India Forum

Tue, 11 Dec 2012 08:05:59 GMT

Recorded 12/5/12

Dr. Ashok Gadgil - 2012 $100,000 Lemelson-MIT Award for Global Innovation Winner

Thu, 03 May 2012 07:03:13 GMT

Video profile of Dr. Ashok Gadgil, winner of the 2012 $100,000 Lemelson-MIT Award for Global Innovation for scientific solutions to the global water crisis, and energy and fuel efficiency.

ghdLAB: in the world, for the world

Thu, 13 Oct 2011 20:30:36 GMT

FALL 2011 OVERVIEW: OUR VISION OF THE VALUE OF ghdLAB

Learn about why ghdLAB blends classroom learning and action-based field projects. MIT Sloan Senior Lecturer Anjali Sastry, students, and field partners explain what they've gained from taking on practical health care management and delivery challenges in Africa and India.

By Fall 2011, the experience of the first three years of ghdLAB had borne out our initial idea: that we could generate an amazing learning experience for MIT students while aiming to deliver practical help to partners on the front lines of health care delivery. We set our sights on continuing to develop both teaching and impact, while asking: can we build a base of experience and ideas for the emerging study of innovation, implementation, and improvement in healthcare delivery and management?

In this MIT Sloan class, teams of four students each partner with an organization on the front lines of care delivery. Together, they design an action learning project to address factors that limit their delivery of health care. Over the course of several months, including an intensive period on site, students work with MIT faculty, domain experts, and the leaders and staff in the partner enterprise and bring to bear the best of their MIT toolkit to help generate value for all.

Since 2008, over 150 experienced MIT graduate students have conducted around 40 unpaid projects in Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, South Africa, Ghana, Sierra Leone, Zambia, Malawi, and India, each involving around 1,000 person-hours of student work. Partner organizations set their own project’s focus and offset some costs. Support from MIT Sloan School of Management’s generous alumni and friends makes up the rest.

3 minute interviews: 2010 MIT Sloan students on their experience in Africa

Mon, 12 Sep 2011 20:04:14 GMT

This video was filmed by students in May and June 2010, after the second set of global health delivery lab student teams returned to campus from various project locations in sub-Saharan Africa. It presents the personal experience of a sample of students and is one of a planned five-chapter series of student reflections.

A dozen student teams had spent January of that year tackling operational, business, and management challenges in health care delivery in Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, South Africa, Ghana, working on the key issues that each partner framed. Before they left for the field, students had spent four months preparing for their work on the ground, designing a practical solution to the problem they'd learned about from extensive conversations with their host organizations and with faculty, experts, and classmates at MIT. Our partnering host organizations included for-profit, faith-based, multinational non-governmental and community organizations, both large and small.

New Technology Brings Offshoring to Villages

Wed, 03 Aug 2011 04:00:00 GMT

The Xerox CTO describes research that allows manufacturing and office workers to avoid commuting to traffic-choked Indian cities.

Akshay Mangla

Mon, 14 Feb 2011 17:00:26 GMT

AKSHAY MANGLA: PhD candidate discuses his work in India

Extraordinary Bengal Tiger sighting

Sat, 04 Dec 2010 13:35:23 GMT

This video was made by Bill Peck '60 while on an MIT Alumni Travel Program trip to India and Nepal in October 2010. The sighting took place early in the morning of October 25, 2010 at Ranthambore National Park in India and lasted for about a half hour. The park ranger said that a sighting of this quality and duration had only occurred once before in the past 10 years of his experience there. The tiger is a 5 year old tigress which is observed regularly in the Park. She is first spotted walking through the park in a light forest setting. She stops to preen herself and then continues on her path through the forest. The caravan follows her and next spots her in a grassy forested area. It soon becomes evident that she has found a newborn fawn which the mother left in the grass while she grazed. The mother deer issues a distress call and a herd of deer come to her support, but to no avail. The tiger proceeds to kill the fawn and then walks off with the fawn in her mouth, passing very close to the caravan vehicle from which I am filming. The video lasts for about 6 minutes and includes some still shots interspersed between video clips in a time sequenced fashion. A Canon Powershot SD870IS handheld camera was used throughout.

