Policies to avert the threat of dangerous climate change focus on stabilizing atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations by drastically reducing anthropogenic emissions of carbon. Such reductions require limiting the use of fossil fuels-which supply the bulk of energy to economic activity,…

We strain our eyes, cramp our necks, and destroy our hands trying to interact with computer on their terms. At the extreme, we strap on devices and weigh ourselves down with cables trying to re-create a sense of place inside…

The thesis comprises three essays on various aspects of the development and diffusion of pharmaceutical innovations, woven together by the idea that the production of clinical knowl- edge influences organizational design, pricing, and advertising decisions in the pharmaceutical industry -…

Integration of daylight availability in time and architectural space is a critical element in achieving optimal comfort and productivity, as well as in minimizing energy consumption. In recent years, there has been an increase in the demand of the better…

A multiobjective, multidisciplinary design optimization methodology for mathematically modeling the distributed satellite system (DSS) conceptual design problem as an optimization problem has been developed to advance the state-of-the-art in complex distributed satellite network design. An increasing number of space missions…

A system for visual recognition is described, with implications for the general problem of representation of knowledge to assist control. The immediate objective is a computer system that will recognize objects in a visual scene, specifically hammers. The computer receives…

One very useful idea in AI research has been the notion of an explicit model of a problem situation. Procedural deduction languages, such as PLANNER, have been valuable tools for building these models. But PLANNER and its relatives are very…

This thesis confronts the nature of the process of learning an intellectual skill, the ability to solve problems efficiently in a particular domain of discourse. The investigation is synthetic; a computational performance model, HACKER, is displayed. Hacker is a computer…

Evaluation of public programming currently tends toward plans that are set in advance of any sampling and adhered to throughout. Because increments in the knowledge profile during the course of an evaluation might beckon adjustment of the working procedure, fixed…

The activity of designing and developing large, complex, discrete, physical, and engineered products faces the challenges in the physical product system, the organization of people, and the larger systems in which the product resides-the natural and societal systems. This thesis…