For this exam you are responsible to show your comprehension of the course readings/lectures. Use "your own words" to elaborate the concepts and arguments.Work to maintain quality, depth and succinctness of analysis in your answers to each of the questions. While showing range, be as thorough as you can within the constraints of the 1000-word limit per question. (citations not included) Both internal and external references need to be properly cited. (You can use the style preferred by your discipline. Just being consistent)
The absolute deadline for the exam is 11:59 p.m. Sunday 23. Late work will not be accepted.
Plagiarism (copy and paste from articles, internet, posts from others, or paraphrasing someone else's line of thinking in the development of a topic as if it were your own) is strictly forbidden. Once detected, you will be reported to the university, and receive no point/credit from this course.
Questions:
1. Explain the legacy of World War II for the development of science and technology in the US.
2. What is Bye-Dole Act? How does it influence technology development and the role of university and academic research in the US?
3. Vannevar Bush occurrs in almost every article we have read in this class. As the director of the Office of Scientific Research (OSRD) in charge of the national research direction, his famous work "Science - The Endless Frontier: A Report to the President on a Program of Postwar Scientific Research" is considered as the beginning of modern science policy. As an engineer, he had a very mechanicaland linear approach about how government should invest and create pure "basic research" as the engine for applied technology and societal benefits (Fig). However, in this class, we have learnt a tangled history of science, technology, society and politics, manifested inthe production and function of scientific knowledge, technological discourses, technical objects, along with the establishment of engineering profession and identity. These historical facts challenge the ethical and political purity assumed in Bush's linear model.
If you could go back to 1945 and sit on the OSRD committee meeting led by Bush, what suggestions would you give him?
