PTC RESEARCH AWARDS
Each year at the Annual Conference, PTC offers the following named awards for excellence in research:
- Meheroo Jussawalla Research Award—open to researchers and faculty members in the academic, non-profit, or private sector
- Yale M. Braunstein Student Award—open to currently enrolled students with a 2021 or later graduation date
Questions? Please email ptc22@ptc.org or call +1.808.941.3789.
YALE M. BRAUNSTEIN
STUDENT AWARD
The Yale M. Braunstein Student Award is awarded to the best student research paper at PTC’s Annual Conference.
The Yale M. Braunstein Student Award for the best student research paper submitted for the PTC Annual Conference is named in honor of Yale M. Braunstein (1945-2012), longtime participant and contributor to PTC’s Research Committee. Originally, Yale established this award in 2007 as the Pacific Telecommunications Council’s O. S. Braunstein Prize in honor of his late father, a chemist, photographer, and businessman. Through the years, he encouraged many students in the field of telecommunications and information to become involved in PTC.
Yale was a scholar of the economics of information and communications industries and systems, with a focus on telecommunications policy, broadband, and the economics of intellectual property policy. He authored or co-authored more than 50 articles in the fields of economics and information science, and worked as a consultant in the United States and internationally.
Yale served on the faculty of the UC Berkeley School of Information where he was engaged in virtually all of the school’s endeavors and had a positive impact on the professional and personal lives of faculty, staff, and students. His generosity, humor, and good advice reached every corner of the Berkeley campus.
Both at PTC and UC Berkeley, he was known as a wise counselor and mentor for students and faculty alike. He was also a tireless advocate for students’ welfare. In nearly 30 years at Berkeley, Yale advised a number of Ph.D. dissertations in information economics and policy.
Award recipient will receive:
• USD 1,000 cash
• Conference registration waiver
• Opportunity to present winning paper at PTC’22
• Stipend of up to USD 1,500 for flight and accommodations
(recipient to arrange their own flight and accommodations)
• Award certificate
Terms and conditions:
• Award is open to currently enrolled students with a 2022 or later graduation date.
• Must be an original research paper pertaining to one of the topics listed in this year’s Call for Participation.
• Only papers authored by a single student or co-authored with one or more fellow students are eligible for award consideration. Papers with faculty co-author(s) are ineligible.
• Previous award recipients are not eligible to apply/submit in subsequent award cycles.
• Author will allow PTC to publish their paper and presentation slides to the PTC’22 online conference program.
• Publication of the paper elsewhere is allowed after it has been presented at PTC’22.
The 2022 Yale M. Braunstein Student Award recipient is Qin Yuan, a doctoral student from Southwest Jiaotong University, People’s Republic of China. Her paper titled “Different Types of Internet Use and the Perceived Impact of the Internet on Social Mobility: Results from a National Survey in China” examines the effect of Internet usage on perceived social mobility in the Chinese setting. Based on a nationally representative survey, the study demonstrates that, contrary to the utopian expectation of the Internet as a transformative technology, Internet experience in fact leads to a negative perceived impact of the Internet on social mobility. Personal characteristics become less important for achieving corresponding outcomes after accounting for engagement in Internet use.
Qin presented her paper at PTC’22 on Wednesday, 19 January 2022, in Understanding Adoption Patterns for Services and Implications for Economic Development, which was held from 09:00-10:15 HST online and in MPCC, Nautilus.
