About

Alan L. Porter's major concentration is technology forecasting and assessment. He served on the University of Washington faculty through 1974. In 1975 he joined the H. Milton Stewart School of Industrial and Systems Engineering at Georgia Tech, where he now serves as Professor Emeritus. He also is Professor Emeritus of Public Policy and co-directs the Technology Policy and Assessment Center at Georgia Tech.

Dr. Porter has taught short courses on Analysis of Emerging Technologies, Competitive Technological Intelligence, and Technology Forecasting & Assessment at Georgia Tech, various IBM locations, and in Brazil, Mexico, South Africa, and Botswana. He has authored some 230 professional publications, including the following books (as author or co-author, editor or co-editor):

- Tech Mining, Wiley, 2005

- Forecasting and Management of Technology, Wiley, 1991; 2011

 

Current interests focus on "analyses of emerging technologies."  This entails "text mining"  to profile research domains, determine competitor emphases, and generate "innovation indicators." Rapid profiling of thousands of abstract records on R&D activity can be performed in one day.

Recent projects include "Indicators of Technological Emergence" funded by NSF (2018-2021).

He co-founded the International Association for Impact Assessment and served it variously as editor of the Impact Assessment Bulletin, Secretary, Executive Director, and President (1995-96).

Further information on his research can be found at: http://tpac.gatech.edu.

Many publications are available at: http://www.researchgate.net/profile/Alan_Porter4.