The MIT Master's Program in Engineering and Management

Webinars

Women in SDM (WiSDM)

Technical Debt in Large Systems: Understanding the Cost of Software Complexity Daniel J. Sturtevant Ph.D. MIT and MIT SDM alumnus Many modern systems are so large that no one truly understands how they work. Because these systems exceed the bounds of human understanding, different design teams must work on separate chunks, glue their work together, and hope that the whole thing behaves as expected. read & watch>>		Daniel J. Sturtevant
Flexibility in Engineering Design Richard de Neufville, Ph.D., Dr. h.c. Professor of Engineering Systems and of Civil and Environmental Engineering Designed for those concerned with acquiring and implementing new products and systems, such as owners, managers, developers and engineers, this webinar will explain the concept of flexibility in engineering design, using non-technical language and many practical examples. read & watch>>		Richard de Neufville
Understanding and Designing Complex Sociotechnical Systems Joseph M. Sussman JR East Professor in the MIT Engineering Systems Division and Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering While command of technical factors is necessary to understanding "critical contemporary issues" (CCIs), such as climate change, economic growth, mobility, large-scale manufacturing, health, and developing country megacities, more integrated knowledge is needed to address them. read & watch>>		Joseph M. Sussman
The Crises In Employment, Consumption, Economic Growth, and the Environment: Could a Shorter Workweek and a Greener Economy Provide Relief? Nicholas A. Ashford, PhD., JD The crises we encounter today could be described as a 'perfect storm.' The global financial crisis that began in 2008 has left many people with too little money and/or willingness to spend. This results in too few goods and services being produced and too little being purchased. read & watch>>		Nicholas A. Ashford
Leadership for Learning Organizations: Lessons from healthcare, sports, and more to help you obtain better results Paul F. Levy, author The world is rife with process improvement methods designed to deal with systemic issues facing manufacturing and services firms. Although proven tools, such as Six Sigma, Re-engineering, and Lean, exist to build learning organizations with enhanced efficiency and deliver higher quality products to customers, most organizations never achieve these goals. Why do so many work redesign efforts fail? read & watch>>		Paul F. Levy
From Politics and Finance to Power Grids and Products: Addressing Complexity in the Interconnected World Dan Braha, PhD Visiting Professor, MIT Engineering Systems Division How can we manage the financial crisis? How do civil unrest, religion, and rumors spread, and how is that related to epidemics and earthquakes? Can human behavior and societal systems be studied in the same way as biological systems and complex man-made systems? read & watch>>		Dan Braha
Applying a Complex System Architecture Evaluation Method to the 2005 Ford GT 200 MPH Supercar Scott Ahlman, MIT System Design and Management alumnus President, Ahlman Engineering, Inc. Through painful experience, many companies have learned that they cannot develop a way out of an architecture issue that is uncovered late in the product development process, such as in the verification (hardware and tooling) stage. If a company gets the architecture right at the front end, it can achieve a huge competitive advantage over the short and long term. If it gets the architecture wrong, the results can be costly. Therefore, a rigorous approach to system architecture at the front end of system design is essential. No longer can a chief engineer rely primarily on experience-based intuition rather than a rigorous process and methods. read & watch>>		Scott Ahlman
Buying Common: Executing Platform Strategies in Supply Chain and Procurement Organizations Bruce Cameron, PhD Lecturer, MIT Engineering Systems Division Companies pursuing platform strategies focus heavily on market strategy and product development, often leaving procurement and supply chain decisions to downstream supporting business units. Supply chain organizations are faced with heavy investments in process complexity to manage common parts, but do not necessarily internalize the system-wide benefits of sharing parts. This webinar will explore the contract levers available to firms to incentivize commonality in their supply chains, and will discuss best practices for incorporating feedback into product development decisions. read & watch>>		Bruce Cameron
Lean Thinking in an Academic Medical Center — The Beat Goes On Dr. John E. Billi, Professor of Internal Medicine and Medical Education, University of Michigan Medical School and Associate Vice President, Medical Affairs, University of Michigan The University of Michigan Health System (UMHS) has been on the lean journey for the past seven years, creating the Michigan Quality System. UMHS has over 20,000 faculty, staff, and trainees. The goal is to create 20,000 problem solvers who are finding and fixing root causes of problems they face daily. This webinar will briefly recap UMHS' initial approach, results of early experiments, what leaders learned, and how UMHS adjusted. The webinar will cover their current set of experiments, including the transition from scattered projects led by coaches to an integrated approach that incorporates People Development into Process Improvement. read & watch>>		Dr. John E. Billi
