STONY BROOK, NY, November 17, 2008 – The Department of Technology and Society in the College of Engineering and Applied Sciences at Stony Brook University has established a new Ph.D. program in Technology, Policy, and Innovation (TPI), announced Dr. David L. Ferguson, Distinguished Service Professor and Chair of the Department of Technology and Society. The department will admit its first cohort of students for the 2009-2010 academic year.
Dr. David L. Ferguson
Students in the TPI Ph.D. program will work in one or more of three areas of faculty research strength: 1) energy and environmental systems; 2) educational technologies, and education in engineering and applied sciences; and, 3) technology management, engineering entrepreneurship, and science and technology policy. In addition to drawing on the expertise of faculty in the Department of Technology and Society, the new Ph.D. program will be supported by more than 20 affiliated faculty members from throughout the Stony Brook campus.
The TPI Ph.D. Program was developed with a four-part mission:
• To develop a cadre of scholars who will be engines of national leadership in gauging the prospects and charting the future course of technologies;
• To carry out policy and design/planning research in three interacting socio-technological areas: energy and environmental systems; educational technologies, and education in engineering and applied sciences; technology management, engineering entrepreneurship, and science and technology policy;
• To establish a new model for twenty-first century doctoral education that promotes highly intensive collaborations and uses advanced educational technologies in a fertile, diverse, globally networked laboratory environment that transcends disciplinary boundaries; and,
• To serve as an exemplary resource for regional and national industry and government, and for schools, colleges/universities, and other educational institutions in both implementing technological innovation and carrying out policy studies.
According to Dr. Ferguson, there are a limited number of similar doctoral programs in the world. The most successful ones include the Engineering and Public Policy Program (EPP) at Carnegie Mellon University, the Technology and Policy Program (Ph.D. in Technology, Management, and Policy) at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Department of Management Science and Engineering at Stanford University, and Systems Engineering and Policy Analysis Program at the Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands. There are also a number of programs that focus on a specific technology area. Examples include the Energy Resource Group at the University of California, Berkeley, and the Technology, Environment, and Society Program at the University of Delaware.
“The inclusion of educational technology and education in engineering and applied sciences among the research areas makes the Stony Brook University program unique,” said Dr. Ferguson.
Additional information on the Ph.D. Program in Technology, Policy, and Innovation is available on the Department website at www.stonybrook.edu/est or by calling (631) 632-8770.
