|
(in reverse chronological order)
ESD-WP-2012-14 Integrating Engineering Systems Research and Undergraduate Education Through A Term-Length Case Study
Paper was submitted to the American Society of Engineering Education (ASEE) 119th Annual Conference and Exposition in San Antonio, TX, June 2012.
Travis P. Dunn
Partner, D'Artagnan Consulting
Research Affiliate, Department of
Civil & Environmental Engineering
Naomi Stein
Candidate, Master of Science in Transportation, Department of
Civil & Environmental Engineering
Candidate, Master in City Planning, Department of Urban Studies & Planning
Prof. Joseph Sussman
JR East Professor of Civil & Environmental Engineering
and Engineering Systems
David Uniman
Senior Consultant, Steer Davies Gleave
The MIT-Portugal Program (MPP) was launched in 2007 with the dual objectives of conducting innovative research and establishing leading academic degree programs through international collaboration across a range of technical disciplines. Among the first attempts to integrate the research and teaching objectives of the MPP was the Spring 2009 offering of Engineering System Design, a required course for third- and fourth-year undergraduates in MIT’s Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. The course employed a semester-long case study, drawing heavily on active MPP transportation and engineering systems research for teaching and assignment content.
On the research side, MIT has been engaged with partner universities and agencies in Portugal on a variety of topics related to high-speed rail (HSR). These varied efforts demand a unifying engineering systems framework to ensure that the research delivered provides maximal value both individually and as part of a broader program. The integrating engineering systems framework chosen (Complex, Large-Scale, Interconnected, Open, Socio-technical, or CLIOS Process) was taught in Engineering System Design and applied using an active research program as the case study context.
After presenting the MPP and HSR research contexts, this paper summarizes the methodology used to implement the CLIOS Process in a classroom setting through an evolving, term-length group project that involved teaching and supervision by faculty and researchers. Next, the paper discusses the challenges of teaching engineering systems concepts to undergraduates, incorporating active research into a classroom setting, and managing large project groups. Finally, the paper summarizes the lessons learned from the course as well as prospects for future applications of engineering systems research in the classroom. It is hoped that those interested in designing undergraduate courses in engineering systems will benefit from the course’s lessons learned, both positive and negative, as summarized here.
> top
ESD-WP-2012-13 Complex Socio-technical Problems for Engineers: Pedagogical Motivation and Experience at the Undergraduate Level
Paper submitted for the Third International Engineering Systems Symposium (co-sponsored by CESUN, ESD, and TU Delft), to be held June 18-20, 2012 at TU Delft.
Afreen Siddiqi
Research Scientist
Engineering Systems Division
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Cambridge, MA
siddiqi@mit.edu
Regina Clewlow
PhD Candidate
Engineering Systems Division
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Cambridge, MA
rclewlow@mit.edu
Joseph M. Sussman
JR East Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering and Engineering Systems
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Cambridge, MA
sussman@mit.edu
Engineering courses, focused on complex, large-scale, sociotechnical systems, at the undergraduate level, have been rare. Traditionally, most students develop a deep technical understanding in a specific engineering discipline, but get little opportunity to analyze engineered complex systems, where both technical and social issues need to be well understood for devising long lasting solutions. The development of analytical skills for studying interdisciplinary problems has so far been largely limited at the graduate-level. In this paper we describe the motivation, design, and learning outcomes of an introductory course on Engineering Systems that has been developed and offered to primarily first and second year engineering students at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The course has been centered around the theme of critical contemporary issues (CCIs) including energy, mobility, sustainability etc. The aim of the course is to expose undergraduates to quantitative tools that are available for rigorously and methodically analyzing some of our most complex contemporary engineering challenges. The course consists of introductory lectures on system dynamics, networks and uncertainty, along with semester-long team-based projects. The projects focus on different topics related to CCIs and the students work in small teams on a project of their interest throughout the term. For the first pilot offering of the class (in Spring semester 2011), the students gave an average rating of 5.9/7.0 regarding how likely they were to recommend this class to others (with 7 being absolutely certain). There was also evidence (however based on limited and anecdotal data) of continued student interest (outside of class) in engaging with the complex socio-technical problems they worked on during the term.
