Erica Fuchs

Professor Carnegie Mellon University

  • Pittsburgh PA

Erica Fuchs is passionate about building nationally the intellectual foundations and analytic tools to inform National Technology Strategy.

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Carnegie Mellon University

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Biography

Erica R.H. Fuchs is a Professor in the Department of Engineering and Public Policy at Carnegie Mellon University, and by courtesy in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering and the Heinz College of Information Systems and Public Policy. She is also a Research Associate with the National Bureau of Economic Research. Dr. Fuchs’ research focuses on the development, commercialization and global manufacturing of emerging technologies, and national policy in that context.

Today, Dr. Fuchs is passionate about building nationally the intellectual foundations, data, and analytic tools to inform National Technology Strategy across government missions. Toward realizing this vision, Dr. Fuchs is currently Director of the one-year $4M pilot National Network for Critical Technology Assessment funded by NSF’s Technology, Innovation and Partnerships Office, and involving academic thought-leaders from more than 13 Tier I research universities across the country; and founding Director of Carnegie Mellon’s Critical Technology Strategy Initiative – an initiative spanning Carnegie Mellon’s schools of engineering, computer science, and the Heinz College of Information Systems and Public Policy. She first learnt that she loved bringing faculty together in ways that the total is greater than the sum of the parts as founding Faculty Director of Carnegie Mellon University’s Manufacturing Futures Initiative – an initiative across six schools aimed to revolutionize the commercialization and local production of advanced manufactured products, which today is an endowed institute.

Over the past two decades, Dr. Fuchs has played a growing role in national and international meetings on technology policy, including co-chairing the National Academies Committee on U.S. Science and Innovation Leadership in the 21st Century, serving on the expert group that supported the White House in the 2016 Innovation Dialogue between the U.S. and China, and being one of 23 participants in the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology workshop that led to the creation of the Advanced Manufacturing Partnership. Dr. Fuchs currently serves on the M.I.T. Corporation’s Visiting Committee for M.I.T.’s Institute for Data, Systems, and Society, of which M.I.T.’s Technology Policy Program is a part; and on the Advisory Editorial Board for Research Policy. Before coming to CMU, Dr. Fuchs completed her Ph.D. in Engineering Systems at M.I.T. in June 2006.

Areas of Expertise

Innovation Policy
Technology Development
Public Policy
Global manufacturing
Commercialization

Media Appearances

Policy memo: How the EU and US should overcome their trade and supply-chain disputes

Atlantic Council  online

2022-12-02

Beyond this, important questions remain as to whether sensitive emerging technologies—such as applied artificial intelligence, bio-machine interfaces, or quantum computing—should be included in the mapping and information-sharing process, and also whether the United States and the EU have the analytical capacities needed for proper technological foresight, as highlighted by the Brookings Institution’s Erica R.H. Fuchs.

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Building the analytic capacity to support critical technology strategy

The Brookings Institution  online

2022-09-28

In a Hamilton Project proposal, author Erica R.H. Fuchs of Carnegie Mellon University and the National Bureau of Economic Research proposes the creation of a national capability for cross-mission critical technology analytics to build the intellectual foundations, data, and analytics needed to inform national technology strategy.

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Team Builds Tools, Innovations to Support Federal Investment

Carnegie Mellon University News  online

2021-10-05

Carnegie Mellon University hosted Ambassador Katherine Tai, United States trade representative, in a roundtable discussion on the data and analytic tools necessary to support U.S. innovation and trade strategies in critical technologies, such as vaccines, batteries and semiconductors. During her visit, the ambassador observed research demonstrations by faculty and students working in several critical technology clusters on a tour guided by Bill Sanders, dean of CMU's College of Engineering, and Erica Fuchs, a professor in the Department of Engineering and Public Policy (EPP).

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Industry Expertise

Research
Education/Learning
Public Policy
Writing and Editing

Accomplishments

Philip L. Dowd Fellowship Award

2015

Distinguished Alumnus

2017

Reading High School Alumni Association

Carnegie Institute of Technology Dean’s Early Career Fellow

2013

Education

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

S.M.

Technology Policy

2003

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Ph.D.

Engineering Systems

2006

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

S.B.

Materials Science and Engineering

1999

Affiliations

  • Research Policy : Advisory Editorial Board

Research Grants

A National Network for Critical Technology Assessment: A Pilot

National Science Foundation, Technology Innovation and Partnerships Directorate

September 15, 2022-Septembr 14, 2023

Launching a Critical Technology Analytics Collective: Roadmapping technical pathways to supply resilience in safety-critical robust semiconductors

Lockheed Martin Corporation

gift

Building a National Capacity for Cross-Mission Critical Technology Analytics: Timely situational awareness of U.S. and global technology capabilities

Alfred P. Sloan Foundation

Proposal for a Center-Planning Workshop

Articles

National core competencies and dynamic capabilities in times of crisis: Adaptive regulation of new entrants in advanced technology markets

Research Policy

2023

The extent to which domestic industrial capabilities are essential in contributing to a Nations' prosperity and national well-being is the topic of long-standing debate. On the one hand, globalization and the outsourcing of production can lead to greater productivity, lower product costs, and gains from trade. On the other hand, national capabilities have long been a source of competitiveness and security during times of war and other crises.

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Not all technological change is equal: how the separability of tasks mediates the effect of technology change on skill demand

Industrial and Corporate Change

2021

We measure the labor-demand effects of two simultaneous forms of technological change—automation of production processes and consolidation of parts. We collect detailed shop-floor data from four semiconductor firms with different levels of automation and consolidation. Using the O*NET survey instrument, we collect novel task data for operator laborers that contains process-step level skill requirements, including operations and control, near vision, and dexterity requirements.

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Technology Forgiveness: Why emerging technologies differ in their resilience to institutional instability

Technological Forecasting and Social Change

2021

Long-term public support may encourage the diffusion of emerging technologies by coordinating the generation of knowledge and providing patient funding, but unexpected policy changes may hinder private investment and even lead to situations of technology lockout. Leveraging archival data; insights from 45 interviews across academia, industry, and government; and 75 hours of participant observations, we develop insights about why institutional instability in Portugal affected the adoption of Polymer Additive Manufacturing (PAM) and Metal Additive Manufacturing (MAM) differently.

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