Tech Trek 2016

Top speed in a Tesla, tours of a robot-staffed warehouse, and top-secret experimental labs—all part of an SDM Tech Trek! 

The program’s annual trip to the San Francisco Bay Area took 29 students from the SDM, IDM, and SDM Certificate programs to nine companies over four and a half days this past March. From global companies such as Google and Amazon to smaller startups, including Planet Labs and C3 IoT, students got an up-close look at a diverse range of companies and heard from project managers, vice presidents, and engineers about how their businesses use systems thinking to meet real-world needs. Students were able to go for a ride with SDM alum Juan Romeu at Tesla in one of the company’s Model X SUVs, observe the packing process at an Amazon fulfillment center with technology developed by current SDM student Vikas Enti, and discuss the design process for exciting upcoming projects at Google Labs, a Visa Innovation Center, and an Intel design lab.

While in the Bay Area, the Trekkers also got the chance to network with an array of area alumni. Meetups were held in San Francisco and Palo Alto, and many SDM alums came to meet the new students, share memories of MIT, and catch up on all the changes to the program. If you didn’t make it to the gatherings and you plan to be in the Bay Area next March, email us so we can make sure you’re on the regional list!

MIT’s Commencement ceremonies will take place on the morning of Friday, June 3. SDM will hold its own celebration that afternoon at the Le Meridien hotel in Cambridge, from 2 to 5 p.m. We welcome the entire SDM community to the celebration. If you are planning to attend, please RSVP by emailing Amanda Rosas, Logistics Specialist, at rosas@mit.edu. 

SDM’s annual Conference on Systems Thinking for Contemporary Challenges will be held on Wednesday, September 28, in Wong Auditorium. This year’s theme is innovation and systems thinking. Speakers will include:

• Leandre Adifon, vice president, Enterprise Systems Engineering & Advanced Technology, Ingersoll Rand; alumnus, SDM Certificate program (Keynote)
• Bernard S. Meyerson, PhD, IBM fellow, vice president and chief innovation officer, IBM (Keynote)
• Bryan R. Moser, PhD, lecturer, SDM, MIT; president and chief executive officer, Global Product Design
• Rajesh Nair, founder and chairman, Degree Controls, Inc.; visiting scholar, MIT; senior lecturer and director of Innovation and Entrepreneurship Center, Asia School of Business; SDM alumnus

On September 27, SDM will sponsor “back-to-the-classroom” sessions in the afternoon, to be delivered by SDM alum and MIT PhD candidate John Helferich and Bruce Cameron, lecturer in Engineering Systems at MIT. SDM will also sponsor a panel at Kendall Square Innovation Night. Participants include the following SDM alums and students:

• James Barkley, director, UI Labs, Digital Manufacturing Commons, Digital Manufacturing & Design Innovation Institute
• Susan Conover, lead for an early stage medical technology startup that is developing a tool to identify skin cancer
• Chris Garcia, MD, research fellow in pathology and informatics, MIT
• Marianna Novellino, consultant, Water Division, Sir Dorajbi Tata Trust; former MIT Tata Fellow
• Bryan Pirtle, cofounder, Nova Labs

We will also host our traditional SDM student-alumni networking event after the panel. For more information and a complete schedule, please check the SDM Conference website. 

Keep in touch!

Thanks to everyone who has already filled out the alumni survey! If you have more thoughts to offer on how the SDM alumni community can be better served, or if you would like to be involved in upcoming initiatives, please reach out.