Multisourcing Conflicts: What does a manager focus on? Nirmalya Banerjee, SDM '11 Development Manager, Open Access Technologies International Inc. Multisourcing has its own set of challenges. With more people from different organizations on board, conflicts are bound to arise. The complex nature of these conflicts calls for specialized resolution strategies, which means more effort for the client managers. read & watch>>		Nirmalya Banerjee, SDM '11
Strategies for Evolution and Sustenance of Network Ecosystem Saujanya Shrivastava, SDM '11 Senior Product Manager, Amazon Managing a network platform business can be a complex proposition for the platform owner due to various intricacies that are associated with it. These platforms have distinct users, each having exclusive needs and requirements. Also, success of one side is closely interlinked to the success of the other. read & watch>>		Saujanya Shrivastava, SDM '11
The Incumbent's Dilemma: To fight, follow or flee the attacking innovation? Dr. Chintan Vaishnav, Postdoctoral Researcher at MIT and Sergey Naumov, SDM '11 Why do some new technologies become dominant while others fail or coexist with the old? We explore this question by first developing model-driven theory using a comprehensive system dynamics model of technology and industry disruption. Our research uncovers firm-, product-, and environment-level drivers responsible for the success or failure of a new technology and a firm. We then use appropriate case studies to show why in some situations incumbents retain market share, while in others new entrants drive them out. read & watch>>		Dr. Chintan Vaishnav Sergey Naumov, SDM '11
Identifying Architectural Modularity in the Smart Grid Brad Rogers One significant challenge facing a broader deployment of modern grid technologies is integrating with legacy systems while driving toward elegant, interoperable solutions in future grid integration efforts. This challenge is compounded by the de facto approach of customizing point-to-point integration solutions, resulting in an "accidental architecture" of the existing grid. read & watch>>		Brad Rogers
Using Systems Engineering Tools to Design a Smart Energy Box Jonathan Hickey A network that distributes power generated by Renewable Energy Supplies (RESs) will require a "smart box" in each home in the network to meter power and to connect to and communicate with other elements of the network. These smart boxes will also have to function as control devices to ensure safe and reliable operation of the grid. Use of systems engineering tools such as stakeholder analysis and axiomatic design and STAMP (Systems Theoretic Accident Model and Processes) was effective for development of initial customer attributes and associated functional requirements, design parameters, and process variables, respectively. Inclusion of system-level safety analysis such as STPA in conjunction with the aforementioned systems engineering tools in the conceptual design phase is highly effective in capturing key functional requirements early in the design and development of complex socio-technical systems. read & watch>>		Jonathan Hickey
The Transformation of the Datacenter: How to solve the exascale problem with this one weird trick discovered by a housewife in Cambridge. Kurt Keville, SDM '09 Research Specialist, MIT Institute for Soldier Nanotechnologies This webinar will offer a comprehensive overview on the primary issues facing the modern datacenter in the drive to become higher performing and less costly, and methods to address those issues. This presentation will examine the immediate and long-term goals of the primary stakeholders in the supercomputing community, including government, academia, and industry, all three of which have an increasing footprint in the High-Performance Computing (HPC) business. read & watch>>		Kurt Keville, SDM '09
System Approach to Prevent Safety and Quality Problems in Modern Automobiles Qi Van Eikema Hommes, PhD Research Associate and Lecturer, MIT Engineering Systems Division Today’s automobiles are characterized by complex Cyber Physical Systems (CPS), where numerous embedded devices are networked to control physical hardware components. These systems are software intensive, and typically developed by globally distributed large multidisciplinary teams. Many such systems already experienced quality and safety problems that could not be traced back to component failures. One such example is the recent Toyota Unintended Acceleration case. read>>		Qi Van Eikema Hommes, PhD
The Emergence of a Digital Money Ecosystem Irving Wladawsky-Berger, PhD Visiting Lecturer, MIT Engineering Systems Division and MIT Sloan School of Management We are in the early stages of a very important transformation—the transition to a digital money ecosystem. This transformation is likely to be among the most exciting, important, and challenging initiatives the world will undertake in the coming decades. read & watch>>		Irving Wladawsky-Berger, PhD
How Self-Organizing "Tribes" are Transforming the Solar Industry Donny Holaschutz, SDM '10 Co-founder and CEO, Bloomgi This webinar will offer an interdisciplinary perspective on solar innovation in the United States by examining over 100 case studies. It will use these research findings to describe how self-organizing groups, or "tribes," have become a driving force in transforming the solar innovation industry nationally and globally, and also focus on their potential to transform the value network. read & watch>>		Donny Holaschutz