About the MISTI Program

Thu, 18 Nov 2010 19:11:57 GMT

The MIT International Science and Technology Initiatives--better known as MISTI--connects MIT students and faculty with research and innovation around the world. MIT's primary international program, MISTI is a pioneer in applied international studies--a distinctively MIT concept. Working closely with a network of premier corporations, universities and research institutes, MISTI matches hundreds of MIT students annually with all-expenses-paid internships and research abroad.

Obama's Strategy Towards Afghanistan, Pakistan, and South Asia

Tue, 08 Jun 2010 20:37:59 GMT

The Center's series Audit of the Conventional Wisdom continues with a look at the Obama administration's strategy towards Afghanistan, Pakistan, and South Asia. Paul Staniland, a PhD candidate in the Department of Political Science at MIT and a member of the Center's Security Studies Program is featured. In fall 2010, Staniland will join the University of Chicago as assistant professor of political science.

Lighter, Cheaper, Stronger

Thu, 20 May 2010 13:43:16 GMT

Video by: Canay Ozden
Prostheses are critical body extensions. They should naturally fit the body, lend themselves to customization, and be affordable, none of which are provided by today's industry. Nadya Peek, of MIT's "Fab Lab," takes us on a short tour of the world of those who seek lighter, cheaper, and stronger prosthetics.

Automotive Lightweighting as a Strategic Opportunity for India's Automotive Industry

Tue, 02 Mar 2010 05:00:00 GMT

03/02/2010 4:00 PM 3"270Charles Fine, Chrysler Leaders for Manufacturing Professor; MIT Sloan School of Management; Richard Roth, Research Associate, Engineering Systems DivisionDescription: Suppose you could leapfrog 100 years of experience in the automotive industry and begin a new manufacturing epoch. The strategic change you would make is to lightweight the vehicle, observes Charles Fine. Although steel has been the material of choice for many automotive components since the dawn of the automotive age, there is evidence that a change to lightweight intensive materials would bring significant environmental and economic benefits. Fine and his colleagues studied nascent automotive markets and advised India's auto industry on its strategic and niche advantages. India faces stiff competition from established automakers in Germany, the United States, Japan, and even China. These countries have mastered advanced aspects of vehicle technology, made improvements in the power train, and, in some cases, tackled low cost manufacturing. They do not leave India with many areas to carve out a niche. But, for vehicle lightweighting says Fine, "the field is still pretty wide open. You still cannot find a company that planted its stake in the ground and said we are going to be the ultra"lightweight company in the world. It is an open space. No one has nailed this down yet". He adds, " If this is such a great idea why aren't American companies doing this? They lack vision and will." In India, the automotive industry is just gearing up and there is a steep learning curve to produce lightweighting, but it is a long"lasting asset. India could also export vehicles to developed markets, since lightweighting will help meet fuel efficiency mandates (like CAFE standards) and reduce dependence on foreign petroleum. It is estimated that lightweight vehicles consume about 2/3 the fuel of conventional (steel) vehicles. Fine recognizes that it will not easy to reinvent the automotive supply chain which has a sunk investment in steel. He says that individual firms do not have enough leverage and cannot road"map the necessary changes in the supply chain, so pre"production decisions must be advanced to the industry level. He finds a useful analogy from the semi"conductor industry in the United States. During the 1980s, twelve major semiconductor manufacturers formed the Sematech consortium. Their function was to coordinate the supply chain, and lay out the road" map for chip development. Before Sematech, each customer had a different technology. The consortium lowered the investment risk for process technology companies. Rich Roth emphasizes that even with road" mapping there will be uncertainty and risk, as well as a lot of choices. "There are dozens and dozens of ways to lightweight," he says. His laboratory at MIT has been analyzing various options for materials choice and technology, and studying how to scale up for mass production. He notes that there is currently no infrastructure robust enough to supply lightweight vehicles. There are two broad classes of materials that could potentially be used for parts, assembly and corrosion protection-- light metals and composites. Among metals, strengthened steel has the most use today" but it does not fully solve all problems and it is expensive. Aluminum and magnesium are alternative metals, but the capacity is not always there for meeting the quality needs for automotive manufacturing. Among the composite materials, some come with past failures" some are expensive to source" and others, like carbon fiber, come with the need for huge investment but an unrealized market development. Host(s): School of Engineering, Transportation@MIT

Death of the News?

