Papers by Robert Charette
Can Flow Batteries Finally Beat Lithium?: Nanoparticles may boost energy density enough for EVs
IEEE spectrum, Feb 1, 2024
Enterprise Risk Management
John Wiley & Sons, Inc. eBooks, Sep 18, 2015
The EV Transition is Harder Than Anyone Thinks: Clueless Policymakers, Skeptical Consumers, Greedy Automakers—and the Tech isn't Ready Either
IEEE Spectrum, Apr 1, 2023
IEEE Spectrum: The Back Story
IEEE Spectrum, 2007
It was a slow Thursday afternoon when IEEE Spectrum Senior Editor Jean Kumagai [above, left] popp... more It was a slow Thursday afternoon when IEEE Spectrum Senior Editor Jean Kumagai [above, left] popped into the cubicle of Photo Editor Randi Silberman [above, right] to ask if she’d like to come along on a trip to northeastern Mexico. The assignment was to cover the initial testing of an underwater robot in a deep sinkhole. Silberman jumped at the chance. “Normally I sit at my desk talking to photographers about the amazing things I’m sending them off to do,” she says. “This time I’d get to do those things myself.” And then she encountered Toilet Frog [right]. Arriving at the sprawling ranch where the robot team was based, she and Kumagai discovered an enterprising amphibian that had taken up residence in the ranch’s septic system, swimming back and forth between its bathrooms. “Randi didn’t seem to mind the frog that much,” Kumagai says. “But I felt like every time I turned around, there it was—in the shower, on the kitchen floor, even in the toilet bowl. Very weird.” Despite those run-ins with the wildlife, they captured a great story. Says Silberman, “I never thought I’d find myself climbing down a cliff holding on to just a rope, then getting into a kayak and paddling around to frame the perfect shot.” But she did all that, and more, to document the expedition. Her photos and Kumagai’s text come together in “Swimming to Europa,” in this issue. Back in New York City, the two found themselves reminiscing fondly about the characters they’d met in Mexico. Even Toilet Frog. n
Computer
A ftershock" columns explore ideas with a combination of factual assessment and speculation. From... more A ftershock" columns explore ideas with a combination of factual assessment and speculation. From this combination, we hope that evidence of important mechanisms of change will appear. This "Aftershock" column begins exploration of management guru Peter Drucker's concept that knowledge will join, and possibly replace, traditional resources such as capital, land, minerals, and labor in enabling production. We examine the asset basis of the world and IT's role in that. 1 The aftershock metaphor is that primary shockwaves trigger aftershocks that invite speculation. The goal is not to try to predict the future but to discern the patterns that suggest future scenarios. This article follows this approach by taking the primary shock of the Russia-Ukraine conflict and examining two aftershocks: asymmetric warfare and software outsourcing. We make no claim that this is the best way to think about shocks or aftershocks, or, indeed, the ongoing conflict; but it is one. We also acknowledge, that as thinking moves away from factually grounded events, speculation increases and predictions, when attempted, become less reliable. Nevertheless, speculation helps us construct scenarios that can be evaluated and that might eventually form the basis of planning.
Demanding Fair and Ethically Aligned IT for the Future
IT Professional, 2021
For 75 years, the basic measure of computing success has been focused on improving information te... more For 75 years, the basic measure of computing success has been focused on improving information technology's (IT) technical know-how. Concerns about whether that know-how was being used fairly and ethically was a remote afterthought. Emerging technical know-how and its potential for genuinely harmful misuse demand that the fair and ethical use of IT must be intimately tied to the concept of success.
STEM Sense and Nonsense
Educational Leadership, 2015
IEEE Software--ソフト保守におけるリスク管理プロセス
. 1999 IEEE. Personal use of this material is permitted. However, permission to reprint/republis... more . 1999 IEEE. Personal use of this material is permitted. However, permission to reprint/republish this material for advertising or promotional purposes or for creating new collective works for resale or redistribution to servers of lists, or to reuse any copyrighted component of this work in other works must be obtained from the IEEE.
Computer, 2016
he late legendary CBS journalist Eric Sevareid once wryly observed, "The biggest big business in ... more he late legendary CBS journalist Eric Sevareid once wryly observed, "The biggest big business in America is not steel, automobiles, or television. It is the manufacture, refinement, and distribution of anxiety." 1 Periodic ruminations over asserted shortages of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) professionals and students are major contributors to that immensely wasteful American pastime. A PERPETUAL CRISIS Demographer Michael Teitelbaum recently examined five such alarmist boom−bust cycles since the end of World War II. 2 Each cycle was preceded by frenetic claims that the US was falling behind some technological, economic, or military competitor, that the country lacked the scientific and engineering skillset to rectify its perilous position, and that only a massive, government-funded education and training effort would turn things around. In each case, considerable resources were expended to increase the pool of technical talent, primarily for the benefit of industry and academia, while the alleged crisis turned out to be a chimera. One of the more dubious and widely reported skill-shortage claims arose in the late 1980s, when the National Science Foundation's leadership issued a dire warning to Congress that the US would be short 675,000 or more scientists and engineers by 2006.
7.5.0 Panel 7.5: Myriad Multiplying Risk Management Standards: “Converging Toward Best Practice” or “A Confusing Maze of Docs to Trap Us?” - What's Up INCOSE?
INCOSE International Symposium, 2006
Communications of the ACM, 2006
The U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) acquisition community seems to be perpetually searching for ... more The U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) acquisition community seems to be perpetually searching for the answer to the question, “Why isn’t program performance significantly improved given all of our investments in process improvement? ” Over the past several years, the Office of the Secretary of Defense, in partnership with each of the services, sponsored a performance-oriented assessment effort called the Tri-Service Assessment Initiative that has provided some answers to this question. The initiative was based on a flexible, expert assessment methodology consistently applied to a wide scope of DoD programs. The assessment process allowed for valid cross-program quantification and evaluation of recurring or systemic program issues across the assessed program base. As this systemic analysis capability matured, both DoD program and enterprise managers brought critical analysis questions to the systemic analysis team. One of the most significant of these centered on what the impact of pr...
What's wrong with weapons acquisitions?
IEEE Spectrum, 2008
The paper gives an overview of a problem in weapons acquisition in the U.S. army. The paper focus... more The paper gives an overview of a problem in weapons acquisition in the U.S. army. The paper focuses on problem in the proposed aerial common sensor aircraft (ACS). U.S.Army desperately needed the ACS to replace its Guardrails, a fleet of small, piloted reconnaissance aircraft that first began flying in the mid-1970s.
Every move you make
IEEE Spectrum, 2009
In the United Kingdom, your home may be your castle, but the government will soon be able to get ... more In the United Kingdom, your home may be your castle, but the government will soon be able to get a rather good idea of what is happening inside it.
Open-Source Warfare
IEEE Spectrum, 2007
This article is about open-source warfare and how terrorists are leveraging information technolog... more This article is about open-source warfare and how terrorists are leveraging information technology to organize, recruit and learn.
The virtual fence's long good-bye [Spectral Lines]
IEEE Spectrum, 2011
This article discusses homeland security and border security.
Uploads
Papers by Robert Charette