Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs - Science and engineering

Building Roads in Africa? Send in the Troops

Calestous Juma — Thu, 23 May 2013 13:49:55 -0500

"African armed forces possess extensive human resources and equipment needed to build infrastructure projects. They regularly use such facilities during emergencies and are at the forefront of developing robust systems such as smart microgrid systems that can provide decentralized power supply for rural Africa. What is needed is an explicit policy to extend their role in the construction and maintenance of infrastructure projects in cooperation with civilian agencies."

Africa's New Science and Innovation Agenda

Calestous Juma — Tue, 14 May 2013 09:27:51 -0500

"Today all African presidents are supported by economic advisors. The time has come for them to complement the work of economic advisors with science, engineering, and innovation advisors. But advisors are not just people who whisper in the ears of heads of state. They are professionals whose work is guided by proper laws, procedures, and staff trained in policy analysis."

Spotlight: Laura Diaz Anadon

Tue, 14 May 2013 07:11:07 -0500

"Laura Diaz Anadon is Associate Director of the Belfer Center’s Science, Technology, and Public Policy Program, Director of the Energy Technology Innovation Policy research group, and a member of the Belfer Center Board of Directors. In May, she was named Assistant Professor of Public Policy at Harvard Kennedy School."

Global Grand Challenges for Engineering and International Development

Sujata K. Bhatia — Tue, 30 Apr 2013 11:28:39 -0500

"Africa has demonstrated the capability to innovate in hardware and software, and that it is easier to introduce novel technologies in settings where no incumbent industries exist; this presents a unique advantage for innovators in the developing world and must be emphasized in policy discussions."

Safeguards for Pyroprocessing Plants

Olli Heinonen — Mon, 15 Apr 2013 16:36:40 -0500

Senior Fellow Olli Heinonen discussed pyroprocessing of spent nuclear fuel, its proliferation risks, and safeguards.

Rebooting African Economies: Science and Engineering for Rapid Economic Transformation

Calestous Juma — Wed, 10 Apr 2013 16:41:11 -0500

A lecture by Calestous Juma from 3:00–5:30 PM, April 18, 2013, at the Golf Course Hotel in Kampala, Uganda. Organized by the Association for Strengthening Agricultural Research in Eastern and Central Africa (ASARECA). Africa's identity has historically been associated with its vast natural resources which have shaped not only its political culture but also defined its place in the global family of nations. In recent years, however, a new picture of Africa has started to emerge. African economies are increasingly being view as rapid adopters of emerging technologies. The aim of this lecture is to identify approaches for leveraging the world's fund of scientific, technological, and engineering knowledge for rapid economic transformation.

Belfer Center Newsletter Spring 2013

Sharon Wilke — Wed, 03 Apr 2013 07:50:46 -0500

The Spring 2013 issue of the Belfer Center newsletter features recent and upcoming activities, research, and analysis by members of the Center community on critical global issues. This edition highlights the Belfer Center’s deepening engagement with China.

Breaking Down Walls Between Basic and Applied Research

Andrew Facini — Wed, 03 Apr 2013 07:46:15 -0500

Questions about the very nature of scientific discovery are being raised by Belfer Center experts Venkatesh (Venky) Narayanamurti, Tolu Odumosu, and Lee Vinsel...Their new discussion paper, entitled “The Discovery-Invention Cycle: Bridging the Basic/Applied Dichotomy,” describes the longstanding paradigm that separates basic research and discovery from applied research and implementation – for example, separating the study of the DNA of a bacteria from the application of that knowledge to develop new drugs and compounds.

Odumosu: Seeking Improved Understanding and Use of Technology

Wesley Nord — Wed, 03 Apr 2013 07:38:43 -0500

At the heart of STPP fellow Tolu Odumosu’s work is the practical application and social interactions of technological research and innovation. He believes the way humans reflect on the changes in life wrought by our tools has led to passivity when it comes to assessing the impact of technologies on man, as well as the impact of different peoples on the same technologies.

China's Massive Water Problem

Scott Moore — Thu, 28 Mar 2013 17:36:03 -0500

"Beijing needs to stop relying on technology to avoid making hard choices about scarce resources. The United States and the rest of the world need to push the Chinese government to make its development more sustainable through political reform, lest China's economy and social stability be endangered."

