Remining PICMET: 1987–2008

Abstract

The Engineering and Technology Management Research Council (ETMERC) is an international association for professionals in the field of management of technology. ETMERC encourages education in the field of management of technology, and serves as a central information resource for practitioners. As part of its mission the association facilitates the exchange of information, supports the expansion of engineering and technology management, and assists in benchmarking for educational standards. Understandably, the organization is interested in metrics of knowledge creation and diffusion in support of its mission. The Portland International Center for Management of Engineering and Technology (PICMET) hosted nine conferences on the field of management of technology. The proceedings of the conferences serve as a knowledge base for further analysis in this paper. There are three key contributions of this paper: the paper updates previous efforts to mine PICMET; provides key indicators in support of the ETMERC mission; and examines new approaches to modeling and forecasting trends in knowledge. The paper employs a loglets approach for understanding waves of concepts emerging over time. The paper also employs a hierarchical random graph technique for analyzing the architectural and combinatorial character of these emergent concepts. The paper concludes with a reflection on the relevance of the findings for supporting the educational and informational mission of ETMERC.