A Systems Approach for Addressing the Crisis in Employment and Consumer Demand Nicholas A. Ashford, PhD., JD Professor of Technology and Policy Director, MIT Technology and Law Program A sustainable industrial system depends not only on good environmental and public health outcomes, but also on sustainable employment and earning capacity. These concerns are likely to dominate future national political debates, requiring changes in the nature of work and employment, and in the ownership of productive capital. Making the economy greener, while certainly necessary for long-term economic and societal survival, does not necessarily mean more and better paying jobs on a large enough scale to make serious progress to reducing unemployment and underemployment. read & watch>>		Nicholas A. Ashford
Investigations of Platform Savings Reveal Systemic Management Challenges Bruce Cameron, PhD Lecturer, MIT Engineering Systems Division Companies from aerospace to white goods use platforming strategies to deliver more variety to their customers while saving internally by sharing parts and overhead. However, many firms fail to earn a return on their investment in platforms—Black & Decker famously dropped its platforming strategy one generation after a landmark tool family design. This webinar will explore whether such failures are the result of flawed strategy or execution challenges. read & watch>>		Bruce Cameron
How Software Learns: What Happens after Software Is Shipped Christine Miyachi SDM Alumnus and Principal Systems Engineer and Architect, Xerox Corporation Software architecture has sometimes been compared to building architecture, but that comparison has also been faulted as inaccurate because software has a capacity for adaptive change, while buildings are permanent. Or, at least they appear to be. In fact, buildings are complex systems that change drastically over time—as noted in Stewart Brand's book, How Buildings Learn. Software engineers have a lot to learn from architecture, and building designers can learn a lot from modern software systems. This webinar will examine the aspects of both systems that change—slowly and quickly—with a focus on two system properties in particular: maintainability and extensibility. Can we construct both buildings and software systems with a high degree of maintainability and extensibility? Modern agile software processes produce systems that may be missing these two key properties, and buildings have ignored them for years. This webinar will reveal how software systems can learn and evolve just as buildings do. read & watch>>		Christine Miyachi
Creative Experimentation: Developing a Skill Critical for Managing Complex Operating Systems (A two-part series) Steven J. Spear Senior Lecturer, MIT Sloan School of Management; Senior Lecturer, MIT Engineering Systems Division; Senior Fellow, Institute for Healthcare Improvement; and author, The High Velocity Edge A broad-based capacity for experimentation is critical for organizations to succeed because the systems in which people are embedded are increasingly complex and fast. For instance, medical treatment used to be accomplished by "going to the doctor," a sole practitioner supported by a handful of other professionals, who mastered a body of scientific knowledge through steady practice. Now, thanks to the tremendous advances in medical science and technology, diagnosis and treatment span myriad disciplines and countless professionals. read & watch>>		Steven J. Spear
Inventory Productivity: Missing Link Between Supply Chain Management and Sales Jonathan L.S. Byrnes Senior Lecturer, MIT Traditionally, supply chain and sales have been managed relatively independently, despite the critical impact that each has on the other. Systems thinking provides the key to linking these two critical business functions. read & watch>>		Jonathan L.S. Byrnes
Using Lean Thinking to Transform a Large Academic Medical Center John E. Billi, MD Professor of Internal Medicine and Medical Education and Associate Dean for Clinical Affairs, University of Michigan Medical School Associate Vice President for Medical Affairs, University of Michigan Lean thinking is a business system that empowers frontline workers to find and fix the root causes of problems they face daily using the scientific method of problem solving. This philosophy has been applied successfully in many industries, ranging from manufacturing to service. In the past decade, many hospitals and other healthcare entities have begun to use lean thinking to improve operational performance. read & watch>>		John E. Billi
Start-Up Thinking: How Systems Thinking Helps Entrepreneurial Ventures Start, Grow, and Mature Sorin Grama, Founder and CEO, Promethean Power Systems; SDM Alumnus Sam White, Founder and Vice President for Business Development, Promethean Power Systems Soon after a business plan is hatched and long before manufacturing ramps up, start-ups begin to apply systems design principles to create their breakthrough products. It turns out that systems engineering, an art developed and perfected in large organizations, applies just as well to small entrepreneurial ventures. What can start-ups learn from the likes of Ford and Boeing? Sorin Grama and Sam White, who launched Promethean Power Systems just after Grama graduated from SDM, will discuss how systems thinking shaped their start-up journey and helped them address social challenges while developing their first product. read & watch>>		Sorin Grama and Sam White
