Programs Offered
Goldman School Project on Information Technology and Homeland Security (ITHS)
The Goldman School's Project on Information Technology and Homeland Security ("ITHS") uses advanced social science disciplines to analyze grand challenge problems facing information technology and homeland security.
Mission
Universities usually teach engineering and the social sciences as if each subject were separate and self-contained. In practice, the two are inextricably linked. Many of the 21st Century’s grand challenge problems – for example, preventing terrorism or fighting diseases that afflict the developing world – are at least as much social as technological. ITHS asks how the powerful tools developed by economists and other social scientists can make new technologies more effective.
ITHS draws on the Goldman School’s world-class expertise in innovation economics, information markets, risk psychology, game theory, organization design, science policy, politics, law, and related disciplines to develop insights for moving technology forward. We routinely collaborate with Berkeley scientists and engineers working in information technology, synthetic biology, sensors and actuators, particle and nuclear physics, nanotechnology, and other fields at the forefront of human knowledge.
Current Research
ITHS collaborates with Berkeley scientists and engineers working in information technology, synthetic biology, sensors and actuators, particle and nuclear physics, nanotechnology, and other fields at the forefront of human knowledge. Current research areas include:
- WMD Terrorism
WMD Terrorism poses the greatest single threat to Americans and our society. ITHS is working with colleagues at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and other leading institutions to compile what is known about the threat and the various scientific and policy options for meeting it. The first project -- an on-line, graduate-level course ("Introduction to Homeland Security") -- took place in Fall, 2005. - New Medicines and Vaccines
Conventional patent incentives are largely ineffective at delivering drugs and vaccines for “diseases of poverty” in the developing world and rich nation “orphan diseases.” ITHS uses modern innovation economics to design cost-effective solutions for this long-standing problem. [More] - BioShield
In July 2004, President Bush signed a $5.6 billion appropriation designed to create incentives for commercial companies to develop vaccines and drugs against bioweapons. Proposals to extend the program are currently pending in Congress. Simple arguments suggest that these proposals are likely to overpay by twenty to thirty percent. ITHS uses modern innovation economics to find more cost-effective strategies. [More] - Open Source Biology
Open source methods have revolutionized the way that human beings create complex computer programs. In principle, the same methods ought to work for pharmaceuticals and other information goods. ITHS is working with The Synaptic Leap and colleagues at Berkeley, UCSF, and Duke University to design and launch the world’s first open source drug discovery collaboration. [More] - Synthetic Biology
Synthetic biology aims to create novel organisms in much the same way that engineers create new computer chips. ITHS is working with Berkeley colleagues to understand both the promise and the security challenges posed by this radically new technology. Our short-term goal is to identify and develop self-regulation proposals for the synthetic biology to debate and vote on when it meets for next May's SynBio2.0 Conference. [More]
Expertise
ITHS draws on the Goldman School's world-class expertise in innovation economics, information markets, risk psychology, game theory, organization design, science policy, politics, law and related disciplines to develop insights for moving technology forward.
Support
Institutional support for ITHS is provided by a generous gift from John and Linda Schacht Gage, with additional support for specific projects from Lawrence Livermore Laboratory. ITHS is administered and based at UC Berkeley's Goldman School of Public Policy.
Last Updated: 03/13/2007
