Theses

TPP student research spans many domains, but shares methodologies and goals. Examples of award-winning theses and noteworthy research projects are shared here. We also maintain a public database of all TPP thesis titles, with links to web publications where available.

Award-Winning Theses and Student Research Stories

2024 Thesis Prize Winners

• Michael Giovanniello; “Modeling and Implementation of the U.S. Hydrogen Production Credit” (2024). Advisor(s): Dharik Mallapragada; Ruaridh Macdonald.
• Kailin Graham; “Doing the Dirty Work: Employment vulnerability to the energy transition implications for climate policy and politics” (2024). Advisor(s): Christopher R. Knittel.

2023 Thesis Prize Winner

• Maja Svanberg; “The Economic Advantage of Computer Vision Over Human Labor, and Its Market Implications” (2023). Advisor(s): Neil Thompson.

2022 Thesis Prize Winners

• Farri T. Gaba; “Solutions to the Generalized UAV Delivery Routing Problem for Last-Mile Delivery with Societal Constraints” (2022). Advisor(s): Matthias Winkenbach
• Jonathan Garrett Novak; “Policy and Design Courses of Action to Improve Resilience of Proliferated Low Earth Orbit Constellations Against Adverse Solar Weather” (2022). Advisor(s): Daniel E Hastings.
• Aaron Matthew Schwartz; “The Role of Natural Gas in Future Low-Carbon Energy Systems” (2022). Advisor(s): Dharik S Mallapragada.

2021 Thesis Prize Winner

Karan Bhuwalka, recent TPP alum who won best thesis in 2021, reflects on TPP’s interdisciplinary approach and bringing data science, manufacturing, and social issues together in his research on the materials that make up electric vehicles.

• Assessing the Socio-Economic Risks in Electric Vehicle Supply Chains (Thesis)
• Characterizing the Changes in Material Use due to Vehicle Electrification (Environmental Science & Technology, Jul 2021)

Do native ads shape our perception of the news?: Manon Revel

Often masquerading as legitimate news, so-called “native” ads, pushed by content recommendation networks, have brought badly needed revenue to the struggling U.S. news industry. But at what cost? TPP alum Manon Revel is now a PhD student in the IDSS Social and Engineering Systems PhD program. Her TPP thesis advisor was Prof. Ali Jadbabaie.

• Combining AI with passions (MIT News, March 2019)

Health Savings of Renewable Energy: Emil Dimanchev

Research from TPP alum Emil Dimanchev, who won TPP’s best thesis award in 2019, found that health savings from cleaner air would more than pay for the cost of implementing renewable energy policies. His thesis was advised by TPP director Noelle Selin.

• Shift to renewable electricity a win-win at statewide level (MIT News, Aug 2019)