Power System Balancing with High Renewable Penetration: The Potential of Demand Response in Hawai'i Karl Critz, SDM '10 Clean Energy Innovator and SDM Student The state of Hawai'i plans to obtain 40% of its electricity from renewable energy by 2030. Balancing intermittent wind with fossil fuel plants can be expensive, slowing adoption. A social and technical infrastructure for temporary reductions in load (demand response) enables 4% greater wind harvesting at 10% less operating cost. This webinar will focus on an investigation that applied a stochastic unit commitment optimization to account for uncertain wind forecasts. Fast-responding demand enabled existing thermal generators to run more efficiently, increased the grid's reliability margins, and infrequently impacted customers. The demand response modeled here could put Hawai'i on a pragmatic path to achieving its energy independence goals and will provide lessons for renewable energy integration on the mainland. read & watch>>		Karl Critz
A Systems View of Enabling Enterprise Change Mark Moran, SDM '09 Manager of Portfolio Management and Marketing Operations, Enterprise Advanced Marketing Group, John Deere Enterprise change is hard, especially for mature, successful companies. Many of the keys to accomplishing enterprise change come from seeing the enterprise itself as a complex system. This presentation will discuss many of the ingredients necessary for an enterprise to change itself and acquire new capabilities. It will be based on Moran's experience with enterprise change efforts at John Deere. read & watch>>		Mark Moran
Transforming the Industrial State: The Ultimate Complex System Challenge Nicholas A. Ashford, PhD, JD Professor of Technology and Policy, MIT Director, MIT Technology and Law Program The most crucial problem in achieving a more sustainable industrial system is lock-in or path dependency due to (1) the failure to envision, design, and implement policies that achieve co-optimization, or the mutually reinforcing of social goals (economic welfare, environmental quality, and earning capacity), and (2) entrenched economic and political interests that game (and gain from) the present system and advancement of its current trends. read & watch>>		Nicholas A. Ashford
Optimizing the Supply Chain of Medical Devices: A Shared SaaS Platform for Suppliers and Providers (A two-part series) Jean–Claude Saghbini, SDM '03 CTO, WaveMark Inc. The United States spends over twice as much on healthcare per person as other industrialized nations. This has prompted initiatives to improve healthcare outcomes and lower costs. read & watch>>		Jean–Claude Saghbini
Why Systems Thinking is Not a Natural Act Ricardo Valerdi, Associate Professor, University of Arizona Competence in systems thinking is implicitly assumed among the population of engineers and managers — in fact, most technical people claim to be systems thinkers. But this competence is not as prevalent as these assertions might lead one to assume. Controlled experiments show that systems thinking performance, even among highly educated people, is poor. This presentation provides a set of systems thinking competencies and demonstrates how these are not as common as advertised. We also discuss how these competencies can be measured. read & watch>>		Ricardo Valerdi
Anomalies or Leading Indicators? Recent System Failures in IT Security, Manufacturing, and Natural Resource Extraction Steven J. Spear, Senior Lecturer, MIT Sloan School of Management, Senior Lecturer, MIT Engineering Systems Division In recent months, we've been awash in major system failures -- BP, Toyota, a host of IT security breaches at the International Monetary Fund, Apple, Sony, Citibank, and elsewhere. The purpose of this webinar is to explore two alternative explanations of why so many complex operating systems have failed so significantly in rapid succession The webinar will also offer insight into how complex operating systems can be managed for far greater success. read & watch>>		Steven J. Spear
Five Capabilities for Enterprise Change: Approaches for Integrating Continuous Improvement and Strategic Change Across Organizations George Roth, Principal Research Associate, MIT Successful organizations must do more than manage their own changes; they must also adapt and change the larger system in which they operate. The history of and prognosis for managing organizational changes is not good. Researchers consistently find that nearly two-thirds of change efforts, whether re-engineering, quality, lean, or other improvement initiatives, do not achieve their goals. There is perhaps nothing more important in business today than for managers and their organizations to be able to learn and change effectively. read & watch>>		George Roth
Transformation at Bank of America: An Enterprise Systems Analysis Daniel Wallance, SDM ’11 With a historic collapse of world financial markets and the nearly finished integration of the Merrill Lynch and Countrywide acquisitions, Bank of America Corporation found itself looking inward for initiatives to decrease operational risk and streamline bank operations. read & watch>>		Daniel Wallance
Scientific Methods to Reduce System Testing Cost and Risk Madhav S. Phadke, PhD; President; Phadke Associates, Inc Software and system testing costs industry hundreds of millions of dollars annually. In addition, testing takes multiple months, delaying time to market of key technologies. In this current economic environment, several major defense and commercial firms are embarking on using orthogonal arrays (OA) to reduce the cost of testing and time to market while ensuring that defects are not passed onto the customer. read & watch>>		Madhav S. Phadke