> top
ESD-WP-2012-12 Investigating Relationships and Semantic Sets amongst System Lifecycle Properties (Ilities)
Paper submitted for the Third International Engineering Systems Symposium (co-sponsored by CESUN, ESD, and TU Delft), to be held June 18-20, 2012 at TU Delft.
Olivier L. de Weck
Engineering Systems Division
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
77 Massachusetts Ave
Cambridge, MA 02139, USA
deweck@mit.edu
Adam M. Ross
Engineering Systems Division
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
77 Massachusetts Ave
Cambridge, MA 02139, USA
adamross@mit.edu
Donna H. Rhodes
Engineering Systems Division
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
77 Massachusetts Ave
Cambridge, MA 02139, USA
rhodes@mit.edu
The ilities are properties of engineering systems that often manifest and determine value after a system is put into initial use (e.g. resilience, interoperability, flexibility). Rather than being primary functional requirements, these properties concern wider system impacts with respect to time and stakeholders. Over the past decade there has been increasing attention to ilities in industry, government and academia. Our research suggests that investigating ilities in sets may be more meaningful than study of single ilities in isolation. Some ilities are closely related and do in fact form semantic sets. Here, we use two methods to investigate over twenty ilities in terms of their prevalence and their interrelationships. We look for trends related to ilities of interest in relation to system type and an understanding of their collective use. First, we conducted a prevalence analysis of 22 ilities using both the internet as well as the Compendex/Inspec database as a source. We found over 1,275,000 scientific articles published between 1884 and 2010 and over 1.9 billion hits on the internet, exposing a clear prevalence-based ranking of ilities. Two questions we seek to address are: why and how are the ilities related to one another, and what can we do with this information. Initial steps to answer the first question include a 2-tupel-correlation matrix analysis that exposes the strongest relationships amongst ilities based on concurrent usage. Moreover, we conducted some preliminary experiments that indicate that a hierarchy of ilities with a few major groupings may be most useful. The overall objective for this research is to develop a formalframework and prescriptive guidance for effectively incorporating sets of ilities intothe design of complex engineering systems.
> top
ESD-WP-2012-11 Strategic Engineering Gaming for Improved Design and Interoperation of Infrastructure Systems
Paper submitted for the Third International Engineering Systems Symposium (co-sponsored by CESUN, ESD, and TU Delft), to be held June 18-20, 2012 at TU Delft.
Paul T. Grogan
PhD Candidate
Engineering Systems Division
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
77 Massachusetts Ave., Room E40-206
Cambridge, MA 02139, USA
ptgrogan@mit.edu
Olivier L. de Weck
Associate Professor
Engineering Systems Division
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
77 Massachusetts Ave., Room E40-229
Cambridge, MA 02139, USA
deweck@mit.edu
Large physical networks of interrelated infrastructure components support modern societies as a collaborative system with significant technical and social complexity. Design and evolution of infrastructure systems seeks to reduce wasted resources and maximize lifecycle value. Interdependencies between constituent systems call for an integrative approach to improve interoperation but many existing techniques rely on centralized development and emphasize technical aspects of design. This paper presents a simulation gaming approach to collaborative infrastructure system design leveraging the technical strengths of simulation models and the social strengths of multi-player engagement in a game execution. In a strategic engineering game, models representing each constituent infrastructure system share a common graph-theoretic modeling framework and are integrated using the HLA-Evolved standard for interoperable federated simulations. A prototype game instantiation based on a space-based resource economy supporting future space exploration is discussed with the objective of identifying how factors of game play influence insights to collaborative system design. Future work seeks to develop, execute, and evaluate the prototype game to further research the use of simulation games in supporting collaborative system design.
