The Impact of Electric Vehicles and Infrastructure on Economic Development and Energy Consumption

Both my technical capstone and STS research explore how emerging technologies drive large-scale institutional and societal change—whether in government operations or public infrastructure. My capstone focuses on modernizing outdated supply chain systems used by federal agencies, while my STS project investigates the economic and infrastructural impacts of electric vehicle (EV) adoption. Together, these projects highlight a central theme: technologies do not operate in isolation; their development, implementation, and effects are shaped by—and in turn shape—social contexts.

The capstone project addresses inefficiencies within the Department of Defense (DoD) and Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which currently rely on the platform that was developed a long time ago for managing logistics and supply requests. In response, my team at Ernst & Young is developing “Disconnected Operations” (DiscOps), a modern, web-based application designed to streamline operations through improved performance, usability, and data security. The application features a React front-end, a scalable Spring Boot backend, and a secure SQL database architecture that adheres to ACID principles. Authentication and role-based access are implemented through JSON Web Tokens (JWT), ensuring secure and efficient user management. Initial results demonstrate a substantial reduction in latency and an improved user experience. However, the technical improvements alone are not enough; for DiscOps to be truly successful, it must be adopted, trusted, and integrated across complex governmental structures—highlighting the importance of considering the human and technological dimensions of system deployment at large.

This concern drives the core of my STS research, which applies the Social Shaping of Technology (SST) framework to understand the impact of EV adoption on economic and infrastructure development. SST challenges the idea of technological determinism by arguing that technology is not an independent force that shapes society on its own. Instead, social, political, and institutional factors influence how technologies are developed, adopted, and used. I use this framework to examine how the rise of EVs affects job creation, infrastructure planning, and regional economic development. My analysis shows that EVs are not simply replacing the current lineup of vehicles—they are prompting positive shifts in public policy, economic markets, and long-term investment decisions. The benefits of EVs, such as environmental sustainability and economic growth in green industries, are driven by how governments and communities invest in charging infrastructure, electricity grids, and public awareness. These choices are not technologically inevitable; they are socially shaped and politically contested by a wide group of people of varying interests.

Viewed together, my capstone and STS research emphasize that the success of technological systems depends not only on engineering excellence but also on how well they align with the institutions and communities they intend to serve. DiscOps has the potential to modernize critical federal operations, just as EVs have the potential to drive sustainable economic development. But both cases underscore that these outcomes are shaped by human decisions, institutional dynamics, and policy frameworks. The Social Shaping of Technology framework provides a powerful tool for understanding and designing innovations that succeed not just technically, but socially.