Thesis Database

Thesis Titles, 1977 to 2015

• Dhaval Adjodah; “Understanding Social Influence Using Combined Network Analysis and Machine Learning;” SM, 2013 (06/01/2013) (Alex Paul Pentland)
• Shahed Al-Haque; “Responding to Traveling Patients’ Seasonal Demands for Health Care Services in the Veterans Health Administration;” SM, 2013 (06/01/2013) (Debbie Nightingale)
• Francisco Alonso; “Stakeholder Value Network Analysis for the Energy System of Saudi Arabia;” SM, 2013 (09/01/2012) (Edward F Crawley)
• Ingrid Bonde Akerlind; “Driving Change: Evaluating Strategies to Control Automotive Energy Demand Growth in China;” SM, 2013 (06/01/2013) (John B Heywood)
• Emily Calandrelli; “Analysis of Short Innovation Contests as a Strategy for Technology Procurement in Government;” SM, 2013 (06/01/2013) (Eric A Von Hippel)
• Alice Chao; “Investigating the Strategic Impacts of Natural Gas on Transportation Fuel Diversity and Flexibility;” SM, 2013 (06/01/2013) (John B Heywood)
• Morgan Edwards; “Climate Impact Metrics for Energy Technology Evaluation;” SM, 2013 (06/01/2013) (Jessika Trancik)
• Jan Eide; “Rethinking CCS - Strategies for Technology Development Under Uncertainty;” SM, 2013 (06/01/2013) (Howard Herzog)
• Bernard El-khoury; “Analytic Framework for TRL-Based Cost and Schedule Models;” SM, 2013 (09/01/2012) (Charles R Kenley)
• Patrick Ernst; “The U.S. Wind Production Tax Credit – Evaluating its Impact on Wind Deployment and Assessing the Cost of its Renewal;” SM, 2013 (06/01/2013) (Francis M O'Sullivan)
• Dara Fisher; “Educating Engineers for the 21st Century: A Framework for Skill Development Through Co-Curricular and Extracurricular Involvement;” SM, 2013 (06/01/2013) (Sanjay Sarma)
• Amanda Giang; “Assessing the Health and Economic Impacts of Mercury: When Does Model Complexity Matter?;” SM, 2013 (06/01/2013) (Noelle Selin)
• Arthur Gueneau; “Crop Water Stress Under Climate Change Uncertainty: Global Policy and Regional Risk;” SM, 2013 (09/01/2012) (Courtney Adam Schlosser)
• Devin Helfrich; “Price Distortions in the Commodity Futures Markets;” SM, 2013 (09/01/2012) (John E Parsons)
• Mackenzie Hird; “Barriers to Implementation of New Programs and Pedagogies in K-12 STEM Education: A Systems Perspective;” SM, 2013 (06/01/2013) (Richard C Larson)
• Ioanna Karkatsouli; “The Role of Wind Generation in European Power Sector Decarbonization: A General Equilibrium Analysis;” SM, 2013 (06/01/2013) (Sergey Paltsev)
• Paul Kishimoto; “Passenger Transport in China Under Climate Constraints: General Equilibrium Analysis, Uncertainty, and Policy;” SM, 2013 (09/01/2012) (John Reilly)
• Megan Lickley; “The Vulnerability of U.S. Coastal Energy Infrastructure Under Climate Change;” SM, 2013 (09/01/2012) (Henry D Jacoby)
• Elisabeth Maida; “The Regulation of Internet Interconnection: Assessing Network Market Power;” SM, 2013 (02/01/2013) (David Clark)
• Benjamin Mailly; “Solution-Gated Graphene Transistors for Chemical and Biological Sensing Applications;” SM, 2013 (02/01/2013) (Tomas Palacios)
• Thomas Marcil; “Performance Measurement and Signaling in the Humanitarian Marketplace;” SM, 2013 (06/01/2013) (Jarrod Goentzel)
• Florian Metzler; “Nuclear Power Supply Chains in China - Following Established Rules or Redefining the Industry?;” SM, 2013 (09/01/2012) (Edward Steinfeld)
• Travis Miller; “Quantitative Characterization of Transboundary Flows of Used Electronics: A Case Study of the United States;” SM, 2013 (09/01/2012) (Randolph Kirchain)
• Claire Poulizac; “Modeling Mining Economics and Materials Markets to Inform Criticality Assessment and Mitigation;” SM, 2013 (06/01/2013) (Randolph Kirchain)
• Sadia Raveendran; “Top-Down & Bottom-Up Approaches to Analyzing the Role of CCS as a Mitigation Technology and Challenges to Its Commercialization;” SM, 2013 (06/01/2013) (Howard Herzog)
• Nathalie Rivest; “Evaluating the Interaction Between Material Substitution and Part Sharing in Product Design: A Case Study of Automotive Lightweighting;” SM, 2013 (06/01/2013) (Randolph Kirchain)
• Amy Rose; “Prospects for Grid-Connected Solar PV in Kenya;” SM, 2013 (06/01/2013) (Robert Stoner)
• Lisa Schlecht; “Impact of Prototyping Resource Environments on Idea Generation in Product Design;” SM, 2013 (02/01/2013) (Maria Yang)
• Cole Shaw; “System Design and Architecture of an Online, Adaptive, and Personalized Learning Platform;” SM, 2013 (06/01/2013) (Richard C Larson)
• Ariadne Smith; “New Product Development Methods: A Study of Open Design;” SM, 2013 (09/01/2012) (David Wallace)
• Mark Staples; “Water Consumption Footprint and Land Requirements of Alternative Diesel and Jet Fuel Production;” SM, 2013 (06/01/2013) (Steven Barrett)
• Justin Stilwell; “The Importance of Air Transportation to the U.S. Economy: Analysis of Industry Use and Proximity to Airports;” SM, 2013 (06/01/2013) (R John Hansman)
• George Sumter; “Privacy Preservation and Auditing for Ubiquitous Mobile Sensing Applications and Services;” SM, 2013 (09/01/2012) (Alex Paul Pentland)
• Ralph Turlington; “Mitigating Security Issues in the Evolving DNA Synthesis Industry;” SM, 2013 (06/01/2013) (Kenneth A Oye)
• Melanie Wong; “Flexible Design: An Innovative Approach for Planning Water Infrastructure Systems Under Uncertainty;” SM, 2013 (06/01/2013) (Richard De Neufville)
• Sarah Wood; “The Role of Philanthropic Capital in Entrepreneurship: An Empirical Analysis of Financial Vehicles at the Non-profit/for-profit Boundary of Science and Engineering;” SM, 2013 (09/01/2012) (Fiona Murray)