Technology Management Policy Graduate Consortium

TMP Mission Statement

Beginning in 2002, a number of technically focused programs in technology and public policy in North America created a "graduate consortium" that brings together faculty and advanced students from each program each summer. These meetings are entirely focused on the graduate students who give research presentations (either platform talks or posters). The objective is to help students build a sense of community, to network and develop a sense of where their work fits in the broader community of scholarship in this area, and to learn about how programs at other institutions are structured and what they are doing.

The meetings have taken place in:

2002 TU Delft, NL
2003 George Mason, Washington, D.C.
2004 University of Cambridge, UK
2005 MIT, Boston
2006 IST Lisbon, Portugal
2007 Carnegie Mellon, Pittsburgh, PA
2008 Universiteit Utrecht / TU Delft, NL

TMP 2009

The 2009 Technology Management Policy Graduate Consortium (TMP) will take place in Vancouver at SFU, June 21 - 24, 2009.

A draft agenda for the 2009 TMP is attached. We are preparing a three day format, to reduce the congestion over two days and to allow for more discussion. As well as presentations and discussions, there will also be poster sessions.

Former TMP and Leonardo participants from SFU will be asked to prepare posters updating their research, for presentation as the nucleus of the TMP poster sessions.

At SFU the TMP program is run as an element of our Leonardo Institute. This part-time programme invites post-graduate students from all faculties to examine the risks, uncertainties, ethics, and art of applied science in their research. The program includes seminars, field visits, and projects, which together expose the students to ideas and experience outside the narrow confines of their research, and places their specific academic interests in a larger context. The Institute challenges students to think about civic engagement, ethics, policy issues, risk assessment, and social responsibility - in effect the “assessment, understanding and remediation of uncertainties” related to the areas (often technologies) they are studying and developing. Through the programme students are able to understand more about the unforeseen implications of their work and interventions.

The Leonardo Institute aims to bring together graduate students from a wide variety of backgrounds, individuals who might not interact with each other as part of their ongoing studies. Details of previous Leonardo Institutes can be found at www.fas.sfu.ca/leonardo. 

Proposed Agenda  TMP 2009

• Tuesday, April 14:  Deadline for submission of abstracts
• Friday April 17: Notification for accepted papers and posters;
• Wednesday May 6: Final day for advance booking at the Ramada Hotel
• Sunday, June 21: Trip to Bowen Island. Depending on weather, we will have opportunities for guided hiking, sailing and kayaking.  The day will finish with a salmon BBQ.  Participants must sign up in advance, when they register. Information on Bowen Island.
• Monday, June 22: TMP Day 1. Paper presentations and poster session at Harbour Centre, SFU Vancouver downtown campus. There will be a Chinese dinner.   All about Harbour Centre.
• Tuesday, June 23: TMP Day 2.  Paper presentations and poster session at Harbour Centre, SFU Vancouver downtown campus. There will be an optional late afternoon trip to the Anthropological Museum at UBC.
  
• Wednesday, June 24:  Structured workshops:  Participants must sign up to participate in a workshop, when they register.
  

a)    Networks – panel discussions on network theory

b)    Innovation Systems

c)    Carbon sequestration

The TMP sessions will take place in the Harbour Centre building, SFU Vancouver downtown campus, at 515 West Hastings Street, downtown Vancouver. For details on Harbour Centre please see www.vancouver.sfu.ca 

Accommodation:

A block of rooms has been reserved for TMP participants at the Ramada Hotel Downtown, on Pender Street (one block south of Harbour Centre SFU).  The address is 435 West Pender Street Vancouver, British Columbia, V6B 1V2. Website: www.ramadadowntownvancouver.com

Ramada Hotel Downtown Details:
1.    Rates are: single $139/night, double $139/night, triple $154/night, quadruple $169.  All rates are quoted in Canadian dollars. Taxes and fees are an additional 16.5%. Please quote reservation : Group Name:  SFU-TMP Conference , Group# 1698
2.    Baggage handling is an additional $3.00 per bag, return.
3.    Guests receive a daily hot continental breakfast and free high speed wireless internet access.
4.    Check in time is 1500hrs (3:00pm). Check out time is 1200 hours (12 noon).
5.    All individuals of the group are responsible for all their own room and tax and incidental charges, which must be paid by the individual prior to departure. 

There is also a Delta Suites Hotel on Hastings Street, directly across from Harbour Centre. There is a special SFU rate but rooms are limited; rate is approximately $185 (ask for the SFU rate);Toll Free: 1.888.890.3222.
For those who have budget constraints, there are a number of more competitively priced hostels and backpacker hotels nearby.

Travel from Vancouver International Airport :  Vancouver International Airport is near the city.  Taxis are easily available and cost about $30 to the Ramada. The other alternative is the city bus, #424, that runs every 15 minutes. You change at the Airport interchange onto route B-98 northbound.  This is an express bus - get off at the Waterfront station.  The Ramada Hotel is one block east and two blocks south, up Richards Street and left on Pender Street, and SFU is slightly east and across the road (Cordoba Street, between Seymour Street and Richards Street).

CLICK TO REGISTER FOR THE 2009 TMP CONSORTIUM