> top
ESD-WP-2012-10 A New Framework to Assess Regional and Urban Impacts of Transport Infrastructure: The Case of High-Speed Rail in Portugal
Guineng Chen
PhD Candidate
CESUR, Department of Civil Engineering
Instituto Superior Técnico
Lisbon Technical University
Av. Rovisco Pais 1049-001
Lisboa, Portugal
Yu Shen
PhD Candidate
CESUR, Department of Civil Engineering
Instituto Superior Técnico
Lisbon Technical University
Av. Rovisco Pais 1049-001
Lisboa, Portugal
Luis Miguel Martínez
Doctor
CESUR, Department of Civil Engineering
Instituto Superior Técnico
Lisbon Technical University
Av. Rovisco Pais 1049-001
Lisboa, Portugal
João de Abreu e Silva
Assistant Professor
CESUR, Department of Civil Engineering
Instituto Superior Técnico
Lisbon Technical University
Av. Rovisco Pais 1049-001
Lisboa, Portugal
This paper presents a comprehensive framework for modeling the impacts of large-scale transport infrastructure which have the potential to fundamentally alter the spatial interaction properties of regions, producing significant socio-demographic and economic modifications. This model is being developed as part of a broader research project to assess the impacts of the development of a high-speed rail (HSR) network in Portugal and to evaluate the best infrastructure and service configurations of the system. The framework will be applied to study a future HSR line between Lisbon and Oporto, exploring the concept of megalopolis formation for the corridor. The expected impacts of HSR include rearrangements of the socio-economic structure of the region it serves, redefinition of the nature of the economic linkages to neighboring regions and other external regions, and changes to the urban forms of the various urban centers which will experience significant accessibility upgrades. The framework calls for an agent-based formulation, with decision-making agents at various spatial scales and decision making levels interacting both in space and across levels, producing effects on upper and lower levels of spatial resolution and decision making. The model will include three main types of agents, which are linked to different scales of decision-making and spatial resolution, e.g. municipal, regional, and national. This paper presents the framework of the model, characterizes the interactions among the various levels of decision-making and assessment, and describes the methodological formulation of all the sub-models proposed for this comprehensive simulation tool.
> top
ESD-WP-2012-09 Controlling Change Within Complex Systems Through Pliability
Paper submitted for the Third International Engineering Systems Symposium (co-sponsored by CESUN, ESD, and TU Delft), to be held June 18-20, 2012 at TU Delft.
Brian Mekdeci
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Cambridge, MA 02139, USA
mekdeci@mit.edu
Adam M. Ross
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Cambridge, MA 02139, USA
adamross@mit.edu
Donna H. Rhodes
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Cambridge, MA 02139, USA
rhodes@mit.edu
Daniel E. Hastings
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Cambridge, MA 02139, USA
hastings@mit.edu
As systems become larger, more complex, and operate for longer periods of time, some change within the system often becomes inevitable. Particularly in systems of systems, with diverse stakeholders, evolutionary development and managerial independence, it is not unusual for constituent systems to change in form or the way they operate. Changeability, the ability of a system to change, is often considered to be a desirable attribute that allows systems to be robust and to adapt in response to changes in context. However, involuntary changes, such as those that occur as a result of a disturbance, are more often problematic than favorable. In some ways, the survivability of a system depends on its ability to prevent, mitigate and recover from unintentional changes within the system brought about by disturbances. For certain large systems of systems, where there are complex interactions and a diverse set of stakeholders, even voluntary changes may be frowned upon, since it may be an expensive and time consuming process to approve changes. This paper discusses pliability, a new “-ility” that places constraints on the changes a system is allowed to make. Pliability is the ability of a system to change, without “breaking” or violating an architecture that the system architects intended and validated. Like changeability, pliability increases robustness by allowing systems to voluntarily change in response to changing contexts, and increases survivability by increasing the likelihood that unintentional changes are still within the set of allowable instances. It also distinguishes allowable changes from those that would require validation and approval from decision makers, making it easier to actually implement those changes in large, complex systems.
> top
ESD-WP-2012-08 Analogies Between Complex Systems and Phases of Matter
Paper submitted for the Third International Engineering Systems Symposium (co-sponsored by CESUN, ESD, and TU Delft), to be held June 18-20, 2012 at TU Delft.
Joel Moses
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
77 Massachusetts Ave.
Cambridge, MA, 02139 USA
moses@mit.edu
David A. Broniatowski
Massachusetts Institute of Technology;
Synexxus, Inc.
2425 Wilson Blvd., Suite 400
Arlington, VA, 22201 USA
david@mit.edu
The behavior of a complex system in a changing environment is strongly affected by the system's architecture. We present an analogy between the major phases of matter (solid, liquid, gas) and three major generic architectures of complex systems: tree structures, layered structures and grid networks. This analogy is realized using a graph-based formalism, with nodes and edges in a given configuration. Solid materials are akin to tree structures, especially when we consider that most solids actually have cracks. Solids with cracks between their components can be modeled by nodes (representing each component) and their interconnection, leading to a tree structured hierarchy. Gases made up of molecules can be modeled by nodes (the molecules) with local interconnections representing nearby molecules in space, thus forming a grid network. Liquids can form layers as in a mixture of oil and water. We represent this by connections that are densely horizontal within layers as well as sparsely vertical between layers.