2020
Hoan Nguyen, Doctoral Student & Graduate Fellow, University of Southern California, USA
SPLINTERING COMMUNICATIONS: THE REALITY OF DIGITAL PRACTICES AMONG PEOPLE EXPERIENCING HOMELESSNESS IN AN URBAN GHETTO
2019
Yang Bai, Ph.D. Student, Pennsylvania State University, USA
IF YOU FUND IT, WILL THEY COME? THE IMPACT OF BROADBAND TECHNOLOGY OPPORTUNITIES PROGRAM ON COUNTY EMPLOYMENT
2018
Jenna Grzeslo, Doctoral Student, Pennsylvania State University, USA
BUILDING COMMUNITIES, BRIDGING DIVIDES: COMMUNITY TECHNOLOGY CENTERS AND SOCIAL CAPITAL
2017
Maria Massaro, Doctoral Student, Department of Technology Management and Economics, Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden
DECLINING EUROPEAN UNION’S EFFECTIVENESS IN THE INTERNATIONAL TELECOMMUNICATION UNION: EVIDENCE FROM RECENT WORLD RADIOCOMMUNICATION CONFERENCES
(Known as O.S. Braunstein Student Prize Award prior to 2017)
2016
Marcela Gómez, Doctoral Student, School of Information Sciences, University of Pittsburgh, USA
WIRELESS NETWORK VIRTUALIZATION AS AN ENABLER FOR SPECTRUM SHARING
2015
Tyler Tokunaga, Undergraduate Student, Marshall School of Business and Dornsife School of Letters, Arts and Sciences, University of Southern California, USA
JAPANESE SMARTPHONE MANUFACTURING AND STRATEGIC AGILITY
MEHEROO JUSSAWALLA RESEARCH AWARD
The Meheroo Jussawalla Research Award is awarded to the best participant research paper at PTC’s Annual Conference.
The Meheroo Jussawalla Research Award is given to the best participant research paper at PTC’s Annual Conference. Named in honor of the late international telecommunications scholar Meheroo Jussawalla, the award is open to all conference participants whose research papers have been accepted for presentation.
Meheroo Jussawalla (1923-2012) was a senior fellow emerita and expert in the economics of telecommunications at the prestigious East-West Center in Honolulu. She served as an Affiliate Faculty in the Department of Economics and the School of Communications at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. A leading scholar in the economics of telecommunications, she published 15 books in the field and garnered several national and international awards, including two from the Pacific Telecommunications Council.
Award recipient will receive:
• USD 1,000 cash
• Conference registration waiver
• Opportunity to present winning paper at PTC’22
• Stipend of up to USD 1,500 for flight and accommodations
(recipient to arrange their own flight and accommodations)
• Award certificate
Terms and conditions:
• Researchers and faculty members are welcome to apply. Students with a faculty co-author may also submit a paper for this award.
• Must be an original research paper pertaining to one of the topics listed in this year’s Call for Participation.
• Previous award recipients are not eligible to apply/submit in subsequent award cycles.
• Author will allow PTC to publish their paper and presentation slides to the PTC’22 online conference program.
• Publication of the paper elsewhere is allowed after it has been presented at PTC’22.
The 2022 Meheroo Jussawalla Research Award recipient is Dr. George Ford, chief economist of the Phoenix Center for Advanced Legal and Economic Public Policy Studies, USA. His paper titled “Race and Broadband Adoption: A Decomposition Analysis” decomposes the effects of socieconomic factors on broadband adoption distinct from the effects of race. His analysis finds that differences in socioeconomic resources like income and education do relatively little to explain the differences in adoption among racial groups. The demand for broadband appears to be influenced by unobserved factors correlated with race.
Dr. Ford presented his paper at PTC’22 on Sunday, 16 January 2022, in Understanding Societal and Digital Divides: Race-related Factors, Misinformation, and Hate Speech, which was held from 15:30-16:45 HST online and in MPCC, Nautilus.
