TPAC - Technology Policy and Assessment Center at the Georgia Institute of Technology

TPAC at the Atlanta Conference
The Atlanta Conference was virtually a TPAC Homecoming. In the picture from left to right: Ravtosh Bal, Isabel Bortagaray, Sonia Gatchair, Kamau Bobb (top), Susan Cozzens (bottom), Gonzalo Ordonez, Pablo Catalan, Elena Berger, and Thomas Woodson.

Check the program for at least nine TPAC papers presented, including by alumnus Scott Cunningham. The paper on biosensors by Lu Huang, Alan Porter, and Ying Guo won the Best Graduate Student Paper award.

TPAC at Globelics
Four TPAC team members presented work at the Globelics Conference in Dakar, Senegal. Isabel Bortagaray and Susan Cozzens presented results from the Resultar project. Pablo Catalan presented on the TPAC project on forestry in Chile. Gonzalo Ordonez presented results from his dissertation. TPAC Director Susan Cozzens was appointed to the scientific committee of Globelics at the meeting.

Workshop on the Philosophy of Interdisciplinarity, September 28-29, Atlanta
TPAC recently hosted an international workshop on the meaning of interdisciplinarity, particularly the problems of interdisciplinarity that can be addressed from a philosphical point of view. Co-organizers were Michael Hoffman (Georgia Tech), Jan Schmidt (Damstadt), and Alan Porter (TPAC co-director). For the full announcement, check out this page.

TPAC Sponsored Workshop on Nanotechnology, Equity and Equality
"On November 20-28, 2008, CNS-ASU and the Technology Policy and Assessment Center at Georgia Institute of Technology co-sponsored a workshop on Nanotechnology, Equity and Equality. The goal of the workshop was to foster a rich interchange that would change how participants see the ways emerging technologies are likely to affect various groups in society as well as the structure of societies and economies, both national and global.

The workshop brought together scholars and practitioners who approached the topic from several perspectives: those managing nanoscience and nanotechnology funding programs, scientists and engineers developing nanotechnologies in the laboratory or industrial settings, scholars of the social context of nanotechnology, and analysts from a variety of fields who have given thoughtful consideration to issues of equity/inequity and equality/ inequality, especially in the context of emerging technologies.

The papers that were presented at the workshop are being developed into the third installment of the Yearbook of Nanotechnology in Society.

Kamau Bobb Receives School of Public Policy Outstanding Alumnus Award
The School of Public Policy awarded TPAC Research Associate Kamau Bobb its Outstanding Alumnus Award at its annual banquet on April 9. Bobb was cited for his work as an essayist and social commentator, as exemplified by his television appearance on TV One's "Black Men Revealed," and by his columns and blogs. For a sample, see kamaubobb@blogspot.com

Alan Porter Recognized as One of the Top 50 Authors by IAMOT
The International Association of Management of Technology (IAMOT) has informed TPAC Co-Director Alan Porter that he will be recognized as one of the top 50 authors of technology and innovation management over the last 5 years. This exceptional achievement places him well within the top 1% of all researchers in the field. He will receive the award at the Association's annual meeting in Florida in April.

TPAC Associate Participates in Capitol Hill Briefing
On December 15, Marilyn Brown, Professor of Energy Policy in the Technology Policy and Assessment Center, presented at a Capitol Hill briefing entitled, "Solar Power: Harnessing the Sun's Energy." Speakers at the briefing discussed the current state of solar energy technologies, the promise of next-generation technologies, and barriers facing widespread implementation. The event was sponsored by the American Chemical Society’s Science & the Congress Project and was co-hosted by Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ) and Rep. Ralph Hall (R-TX).

TPAC Team Members Present Their Work in Mexico City
Seven members of the TPAC Team presented research results at the combined Globelics/Prime Conference in Mexico City, September 22-26.
See the list of papers and a picture of the delegation.

. . .By most measures, the U.S. is in a decade-long decline in global technological competitiveness. . . . The Technology Policy and Assessment Center at the GEORGIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY recently completed a study that compares the technological progress of 33 countries between 1993 and 2007. It concluded that China has progressed more -- and more rapidly than any of the other countries -- while the U.S. and Japan have slowly declined. The GEORGIA TECH study computes the relative "technological standing" for the countries based on myriad social, economic and technological indicators, some statistical and some based on expert opinion.. . "The pattern is inexorable," says Alan Porter, one of the authors of the study. "China is coming up strongly, and it's in high-tech areas, not just cheap consumer goods."

PAC's Professor Marilyn Brown has analyzed the energy platforms of the two presidential candidates and recommends the best of both.

Since the late 1980's, TPAC has produced national high tech competiveness indicators based on surveys of individuals knowledgeable about the state of technology in 33 countries. The recent HTI 2007 report continued the traditional HTI series and also included a new formulation of the high tech indicators, HTI(S), which blends the statistical components of the traditional high tech indicator HTI(T) with data from the Global Competitiveness Report, the World Bank's World Development Indicators along with other international statistics. This new formulation enhances the statistical components to provide a new perspective on international knowledge economy products and expanded coverage of the service sectors.

TPAC researchers examine the rising technological competitiveness of Chinese industries through a series of three high technology indicators. The indicators include a traditional high technology indicator HTI(T), which has been produced on 33 countries since the 1980s and which shows that China has surpassed the US as the top-ranking economy in 2007. The second is a statistics only, high technology indicator HTI(S), which is a modification of the first indicator; and the third indicator is the Global Competitiveness Index (GCI) of the World Economic Forum. All three indicators point to the dramatic increase in the technology based economic competiveness of China . However the GCI presents a much more conservative view of the increase in technological competiveness when compared to the HTI(T).

TPAC Associate Marilyn Brown, with two other colleagues has surprised the environmental policy community with her findings on carbon emissions from U.S. metropolitan areas. The older cities of the East Coast, despite high densities and public transportation systems, have a worse record than newer cities on the West Coast, which benefit from more favorable weather conditions. The report quantifies transportation and residential carbon emissions from 100 largest metropolitan areas in the U.S. In addition to residential density, access to public transit and weather, the carbon intensity of electricity generation and the price of electricity were important factors influencing the expanding carbon footprint of the nation.