The Discovery-Invention Cycle: Bridging the Basic/Applied Dichotomy

Venkatesh "Venky" Narayanamurti, Tolu Odumosu and Lee Vinsel — Wed, 20 Mar 2013 19:13:59 -0500

In this paper we hope to provide an alternative point of view. By examining both the evolution of the famous "linear model of innovation" — which holds that scientific research precedes technological innovation — and the problematic description of engineering being "applied science" we seek to challenge the existing dichotomies between basic / applied research, science and engineering, tracing how knowledge travels between different knowledge domains through a case study of a selected group of Nobel Prizes in physics.

Engineering the Future

Calestous Juma — Mon, 18 Mar 2013 17:39:43 -0500

"With improvements in fiber optic connectivity and open internet platforms, Africa is on the verge of becoming a major beneficiary of the massive open online courses (MOOCs). There is a real possibility for Africa to dramatically improve its teaching—especially in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM)—through the deployment of MOOCs."

The Evolution of the IAEA: Using Nuclear Crises as Windows of Opportunity (or Not)

Trevor Findlay — Wed, 13 Mar 2013 18:53:55 -0500

This seminar considered how the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has reacted to nuclear crises. The IAEA often appears not just to have weathered such crises, but to have successfully leaped through windows of opportunity presented by them. This has resulted in periodic expansions of its mandate, capabilities, and resources. The 2011 Fukushima disaster appears to be a puzzling exception, raising the question of what concatenation of factors needs to be present for the IAEA to take advantage of nuclear crises.

Engineering Green Growth

Calestous Juma — Thu, 28 Feb 2013 16:08:17 -0600

"Recent trends in a variety of engineering fields have shown the prospects of pursuing ecologically sound technological leapfrogging. For example, the rapid adoption of mobile phones in African countries demonstrates how connectivity can be increased while reducing the ecological footprint of communication. Similarly, the rapid adoption of genetically engineered crops has shown how agricultural production can be enhanced while reducing the use of harmful agricultural chemicals."

Not So Fast: Pyongyang's Nuclear Weapons Ambitions

Dana Struckman and Terence Roehrig — Wed, 20 Feb 2013 18:13:30 -0600

"While concern for North Korea's push to become a relevant nuclear power is warranted, it is equally important to recognize the very serious technical issues that have plagued Pyongyang's efforts to date. Building a nuclear weapon and its delivery system, and then keeping them operational for the long term is hard—even harder for those states attempting to do it under the umbrella of international sanctions and monitoring."

North Korea's Third Nuclear Test: Plutonium or Highly Enriched Uranium?

Hui Zhang — Fri, 15 Feb 2013 18:43:24 -0600

"North Korea has only a small supply of plutonium—material that it had stopped producing by 2008—and had more recently demonstrated an operational capability to enrich uranium, which would support a much larger arsenal of weapons given North Korea's huge deposits of natural uranium.... However, the seismic signals are useless in this regard. The question is, then, can the off-site environmental sampling analysis distinguish a plutonium explosion from a HEU explosion?"

Africa's Economic Growth Prospects

Calestous Juma — Fri, 15 Feb 2013 09:42:49 -0600

"The rise in technocratic leadership in Africa is directly related to the emphasis that the continent is placing on economic transformation. But more important, there is growing preference for blending democratic change with managerial competence in running public affairs. This suggests a different type of governance system that combines western party politics and eastern technocracy. It would appear from these nascent trends that Africa is starting to shape its economic future by borrowing ideas from around the world and adapting them to local needs."

Forging New Diplomatic Bonds Through Science and Technology

Calestous Juma — Fri, 08 Feb 2013 16:29:57 -0600

"Slovenia and Kenya are inventing a form of science and technology diplomacy that is based on commitment to taking on global challenges irrespective of size and level of development. The cooperation points to a new future in which science and technology will increasingly become the bond that ties nations together in new diplomatic arrangements."

Engineers Square up to Meet Grand Challenges

Calestous Juma — Mon, 04 Feb 2013 11:24:11 -0600

"We the undersigned will be among more than 400 engineers, scientists, industrialists and thought-leaders from around the world who will meet for this summit in March, with the goal of realising our technological dreams and using what we learn to improve global sustainability, resilience, health, education, economic growth and overall quality of life. The summit will be disruptive, forward-looking and internationally collaborative. It starts with the premise that the most valuable global commodity today is not oil, gold or grain: it is ideas."

How Young Engineers Will Mold the Future

Calestous Juma — Mon, 28 Jan 2013 18:41:33 -0600

"The training of future engineers will need to integrate diverse disciplines so they can mold economies that promise prosperity for all."