Designing Systems for People Todd Reily, Lead Human Factors Engineer, The MITRE Corporation Today's consumer technology market has evolved in complexity and interconnectedness at an ever-increasing rate. As these products and services become increasingly intertwined, the opportunity for overwhelming the people that use them has heightened tremendously. As a result of this situation, the importance of "user experience" design has risen in the eyes of most organizations. This presentation presents a systems-based, design-centric framework for producing great product or service experiences. It will demonstrate the importance of this type of approach for understanding markets, developing concepts, providing vision, managing uncertainty, crafting requirements, creating prototypes, and testing new markets. read & watch>>		Todd Reily
How to Manage a Profitability Turnaround Jonathan L.S. Byrnes, Senior Lecturer, MIT We now live in the Age of Precision Markets, yet most of the management processes taught in business schools were developed for the prior Age of Mass Markets. Today's savviest managers are exploiting this disconnect by rethinking strategy and, in the process, developing fresh approaches to customer relations, operations, and metrics. Dr. Jonathan Byrnes believes that every business has enormous potential waiting to be unleashed and in this webinar, he offers bold new strategies to help you find and grow your islands of profit. read & watch>>		Jonathan L.S. Byrnes
The Changing Nature of Research and Innovation in the 21st Century Irving Wladawsky-Berger, PhD, Chairman Emeritus, IBM Academy of Technology, Visiting Lecturer of Engineering Systems Over the past century, science and technology have been successfully applied to innovation in the industrial sector of the economy, leading to very high productivity and quality, and to the development of highly sophisticated and complex objects like airplanes, skyscrapers and microprocessors. The 21st century defines a new set of challenges, especially in the complexity of the systems we are now developing in all kinds of industries, including energy, health care, financial services and urban systems. read & watch>>		Irving Wladawsky-Berger
Systems Thinking and the Development of a Large-Scale, Secure Network for Comparative Effectiveness Healthcare Research David Hartzband, D.Sc., Lecturer, MIT Engineering Systems Division SCANNER (SCAlable Nationwide Network for Effectiveness Research, R01 HS19913-01) is a three-year, $8M grant from the Agency for Healthcare Research & Quality made to the Division of Biomedical Informatics at the University of California, San Diego. In this presentation, Dr. Hartzband will describe how the design of the SCANNER network takes advantage of innovative thinking in design and deployment. The network does this by enabling edge nodes that own resources (data &/or function) to specify security and usage policies that are separate from application or database logic and that are resolved by specialized servers distributed on the network. The network also makes use of a syndication model for identity correlation that provides a mechanism for very high probability correlation of a user identity with a set of known attributes. The combination of these mechanisms allows for easy sharing of data, analytic function & results across sites. read & watch>>		David Hartzband
Using Quality by Design (QbD) and Systems Thinking in the Development, Commercialization and Life Cycle Management of Medicines and Vaccines Anando A. Chowdhury, Director, Organizational Strategy, Management & Operations, Global Science, Technology & Commercialization, Merck/MSD Healthcare solution providers developing innovative medicines work within a complex ecosystem of pharmaceuticals and biologics technologies, shifting political, economic and regulatory trends, and a multitude of stakeholders that includes patients, physicians, nurses, payers, partners and competitors. What is at stake is nothing short of collectively bending the course of global human health towards improved wellness for all humanity. In this extremely complex environment, there is one strategic certainty: systems thinking is essential. read & watch>>		Anando A. Chowdhury
Dynamic Time Metered Delivery (DTMD): Potential Effect on the Goals of the Federal Communications Commission's National Broadband Plan Brian Wenford Jesse Posey, Cofounder, President, and CEO, TelePulse Technologies Corporation The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has stated that broadband is the great infrastructure challenge of the early 21st century. On March 16, 2010, the FCC published "Connecting America: The National Broadband Plan." One of the goals of the FCC plan is to have 100M US households with affordable access to actual download speeds of at least 100Mbps and actual upload speeds of at least 50Mbps. The FCC also has the goal that every American should have affordable access to robust broadband (5Mbps) service. This webinar examines the potential use of Dynamic Time Metered Delivery (DTMD) in the furtherance of these goals using data and analysis from public sources and TelePulse Technologies Corporation (inventors of DTMD). read & watch>>		B.W. "Jess" Posey