2020
Rob McMahon, Associate Professor, University of Alberta, Canada
CO-DEVELOPING DIGITAL INCLUSION POLICY AND PROGRAMMING WITH INDIGENOUS PARTNERS: INTERVENTIONS FROM CANADA
2019
Bin Zhang, Professor and Doctoral Supervisor, Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications, People’s Republic of China
STUDY ON THE INFORMATION MEASUREMENT SYSTEM UNDER THE BACKGROUND OF [THE] EMBEDDED INFOSHPERE
Co-authors:
Zhidao Peng, Graduate Student, School of Economics and Management, Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications, People’s Republic of China
Ruyu Tang, Postgraduate Student, Management Science and Engineering, Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications, People’s Republic of China
2018
Lian Wang, Assistant Professor at the School of Economics and Management, Southwest Petroleum University, People’s Republic of China
DOES NATIONAL BROADBAND PLAN NARROW DIGITAL DIVIDE? EVIDENCE FROM CHINA
2017
Rob Frieden, Pioneers Chair and Professor, Telecommunications and Law, Pennsylvania State University, USA
GREY NUANCES IN THE BLACK AND WHITE DEBATE OVER SUBSIDIZED INTERNET ACCESS
2016
Dr. Chun Liu, Associate Professor, School of Economics and Management, Southwest Jiaotong University, People’s Republic of China
THE DECADE-LONG MARCH TOWARD A NATION ONLINE: AN EVALUATION OF CHINA’S EVOLVING BROADBAND POLICY
2015
Sung Wook Ji, Visiting Assistant Professor, Department of Media and Information, Michigan State University, USA
THE ECONOMIC EFFECTS OF DOMESTIC SEARCH ENGINES ON ONLINE ADVERTISING
Co-authors:
Young-jun Choi, Professor, Department of International Business and Trade, Kyung Hee University, Republic of Korea
Min Ho Ryu, Internet Research Team Leader, Naver Open Research Infonet (NORI), NAVER Corporation, Republic of Korea
TO SUBMIT A PAPER FOR THIS AWARD
Submit an abstract (full paper not required at the time of submission) via the Call for Participation proposal submission site by 9 July 2021. If the proposal is accepted for conference, submit the full paper by 15 October 2021 for award consideration.
TO SUBMIT A PAPER FOR THIS AWARD
Submit an abstract (full paper not required at the time of submission) via the Call for Participation proposal submission site by 9 July 2021. Submit the full paper and proof of current student status (e.g., transcript, official letter from school administrator) by 15 October 2021 for award consideration.
The 2020 Meheroo Jussawalla Research Award recipient is Rob McMahon, an associate professor in the Faculty of Extension at the University of Alberta, Canada. His paper “Co-developing Digital Inclusion Policy and Programming with Indigenous Partners: Interventions from Canada” discusses two examples of digital inclusion co-developed with Indigenous peoples in Canada: a supply-side intervention focused on Indigenous involvement in digital policy through the First Mile Connectivity Consortium, and a demand-side intervention through a land-based digital literacy camp at Piikani First Nation.
Rob presented his paper at PTC’20 on Sunday, 19 January 2020, in The Gap Between Research, Policy, and Practice to Realize Broadband in Developing Region, which was held from 09:00–10:30 in MPCC, South Pacific 2.
The 2020 Yale M. Braunstein Student Award recipient is Hoan Nguyen, a doctoral student from the University of Southern California, USA. Her paper titled “Splintering Communications: The Reality of Digital Practices Among People Experiencing Homelessness in an Urban Ghetto” examines digital practices among people experiencing homelessness in Skid Row – an urban ghetto located in downtown Los Angeles – using a grounded field research approach. Introducing the notion of “splintering communications,” the paper discusses the precarious access and use of information communication technologies, their socio-technical context, and their consequences on the lives of the urban poor.
Hoan presented her paper at PTC’20 on Sunday, 19 January 2020, in Strategies to Empower Development: Improving Financial Opportunity and Equality for the Urban and Ultra Poor, which was held from 15:30-16:45 in MPCC, South Pacific 2.
PTC’18 Call For Participation (CFP)
THE PTC’18 CALL FOR PARTICIPATION (CFP) IS NOW CLOSED TO ALL GENERAL AND ACADEMIC PROPOSALS.
Late submission: Please email us at ptc18@ptc.org.
Student Paper: Submit your full paper. Deadline: 1 September 2017
PTC is accepting applications for the Yale M. Braunstein Student Prize Award through 1 September 2017.
Applications are now being accepted for PTC’s 2018 YSP. The application deadline is 1 September 2017.