A key issue for complex systems is the ease by which they may be changed, which we call the system’s flexibility. Our definition of flexibility indicates that tree structures, like solids, are relatively inflexible and that grid networks, like gases, are extremely flexible, possibly leading to loss of control and chaotic behavior. Like liquids, layered systems are intermediate in flexibility and controllability. Solids, even with cracks, are relatively difficult to modify, whereas gases change internal form so quickly that they can only be constrained; not controlled. Liquids are intermediate in their ability to change form internally. Just as heating solids can lead to liquids, and heating liquids can result in gases, we shall present transformations in the interconnection structure of systems, analogous to heating, that change tree structures into layered ones and layered structures into networks.
> top
ESD-WP-2012-07 Megacities and High Speed Rail systems: which comes first?
Francesca Pagliara
Department of Transportation Engineering
University of Naples Federico II
João de Abreu e Silva
CESUR, Department of Civil Engineering, Architecture and Georesources
Instituto Superior Técnico
Avenida Rovisco Pais, 1000-049
Lisboa, Portugal
Joseph Sussman
Massachussets Institute of Technology
77 Massachusetts Ave
Cambridge, MA 02139, USA
Naomi Stein
Massachussets Institute of Technology
77 Massachusetts Ave
Cambridge, MA 02139, USA
A megacity is usually defined as a metropolitan area with a total population in excess of 10 million people. The number of megacities is increasing worldwide. In most agglomerations and megacities, urban planning and public infrastructure can guide the urban development in order to achieve a proper sustainable structure only partially. The extension of cities is in most cases in advance of urban development work and the provision of public facilities (Kotter, 2004). In Europe, apart from London and Paris, megacities are rarer. However, due to the general high density of population in Europe and the short distance between medium and large cities there is the possibility of High Speed Rail (HSR) enables the emergence of groups of cities that will be linked together and thus reap the economic benefits associated with megacities, namely economies of scale, economies of agglomeration and bigger labour markets.
In this contribution the authors argue that in some cases, specific facilities can foster the formation of megacities; in fact, this is the case of HSR systems. Specifically, High-Speed trains can be used to solve two different accessibility problems. In the first case, where a point-to-point link is dominant, each train is a potential substitute for an air connection between two cities, i.e. it connects cities (or rather CBDs) at long distance with a direct train connection (Blum et al., 1997).The HSR links between Paris and Lyon, Paris and London and, Tokyo and Osaka, could be seen as examples of this first type of train connection.
In the second case, where a HSR network is dominant, the rail system links together many cities and CBDs and, hence, creates a new type of region with a high intra-regional accessibility sharing a common labour market and a common market for household and business services. In this case the HSR binds together cities in a band, where each pair of cities is at a time distance of between 20 minutes and 1 hour, allowing daily commuting.
In the U.S., HSR projects are very recent and they will have the role of connecting already formed megacities. An example is the state of California, which is planning an 800-mile HSR service connecting Los Angeles and San Francisco into a two and a half hour trip. On the other hand, Europe, together with Asia, is the leader in HSR systems; in fact the development of HSR has been one of the central features of recent European Union transport infrastructure policy. The proposals for a European HSR network emerged in a report of the 1990 Community of European Railways and this was essentially adopted as the base for what became the European Community’s proposed Trans-European Network for HSR (Vickerman, 1997).
In this paper the case studies of Portugal, where the HSR is a work in progress and of Italy, in which some lines have already been built, will be described in detail from the viewpoint of the various kinds of development described above.
> top
ESD-WP-2012-06 The Earth as an Engineering System: Addressing Sustainability through Science, Technology and Policy
Paper submitted for the Third International Engineering Systems Symposium (co-sponsored by CESUN, ESD, and TU Delft), to be held June 18-20, 2012 at TU Delft.