Status of Grid-scale Energy Storage and Strategies for Accelerating Cost-effective Deployment John Kluza, Business Development Manager for Emerging Applications at Satcon Technology The development of emerging grid-scale energy storage technologies offers great potential to improve the architecture and operation of the electrical grid. This is especially important in the face of increased reliance on clean, dependable electricity and with the influx of renewable generation and smart grid technology. However, at the present, grid-scale energy storage is still in an early, developing stage. read & watch>>		John Kluza
Leadership, Innovation, and Operational Excellence: How Market Leaders Beat the Competition Steven J. Spear, Senior Lecturer, MIT Sloan School of Management and Senior Fellow at the Institute for Healthcare Improvement A few, select organizations create substantial, sustainable competitive advantage for themselves even in the absence of strong market position. They do this by generating and sustaining exceptional rates of internally generating improvement and innovation, leading to unmatchable levels of performance--quality, productivity, reliability, responsiveness, safety, and so forth. read & watch>>		Steven J. Spear
System Interaction Complexity Metrics and Its Application to Embedded Software Systems Qi Van Eikema Hommes, PhD, Research Scientist, MIT Engineering Systems Division System designers have long practiced decomposition and modularization to manage the complexity of systems. The byproduct of modularization is system interactions. Complex system interactions often took designers by surprise, causing schedule delays, rework, resource overruns, system integration challenges, failures, and accidents. read & watch>>		Dr. Van Eikema Hommes
Systems Thinking and Software Architecture Christine Miyachi, SDM Alumnus and Principle Systems Engineer and Architect, Xerox Corporation Software architecture is an elusive topic -- even to professionals who work with software day in and day out. Although software architecture is often deemed required, it's frequently dropped when the schedule gets tight (and the schedule always gets tight). However, software architecture will occur by default by daily decisions made by a project team. This webinar highlights specific tools proven to work in real project situations. read & watch>>		Christine Miyachi
On Developing Business Architectures: A Multi-Framework Evaluation of an Early-Stage Enterprise Mario Montoya, SDM alumnus and Manager, Business Development, OmniGuide, Inc. This presentation examines the efficiency and effectiveness of using multiple frameworks to analyze an early stage enterprise within the medical technology industry, Lentesco Luminarium. The company faces a critical choice between two growth strategies: vertical penetration within existing modalities or horizontal growth into new modalities, so Montoya will explore what tools might inform and guide the executive team to make the right decision for Lentesco's particular industry, maturity, and size. In addition to the standard Lean Advancement Initiative suite of tools, he uses Nightingale and Rhodes' eight Enterprise Architecture views, Kaplan's Balanced Scorecard, Piepenbrock's Evolution of Business Ecosystems, McKinsey's 7S framework, and Grave's Spiral Dynamics. He concludes that Lentesco needs to improve transparency and communication, and he suggests the use of the McKinsey 7S framework to put concepts into perspective as simply as possible. For a multiple perspective evaluation, he suggests the EA 8 Views framework. read & watch>>		Mario Montoya Photo by L. Barry Hetherington
Analysis of Value Creation and Value Capture in the Microfluidics Market Shailendra Anand Yadav, SDM '10 and Bio-Automation Manager, The Eli and Edythe L. Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT In the last two decades, microfluidics has been changing the shape of genomics, drug discovery, proteomics, and point-of-care diagnostics. Advances in the technology have resulted in faster analysis time, increased throughput, and reduced cost, among other important benefits. However, Yadav reports that the life sciences end-users and the microfluidics players themselves are far from fully capturing the value of these advances. As an immature technology, microfluidics is to-date still only in the hands of innovators and early adopters, who are academic laboratories and research institutes. He will analyze the current state of the market and discuss genomics and point-of-care diagnostics that have captured the most value from the technology, while drug discovery has seen the least. He will also recommend short- and long-term strategies for increasing value capture and accelerating the adoption of microfluidics. read & watch>>		Shailendra Anand Yadav Photo by L. Barry Hetherington
The Evolution of Business Ecosystems: Interspecies Competition in the Steel Industry Akshat Mathur, SDM alum and Ted Piepenbrock, Ph.D. This presentation builds on the work of Theodore F. Piepenbrock, whose 2009 MIT doctoral thesis, "Towards a Theory of Evolution of Business Ecosystems," proposed that firms in the same industry vary systematically in performance over time as a result of differences in architecture. Piepenbrock defines architecture in terms of the strength, closeness, and the specific morphology of relationships that exist between the core firm and the four markets that are its key stakeholders—product markets, capital markets, supplier markets and labor markets. Mathur extends Piepenbrock's model to examine its validity in commodity industries, specifically the steel industry from the 1860s to the present. read more>>		Akshat Mathur Photo by L. Barry Hetherington Theodore Piepenbrock Photo by L. Barry Hetherington

