MIT SDM Systems Thinking Webinar Series
Andrea Ippolito, Presidential Innovation Fellow, US Department of Veterans Affairs; SDM Alumna
Date: October 19, 2015
About the Presentation
In this webinar, SDM alumna Andrea Ippolito, a presidential innovation fellow, will describe how the US Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) developed and implemented an innovators network. She will cover:
- the human-centered design and systems methodologies used to develop the VA Innovators Network;
- the strategy used to build a culture of innovation designed to help employees develop the best possible services and experiences for veterans and their supporters;
- the VA Innovation Creation Series, an open innovation system designed to accelerate the development of personalized prosthetics and assistive technologies for veterans with disabilities; and
- the development and deployment of an open innovation strategy–plus program at the VA using open challenge platforms such as InnoCentive and GrabCAD.
Webinar attendees will learn:
- how to apply design thinking and systems methodologies to improve the innovation culture within organizations;
- what open innovation tools organizations can use to harness the power of the crowd and improve innovation output; and
- ways to build an innovation network at your organization, no matter what your industry.
We invite you to join us!
About the Speaker
Andrea Ippolito is a presidential innovation fellow based at the US Department of Veterans Affairs Center for Innovation. A PhD student in engineering systems at MIT, she cofounded Smart Scheduling, a software firm specializing in medical appointment planning. She has also served as an innovation specialist at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital Innovation Hub, as co-leader of MIT’s Hacking Medicine, as product innovation manager at athenahealth, and as a research scientist within the corporate technology development group at Boston Scientific. As an SDM alumna, she holds a master’s degree in engineering and management from MIT. She also has a BS and a master’s degree, both in biomedical engineering, from Cornell University.
About the Series
The MIT SDM Systems Thinking Webinar Series, sponsored by the System Design & Management (SDM) program, features research conducted by SDM faculty, alumni, students, and industry partners. The series is designed to disseminate information on how to employ systems thinking to address engineering, management, and socio-political components of complex challenges. Recordings and slides from prior SDM webinars can be accessed here.