Noelle E. Selin
Engineering Systems Division and Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Cambridge, MA 02139 USA
selin@mit.edu
Carey L. Friedman
Center for Global Change Science
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Cambridge, MA 02139 USA
clf@mit.edu
We combine insights from the two emerging fields of engineering systems and sustainability science to develop an analytical approach for understanding and managing coupled natural and human systems. The Earth system is characterized with reference to the attributes of engineering systems (real-world existence, artificiality, dynamic properties, hybrid state, and some human control). We argue that human influences have become so overwhelming that it is impossible to understand global Earth systems without taking into account both technical and social dimensions. Aspects of sustainability systems that fulfill functional types of engineering systems are enumerated with reference to five processes (transporting, transforming, storing, exchanging and controlling) and operands (living organisms, matter, information, energy and money). Building on methods from sustainability science, we introduce the concept of Spatial-Temporal-Functional (STF) analysis for addressing sustainability problems in an engineering systems context. We illustrate this framework with reference to the case of global transport of hazardous chemicals. Our analysis suggests that efforts to address cross-scale problems should focus on enhancing mechanisms for transforming and exchanging in addition to controlling.
> top
ESD-WP-2012-05 The Historical Roots of the Field of Engineering Systems: Results from an In-class Assignment
Paper submitted for the Third International Engineering Systems Symposium (co-sponsored by CESUN, ESD, and TU Delft), to be held June 18-20, 2012 at TU Delft.
Christopher L. Magee
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Rebecca K. Saari
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
G. Thomas Heaps-Nelson
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Stephen M. Zoepf
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Joseph M. Sussman
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
The field of Engineering Systems (ES) is quite young but there are intellectual roots that go far back in time. At least that is the working hypothesis in an integrative capstone assignment given in the first doctoral subject for incoming ES PhD students at MIT. The assignment has been given for four years (2008-2011) and involves pairs of students researching the intellectual connections between a specific historical root and a specific modern ES method. This paper describes the faculty and student perspectives on the assignment, including the perceived learning outcomes, and insights gained into the roots of Engineering Systems. Some overall observations include:
- Interconnections among almost all selected topics (whether labeled roots or modern methods) are apparent. Each topic has an extensive time period of unfolding which gives rise to overlap and complex interactions among the topics;
- Herbert Simon’s work appears most pivotal in the roots of Engineering Systems. Jay Forrester, John von Neumann, Norbert Weiner and Joseph Schumpeter are also identified along with others as having a significant impact;
- The faculty always learn something about the field from what the students find even when topics are repeated; and,
- The assignment is a valuable – but not perfect – vehicle for learning about Engineering Systems and for launching budding researchers’ efforts in the field.
> top
ESD-WP-2012-04 Uncertainty, Flexibility, Valuation & Design: How 21st Century Information & Knowledge Can Improve 21st Century Urban Development
David Geltner, Ph.D., F.RICS
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Richard de Neufville, Ph.D., L.M.ASCE
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
The 21st century presents humankind with perhaps its greatest challenge since our species almost went extinct some 70,000 years ago in Africa. A big part of meeting that challenge lies in how the urbanization of three billion additional people (equal to the entire world population in 1960) will be accomplished between now and mid-century, on top of necessary renewal and renovation of the earth‘s existing cities. China alone will urbanize 300 million more people between now and 2030. (That is equal to the entire population of the U.S., the world‘s third most populous country, and just 20 years!) This is development on a scale and pace that is an order of magnitude greater than the past century, in a world resource and climate environment that is near the breaking point, in a context of greater technological, financial, and economic uncertainty than ever before.
To meet this challenge will require that we use the best tools in our kit, including ones that have become available to us only in this new knowledge and information-based century. Technology got us here, and technology will be key to getting us through. In this paper we will review and synthesize two important methodological developments in our profession that can help infrastructure and real estate physical development (i.e., urban development) to be accomplished more effectively and efficiently in a world of uncertainty. The first methodological development is the honing of real options theory and methodology for practical application to identify and evaluate sources of flexibility in the design and operation of capital projects. The second development is the marriage of digital data compilation of property transactions records with the honing of econometric analysis methodology to allow the practical quantification of real estate and infrastructure asset price dynamics. We argue that this latter development provides the key input to the former development, enabling a much more complete and rigorous treatment of design and evaluation problems for urban development. We also argue that an engineering systems approach to option modeling is likely to find better traction in actual professional practice than the economic theoretical models that have dominated the academic literature. We provide a concrete example by applying the suggested approach to the Songdo New City development in Korea.