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Webinars

Technical Debt in Large Systems: Understanding the Cost of Software Complexity

Daniel J. Sturtevant Ph.D. MIT and MIT SDM alumnus

Flexibility in Engineering Design

Richard de Neufville, Ph.D., Dr. h.c. Professor of Engineering Systems and of Civil and Environmental Engineering

Understanding and Designing Complex Sociotechnical Systems

Joseph M. Sussman JR East Professor in the MIT Engineering Systems Division and Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering

The Crises In Employment, Consumption, Economic Growth, and the Environment: Could a Shorter Workweek and a Greener Economy Provide Relief?

Nicholas A. Ashford, PhD., JD

Leadership for Learning Organizations: Lessons from healthcare, sports, and more to help you obtain better results

Paul F. Levy, author

From Politics and Finance to Power Grids and Products: Addressing Complexity in the Interconnected World

Dan Braha, PhD Visiting Professor, MIT Engineering Systems Division

Applying a Complex System Architecture Evaluation Method to the 2005 Ford GT 200 MPH Supercar

Scott Ahlman, MIT System Design and Management alumnus President, Ahlman Engineering, Inc.

Buying Common: Executing Platform Strategies in Supply Chain and Procurement Organizations

Bruce Cameron, PhD Lecturer, MIT Engineering Systems Division

Lean Thinking in an Academic Medical Center — The Beat Goes On

Dr. John E. Billi, Professor of Internal Medicine and Medical Education, University of Michigan Medical School and Associate Vice President, Medical Affairs, University of Michigan

Multisourcing Conflicts: What does a manager focus on?

Nirmalya Banerjee, SDM '11 Development Manager, Open Access Technologies International Inc.

Strategies for Evolution and Sustenance of Network Ecosystem

Saujanya Shrivastava, SDM '11 Senior Product Manager, Amazon

The Incumbent's Dilemma: To fight, follow or flee the attacking innovation?

Dr. Chintan Vaishnav, Postdoctoral Researcher at MIT and Sergey Naumov, SDM '11

Identifying Architectural Modularity in the Smart Grid

Brad Rogers

Using Systems Engineering Tools to Design a Smart Energy Box

Jonathan Hickey

The Transformation of the Datacenter: How to solve the exascale problem with this one weird trick discovered by a housewife in Cambridge.

Kurt Keville, SDM '09 Research Specialist, MIT Institute for Soldier Nanotechnologies

System Approach to Prevent Safety and Quality Problems in Modern Automobiles

Qi Van Eikema Hommes, PhD Research Associate and Lecturer, MIT Engineering Systems Division

The Emergence of a Digital Money Ecosystem

Irving Wladawsky-Berger, PhD Visiting Lecturer, MIT Engineering Systems Division and MIT Sloan School of Management

How Self-Organizing "Tribes" are Transforming the Solar Industry

Donny Holaschutz, SDM '10 Co-founder and CEO, Bloomgi

A Systems Approach for Addressing the Crisis in Employment and Consumer Demand

Nicholas A. Ashford, PhD., JD Professor of Technology and Policy Director, MIT Technology and Law Program

Investigations of Platform Savings Reveal Systemic Management Challenges

Bruce Cameron, PhD Lecturer, MIT Engineering Systems Division

How Software Learns: What Happens after Software Is Shipped

Christine Miyachi SDM Alumnus and Principal Systems Engineer and Architect, Xerox Corporation

Creative Experimentation: Developing a Skill Critical for Managing Complex Operating Systems (A two-part series)

Steven J. Spear Senior Lecturer, MIT Sloan School of Management; Senior Lecturer, MIT Engineering Systems Division; Senior Fellow, Institute for Healthcare Improvement; and author, The High Velocity Edge

Inventory Productivity: Missing Link Between Supply Chain Management and Sales

Jonathan L.S. Byrnes Senior Lecturer, MIT

Using Lean Thinking to Transform a Large Academic Medical Center

John E. Billi, MD Professor of Internal Medicine and Medical Education and Associate Dean for Clinical Affairs, University of Michigan Medical School Associate Vice President for Medical Affairs, University of Michigan

Start-Up Thinking: How Systems Thinking Helps Entrepreneurial Ventures Start, Grow, and Mature

Sorin Grama, Founder and CEO, Promethean Power Systems; SDM Alumnus Sam White, Founder and Vice President for Business Development, Promethean Power Systems

Power System Balancing with High Renewable Penetration: The Potential of Demand Response in Hawai'i

Karl Critz, SDM '10 Clean Energy Innovator and SDM Student

A Systems View of Enabling Enterprise Change

Mark Moran, SDM '09 Manager of Portfolio Management and Marketing Operations, Enterprise Advanced Marketing Group, John Deere

Transforming the Industrial State: The Ultimate Complex System Challenge

Nicholas A. Ashford, PhD, JD Professor of Technology and Policy, MIT Director, MIT Technology and Law Program

Optimizing the Supply Chain of Medical Devices: A Shared SaaS Platform for Suppliers and Providers (A two-part series)

Jean–Claude Saghbini, SDM '03 CTO, WaveMark Inc.