Tue, 02 Mar 2010 05:00:00 GMT

03/02/2010 5:30 PM Wong AuditoriumMaria Balinska, Nieman Fellow, Harvard University (on leave from BBC); Susan Glasser, Executive Editor, Foreign Policy; Jason Pontin, Editor in Chief and Publisher, Technology ReviewDescription: While not dead, the U.S. news industry is severely depleted and likely to diminish further, these panelists agree. But they also believe that something vibrant and enduring might emerge from this period of digital disruption. Moderator Jason Pontin sets the stage with his "dolorous and long toll" of newspapers and magazines that have gone bankrupt, or cling to life as their subscriptions and ad revenues fall. He nevertheless invites panelists to make the case for journalism's survival. Susan Glasser declares herself "a total convert to the idea that this transformation heralds potentially an enormous golden age for people who care about informationtransparency, knowledge, about going to places in the world you couldn't get to in the past except with enormous difficulty" While this shift has just gotten started, with producers adapting print and TV information rather than originating content for digital media, changes are coming rapidly. Glasser's own Foreign Policy website grew 500% in a single year ("without spending a single dollar in marketing"), attracting enormous numbers of users "interested at a sophisticated level." Social media help drive users to the site, and suggest to Glasser an audience of millions for comparable specialized and nuanced content. But she does not believe that her audience, interactive as it may be, will displace seasoned journalists who labor in difficult circumstances to collect, analyze and report the news. U.K."based radio journalist Maria Balinska concurs that reporters are irreplaceable: "Maybe journalism is not rocket science, but to tell a story well, with context, facts, is quite difficult. Good novelists don't walk the streets everywhere, and a good story is something that will engage our audience." The key to survival in the digital age will involve using new tools to capture "the many different publics," especially those who might have been alienated by a partisan or corrupt"appearing media. Balinska is "convinced there is a hunger for understanding the world around us." She wants to engage different audiences through a "partnership model," where users inform the journalistic process. She believes journalism should rediscover what is valuable, and look back to small"town newspapers, which helped create community. She also notes that elsewhere in the world, old and new forms of journalism are thriving: in Britain, daily national newspapers achieve circulations in the millions, and in Colombia, the population consumes its news via mobile phones. Pontin concludes that "fretfulness about the death of news may be a uniquely American perspective." While the current business model is failing in the U.S. -- "news has declining value relative to time" -- Pontin believes there is a "form of journalism people will pay for." The criteria for success include offering a unique mission that's uniquely smart ("don't fib to yourself); helping users with a decision "that is core to self"identity;" and being beautifully designed. "If you say those four things, you can charge for it." About the Speaker(s): Jason Pontin also serves as the publisher of Technology Review, overseeing all aspects of the company's business. In previous posts, he was editor of Red Herring, editor in chief of The Acumen Journal, and wrote a regular column for the Sunday New York Times, "Slipstream," about new ideas in technology. He has also written for The Economist, The Financial Times, Wired, and The Believer, among others, and is a frequent guest on television and radio, including ABC News, CNN, and NPR.Host(s): School of Humanities, Arts & Social Sciences, Center for International Studies

The Road from Copenhagen

Fri, 05 Feb 2010 05:00:00 GMT

Following the United Nations Climate Change Conference held in December 2009 in Copenhagen, Denmark, a five-member panel reviews the pros and cons of the events that took place.

Thomas Barry, Founder and CEO of Zephyr Management

Fri, 18 Dec 2009 22:34:24 GMT

Legatum lecturer, Thomas Barry is the founder and CEO of Zephyr Management. A global private equity and marketable securities firm, Zephry Management, L.P. manages specialized investment funds in both the developed and developing markets. Since 1994, Zephyr has sponsored twenty-one funds with approximately $1.6 billion in committed capital which are managed from offices in New York, London, Bangalore, Mexico City, Johannesburg and Accra. With a global network of partners, Zephyr is positioned to identify sustainable secular growth changes which lead to attractive investment opportunities for our investors.