The result can be better informed design and valuation, more efficient urban development laced with greater flexibility to avoid the worst down-side outcomes and to take advantage of the best up-side opportunities, saving vital resources of capital, land, raw materials, and energy. Finally, we argue that a global, thought-leadership institution such as the RICS can and should play a leadership role in supporting and promulgating the new information bases and interdisciplinary educational formations (property, land, construction) that must underpin the successful dissemination of such 21st century tools of analysis.
> top
ESD-WP-2012-03 Comparative Analysis of Cybersecurity Metrics to Develop New Hypotheses
Stuart Madnick
Sloan School of Management
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Cambridge, MA
02139 USA
smadnick@mit.edu
Nazli Choucri
Political Science Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Cambridge, MA
02139 USA
nchoucri@mit.edu
Xitong Li
Sloan School of Management
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Cambridge, MA
02139 USA
xitongli@mit.edu
Jeremy Ferwerda
Political Science Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Cambridge, MA
02139 USA
ferwerda@mit.edu
Few Internet security organizations provide comprehensive, detailed, and reliable quantitative metrics, especially in the international perspective across multiple countries, multiple years, and multiple categories. As common refrain to justify this situation, organizations ask why they should spend valuable time and resources collecting and standardizing data.
This report aims to provide an encouraging answer to this question by demonstrating the value that even limited metrics can provide in a comparative perspective. We present some findings generated through the use of a research tool, the Explorations in Cyber Internet Relations (ECIR) Data Dashboard. In essence, this dashboard consists of a simple graphing and analysis tool, coupled with a database consisting of data from disparate national-level cyber data sources provided by governments, Computer Emergency Response Teams (CERTs), and international organizations. Users of the dashboard can select relevant security variables, compare various countries, and scale information as needed.
In this paper, using this tool, we present an example of observations concerning the fight against cybercrime, along with several hypotheses attempting to explain the findings. We believe that these preliminary results suggest valuable ways in which such data could be used and we hope this research will help provide the incentives for organizations to increase the quality and quantity of standardized quantitative data available.
> top
ESD-WP-2012-02 SPARQL Query Mediation for Data Integration
Xiaoqing Zheng
School of Computer Science
Fudan University
zhengxq@fudan.edu.cn
Xitong Li
Sloan School of Management
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
xitongli@mit.edu
Stuart E. Madnick
Sloan School of Management
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
The Semantic Web provides a set of promising technologies to make sophisticated data integration much easier, because data on the semantic Web is allowed to be connected by links and complex queries can be executed against the dataset of those linked data. Although the Semantic Web techniques offer RDF/OWL to support schematic mappings between diverse data sources, large-scale data integration is still severely hampered by various types of data-level semantic heterogeneity among the data sources. In the paper, we show that SPARQL queries that are intended to execute over multiple heterogeneous data sources can be mediated automatically.
> top
ESD-WP-2012-01 Exploring Terms and Taxonomies Relating to the Cyber International Relations Research Field: or are "Cyberspace" and "Cyber Space" the same?
Steven Camiña
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Stuart Madnick
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Nazli Choucri
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Wei Lee Woon
Masdar Institute of Science and Technology
This project has at least two facets to it: (1) advancing the algorithms in the sub-field of bibliometrics often referred to as "text mining" whereby hundreds of thousands of documents (such as journal articles) are scanned and relationships amongst words and phrases are established and (2) applying these tools in support of the Explorations in Cyber International Relations (ECIR) research effort. In international relations, it is important that all the parties understand each other. Although dictionaries, glossaries, and other sources tell you what words/phrases are supposed to mean (somewhat complicated by the fact that they often contradict each other), they do not tell you how people are actually using them.
As an example, when we started, we assumed that "cyberspace" and "cyber space" were essentially the same word with just a minor variation in punctuation (i.e., the space, or lack thereof, between "cyber" and "space") and that the choice of the punctuation was a rather random occurrence. With that assumption in mind, we would expect that the taxonomies that would be constructed by our algorithms using "cyberspace" and "cyber space" as seed terms would be basically the same. As it turned out, they were quite different, both in overall shape and groupings within the taxonomy.
Since the overall field of cyber international relations is so new, understanding the field and how people think about (as evidenced by their actual usage of terminology, and how usage changes over time) is an important goal as part of the overall ECIR project.
> top
|
