connection not only to our health and daily life, but also to the society’s economic growth and its corresponding ability to generate societal wellbeing and solve societal challenges—and these economic and societal issues are deeply interrelated.
This course focuses on science and technology policy—it will examine the science and technology innovation system, including case studies on energy, computing, advanced manufacturing, and health sectors, with an emphasis on public policy and the federal government’s role in that system. It will review the foundations of economic growth theory, innovation systems theory and innovation organization, and the basic approaches to science and technology policy, building toward a sophisticated understanding of these areas. The class will review a theory of direct and indirect economic factors in the innovation system, note the innovation-based competitive and advanced manufacturing challenges now facing the U.S. economy, review comparative efforts in other nations, study the varied models for how federal science and technology mission agencies are organized, and examine the growth of public-private partnership models as a way for science mission agencies to pursue mission agendas.
Emphasis will also be placed on examining the organization and role of medical science and energy innovation agencies and gaps in the health, energy, and advanced production innovation economic models, as well as related innovation systems policy issues. The course will close with an examination of the science and technology talent base as a factor in growth and the education approaches that support it, and a discussion of the future of jobs and employment given increasing automation.
Course Learning Outcomes
Students will emerge from the course with a strong grasp of the fundamentals of innovation systems and the economic and technological development factors behind them, and with a clear framework to approach science and technology policymaking. They will understand the basics of innovation-based economic growth theory, and also take an in-depth look at the innovation systems in health and energy.
More specifically, students will develop an understanding of the following innovation policy areas:
- The drivers behind science and technology support, including economic growth theory, direct and indirect innovation factors, Kondratiev waves, innovation systems theory, the “valley of death” between researchh and development, and public-private partnership models.
- The organizing framework behind US science agencies, their missions and research organizational models, and the DARPA model as an alternative.
- The upcoming competitiveness challenge in advanced production technologies, including global innovation models.
- The organization of innovation at both the institutional and personal, face-to-face levels.
- Challenges in the energy, computing, and health innovation systems and within legacy economic sectors in general.
- Key issues in the science and engineering talent base and education system and pending employment and productivity issues.
Given the challenges to future federal science support, this course will aim to equip those with interest in, or contemplating careers that could involve, science and technology issues or economic development, including in entrepreneurship, business, academic, non-profit organizations, health, and energy areas, with the basic background for involvement in these policy areas. Students by the end of the course will be able to effectively understand the elements, organize key ideas, and present the foundational framework and policy concepts in these innovation, science, and technology fields.
Grading
Assignment | Percentage |
---|---|
Research Paper | 80% |
Participation | 20% |
There will be no exam, but one-page summaries of readings for each class are required to ensure you are keeping up with the course concepts. Aside from the required research project and paper, this course is in significant part a discussion seminar where active, informed, thoughtful, and constructive class participation is a part of the assessment criteria for the course. Students are expected to attend all classes and to be fully prepared to engage in a critical review of the readings in each class; the required short issue summaries for class readings will greatly assist in that class participation preparation.
Class Discussion Time
The course will be run as a seminar with an emphasis on class discussion.
Significant time for student participation and discussions will be built into each class. Students will be expected to read the articles or chapters listed for each class. All students for each class will email at least a day in advance to the instructor and student discussion leaders, a one-page summary in “bullet-point” outline form of all the readings for that class. This summary should list three or four key points about each reading and below that list two or three key questions about each reading. In addition, particular students, rotating around the class, using the students’ one-page summaries, will be asked to lead class Q&A discussion on the readings for each class—so each class will have one or two student discussion leaders.
Starting with the first class, please submit your one-page reading summaries emailed to the instructor in advance of class; the instructor will go over the discussion leader system at the first class and name initial discussion leaders, starting with the second class. So starting with the second class, please email your reading summaries to both the instructor and discussion leaders. The discussion leaders will use your questions in leading the class discussions of the reading.