Expert Judgments about RD&D and the Future of Nuclear Energy

Wed, 05 Dec 2012 16:48:58 -0600

Probabilistic estimates of the cost and performance of future nuclear energy systems under different scenarios of government research, development, and demonstration (RD&D) spending were obtained from 30 U.S. and 30 European nuclear technology experts. The majority expected that such RD&D would have only a modest effect on cost, but would improve performance in other areas, such as safety, waste management, and uranium resource utilization. The U.S. and E.U. experts were in relative agreement regarding how government RD&D funds should be allocated, placing particular focus on very high temperature reactors, sodium-cooled fast reactors, fuels and materials, and fuel cycle technologies.

Trading Places: Commerce Drives Science And Technology In Africa

Calestous Juma — Tue, 27 Nov 2012 22:06:40 -0600

"Africa used mobile phones to create a radically new way of transferring money, thereby restructuring the banking sector. Mobile technology is on the verge of transforming other traditional industries including education and health, among others. In education, Africa can leapfrog into digital books and mobile learning to become a leading source of new educational businesses and industries. In healthcare, mobile technology will transform the very idea of a hospital."

Missions-oriented RD&D Institutions in Energy Between 2000 and 2010: A Comparative Analysis of China, the United Kingdom, and the United States

Laura Diaz Anadon — Tue, 27 Nov 2012 16:51:20 -0600

By analyzing the institutions that have been created to stimulate energy technology innovation in the United States, the United Kingdom, and China—three countries with very different sizes, political systems and cultures, natural resources, and histories of involvement in the energy sector—this article highlights how variations in national objectives and industrial and political environments have translated into variations in policy.

Poor Infrastructure Is Africa's Soft Underbelly

Calestous Juma — Thu, 25 Oct 2012 15:03:15 -0500

"Poor road networks illustrate this point. African farmers without adequate road networks are condemned to grow not what they can eat, but what they can carry on their heads and eat quickly before pests destroy it. As a result, nearly half of the hungry people in Africa are farmers."

Africa's Leadership Fails Billionaire Mo Ibrahim's Test, But Technocrats Rise

Calestous Juma — Mon, 15 Oct 2012 00:01:58 -0500

"The main challenge is the lack of alignment between infrastructure strategies and the need to expand engineering training. As a result, there are very few engineering programs in African universities. There is also a perception that engineering is associated with large projects that tend to be linked to high costs, corruption and ecological degradation."

Why We Need Innovation To Prepare For the Global Aging Society

Calestous Juma — Wed, 03 Oct 2012 07:52:52 -0500

"Technology alone will not be adequate to address the needs of the elderly. But policy proposals that fail to take into account advances in medicine and engineering are unlikely to take advantage of human creativity. In fact, strategies that put the elderly at the center of the innovation process could significantly increase the prospects of turning the elderly from being a burden on society to being an asset."

The Idea Factory: Bell Labs and the Great Age of American Innovation

Venkatesh "Venky" Narayanamurti — Thu, 27 Sep 2012 18:33:25 -0500

"In my view, we need new modalities of public–private partnerships to enable radical innovation for the public good. The Idea Factory is well worth delving into as a source of lessons learned in how to build forward-looking, innovative technology institutions."

Safe, Secure and Effective Nuclear Operations in the Nuclear Zero Era

Ronald G. Allen, Jr. — Mon, 24 Sep 2012 18:51:59 -0500

Without significant change in the geopolitical landscape, nuclear weapons will remain a relevant portion of America's long-term national security strategy. Therefore, the burdens and responsibilities of maintaining an effective nuclear deterrent force are paramount to ensure credibility for America and her allies. Bottom line: nuclear weapons and nuclear deterrence are still relevant today and for the foreseeable future. Therefore, to maintian international strategic stability we must embrace the necessity of nuclear deterrence, develop strategic policy that supports deterrence as an essential element and adequately resource the enterprise.

Innovation Key to Unlocking Africa's Horticultural Potential

Calestous Juma — Thu, 23 Aug 2012 15:33:11 -0500

"Biotechnology has the promise of leading to increased food security and sustainable forestry practices, as well as improving health in developing countries by enhancing food nutrition. In agriculture, biotechnology has enabled the genetic alteration of crops, improved soil productivity, and enhanced natural weed and pest control. Unfortunately, such potential has largely remained untapped by African countries."

Africa Needs to Invest More in 'Life Sciences' to Benefit from Technology

Steve Mbogo and Calestous Juma — Sat, 18 Aug 2012 14:31:19 -0500

Africa is yet to adopt full scale technology-led development. Steve Mbogo spoke to the Director of the Belfer Center's Science, Technology, and Globalisation Project and professor at Harvard University Calestous Juma on the opportunities that await the continent as a late comer.