Why Systems Thinking is Not a Natural Act

Ricardo Valerdi, Associate Professor, University of Arizona

Anomalies or Leading Indicators? Recent System Failures in IT Security, Manufacturing, and Natural Resource Extraction

Steven J. Spear, Senior Lecturer, MIT Sloan School of Management, Senior Lecturer, MIT Engineering Systems Division

Five Capabilities for Enterprise Change: Approaches for Integrating Continuous Improvement and Strategic Change Across Organizations

George Roth, Principal Research Associate, MIT

Transformation at Bank of America: An Enterprise Systems Analysis

Daniel Wallance, SDM ’11

Scientific Methods to Reduce System Testing Cost and Risk

Madhav S. Phadke, PhD; President; Phadke Associates, Inc

Designing Systems for People

Todd Reily, Lead Human Factors Engineer, The MITRE Corporation

How to Manage a Profitability Turnaround

Jonathan L.S. Byrnes, Senior Lecturer, MIT

The Changing Nature of Research and Innovation in the 21st Century

Irving Wladawsky-Berger, PhD, Chairman Emeritus, IBM Academy of Technology, Visiting Lecturer of Engineering Systems

Systems Thinking and the Development of a Large-Scale, Secure Network for Comparative Effectiveness Healthcare Research

David Hartzband, D.Sc., Lecturer, MIT Engineering Systems Division

Using Quality by Design (QbD) and Systems Thinking in the Development, Commercialization and Life Cycle Management of Medicines and Vaccines

Anando A. Chowdhury, Director, Organizational Strategy, Management & Operations, Global Science, Technology & Commercialization, Merck/MSD

Dynamic Time Metered Delivery (DTMD): Potential Effect on the Goals of the Federal Communications Commission's National Broadband Plan

Daniel J. Sturtevant
Ph.D. MIT and MIT SDM alumnus

Richard de Neufville, Ph.D., Dr. h.c.
Professor of Engineering Systems and of Civil and Environmental Engineering

Joseph M. Sussman
JR East Professor in the MIT Engineering Systems Division and Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering

Dan Braha, PhD
Visiting Professor, MIT Engineering Systems Division

Scott Ahlman, MIT System Design and Management alumnus
President, Ahlman Engineering, Inc.

Bruce Cameron, PhD
Lecturer, MIT Engineering Systems Division

Dr. John E. Billi, Professor of Internal Medicine and Medical Education,
University of Michigan Medical School and Associate Vice President, Medical Affairs, University of Michigan

Nirmalya Banerjee, SDM '11
Development Manager, Open Access Technologies International Inc.

Saujanya Shrivastava, SDM '11
Senior Product Manager, Amazon

Dr. Chintan Vaishnav, Postdoctoral Researcher at MIT
and Sergey Naumov, SDM '11

Kurt Keville, SDM '09
Research Specialist, MIT Institute for Soldier Nanotechnologies

Qi Van Eikema Hommes, PhD
Research Associate and Lecturer, MIT Engineering Systems Division

Irving Wladawsky-Berger, PhD
Visiting Lecturer, MIT Engineering Systems Division and
MIT Sloan School of Management

Donny Holaschutz, SDM '10
Co-founder and CEO, Bloomgi

Nicholas A. Ashford, PhD., JD
Professor of Technology and Policy
Director, MIT Technology and Law Program

Bruce Cameron, PhD
Lecturer, MIT Engineering Systems Division

Christine Miyachi
SDM Alumnus and Principal Systems Engineer and Architect, Xerox Corporation

Steven J. Spear
Senior Lecturer, MIT Sloan School of Management; Senior Lecturer, MIT Engineering Systems Division; Senior Fellow, Institute for Healthcare Improvement; and author, The High Velocity Edge

Jonathan L.S. Byrnes
Senior Lecturer, MIT

John E. Billi, MD
Professor of Internal Medicine and Medical Education and Associate Dean for Clinical Affairs, University of Michigan Medical School
Associate Vice President for Medical Affairs, University of Michigan

Sorin Grama, Founder and CEO, Promethean Power Systems; SDM Alumnus
Sam White, Founder and Vice President for Business Development, Promethean Power Systems

Karl Critz, SDM '10
Clean Energy Innovator and SDM Student

Mark Moran, SDM '09
Manager of Portfolio Management and Marketing Operations,
Enterprise Advanced Marketing Group, John Deere

Nicholas A. Ashford, PhD, JD
Professor of Technology and Policy, MIT
Director, MIT Technology and Law Program

Jean–Claude Saghbini, SDM '03
CTO, WaveMark Inc.