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There is now a CONTENT FREEZE for Mercury while we switch to a new platform. It began on Friday, March 10 at 6pm and will end on Wednesday, March 15 at noon. No new content can be created during this time, but all material in the system as of the beginning of the freeze will be migrated to the new platform, including users and groups. Functionally the new site is identical to the old one. webteam@gatech.edu
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Atlanta, GA | Posted: February 3, 2014
Vince Pedicino
Summary Sentence:
On 31 January 2014, five graduate students in the Sam Nunn School of International Affairs gave oral presentations at the Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts Graduate Student Paper Conference.
Full Summary:
On 31 January 2014, five graduate students in the Sam Nunn School of International Affairs gave oral presentations at the Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts Graduate Student Paper Conference as part of the annual Georgia Tech Research & Innovation Conference (GTRIC), a yearly event that captures and exhibits cutting-edge research conducted by graduate students at Georgia Tech.
GTRIC INTA studentsOn 31 January 2014, five graduate students in the Sam Nunn School of International Affairs gave oral presentations at the Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts Graduate Student Paper Conference as part of the annual Georgia Tech Research & Innovation Conference (GTRIC), a yearly event that captures and exhibits cutting-edge research conducted by graduate students at Georgia Tech.
At this year’s event, Nunn School participants presented on four different panels. PhD student Taylor Smith, presenting on “Military Technology Innovation in the Russia Federation,” and candidate Jonathan Huang, presenting on “The Dilemma of and Strategy for a Defense Technology First-Mover: An Opportunities Framework for Military Investments in Emerging S&T,” addressed questions of national innovation systems. Smith's paper compared a well-known model of Soviet military technology innovation to the military research and development apparatus in contemporary Russia and concluded that pronounced similarities exist, indicating that the systemic inefficiencies characterizing Soviet innovation continue to plague Russia today. Huang’s paper examined the dilemma a defense technology first-mover faces when investing in emerging technologies, explored the different strategies employed to cope with associated uncertainties, and provided an initial framework, based on the management of opportunities, to explain the directionality of such investments.
On issues concerning global markets and economics, Master's student Erin Sexton presented “Storm Warnings: A Comparative Analysis of the International Climate of the 1930s and Today.” Analyzing trends between the 1930s and today, she found several parallels in the international political economies of the two eras, the most significant of which being the multipolarity of the international system. She argued that this multipolarity makes the system more unstable and increases the likelihood of major global conflict occurring in the near future. Masters student Noah Solomon addressed energy issues and power industries in his paper “Biofuels as a Solution to U.S. Navy Oil Dependence.” He argued that in order to mitigate the costs of oil dependence, that Navy has in recent years made plans to jump start a biodiesel industry in the U.S., but such a plan failed to address factors such as the dependence of biofuel prices on petroleum products or the global nature of the oil market. He suggested that the Navy is better served using less complex solutions, such as cooperation on sea lane protection and existing price controls for oil.
Finally, discussing the impact of technology in urban environments, PhD candidate Mollie Taylor presented on “Collaboration of Inventors across Cities and Time.” During her presentation, Taylor discussed the two perspectives on the current wave of globalization: the vision that the world is becoming increasingly ``flat'' as it globalizes, causing historical and geographical dividing lines to become irrelevant, and the argument that the world is becoming “spiky” and that innovation occurs in a small number of places. Using time series analysis of patent collaborations, she confirmed that the globalization leads to “flatness” and showed that cities that are more global are having fewer local collaborations.
This conference was sponsored by the Ivan Allen College Dean’s Office.