Technology & Culture Forum - Malalai Joya

Mon, 02 Nov 2009 13:41:51 GMT

Malalai Joya - in 2005 at the age of 27 became the youngest member of the Afghan Parliament
Recorded on 10/29/09

B&K Securities MIT-India Forum

Thu, 29 Oct 2009 21:27:12 GMT

Featuring India's Honourable Minister of Human Resource Development Shri Kapil Sibal

Recorded on 10/27/2009.

Education Across Borders: The India Perspective

Tue, 27 Oct 2009 04:00:00 GMT

10/27/2009 3:00 PM 10"250Shri Kapil Sibal, Honourable Minister of Human Resource Development, Government of IndiaDescription: Rickshaw drivers in India are frequent victims of tuberculosis after just a few years inhaling traffic fumes. This near"epidemic went unacknowledged until Kapil Sibal demanded a solution. The fix, now gaining traction across the country, is a solar"powered vehicle that eliminates pedaling. But what began as a project to assist his nation's afflicted rickshaw drivers has broadened into a much grander scheme in Sibal's hands. Project 800 is a government venture to apply science and technology to better the lives of India's 800 million citizens facing a multitude of hardships. Sibal's mission at MIT is not merely to communicate his people's great challenges, but to recruit. He is candid: "MIT should be a partner in Project 800," helping to solve the "ordinary problems of ordinary men with ordinary lives." Sibal wonders how the globalization of trade, manufacturing and services alone will solve the extraordinary problems of India in the 21st century: feeding a growing population with a limited amount of arable land just as the green revolution has gone "gray;" managing the impacts of global warming and greater energy demands; and the spread of health threats that respect no national borders. Solutions to these problems, Sibal believes, depend in large part on the globalization of education -- the dissemination of scientific and technical know"how from places like MIT to India. But this flow of transformative ideas, warns Sibal, requires a "change in the mindset of educational institutions." They must begin to perceive their community as global, and also be willing to move where they are needed. "They are not silos of knowledge living in one part of the world, protecting the national interest, saying as long as we're OK, it doesn't matter what else is happening in the world." Academic institutions must find common cause with other communities, learn that problems thousands of miles away have the power to touch home. "There should be an element of self"interest. It should be win"win," says Sibal. To that end, Sibal invites MIT to partner with India on site in projects "to combat the challenges of tomorrow." He sees natural affiliations that increase the odds for success in these collaborations: "freedom of speech, diversity of culture, the enormous ability to have dialog." MIT also lends such ventures another advantage, says Sibal -- a woman president, "who has the vision to create, nurture and transform." About the Speaker(s): Kapil Sibal received his M.A. in History from St. Stephen`s College, University of Delhi, Delhi and LL.M. from Harvard Law School. Sibal served as the Additional Solicitor General of India from Dec. 1989 to Dec.1990, and was the Secretary of the Congress Parliamentary Party. During 1995"96, 1997"98 and 2001"2002, Sibal held the post of President of the Supreme Court Bar Association. He was Co"Chairman of the Indo"US Parliamentary Forum, 2002. Sibal was chosen as the Member of Rajya Sabha during 1998"2004. Host(s): School of Humanities, Arts & Social Sciences, Global MIT

Leadership Amidst Crisis

Tue, 27 Oct 2009 04:00:00 GMT

10/27/2009 12:00 PM Wong AuditoriumS. D. Shibulal, Co"founder and Chief Operating Officer, Infosys Technologies, Ltd. Description: In thirty years, S. D. Shibulal has seen his share of economic crises, three to be exact. But in thinking hard about the role of crises in the future for today's students, he predicts: they will occur more frequently, and will be less predictable, longer lasting and more costly. Within this framework, Shibulal sets out to share his experience and wisdom on this issue with hopes of inspiring the next generation of leaders to not fear crises, but to embrace them and use them to learn and grow. He details three main themes for survival: accept reality, practice learned optimism, and lead by example. In general terms Shibulal explains how important it is to accept a crisis in the making. Accepting, rather than denying a crisis, will in itself lead to a better and quicker response. Learned optimism is not just keeping a rosy picture of the situation. Instead Shibulal underscores the need to be mindful of what is in your control and focus attention on those elements, noting that pragmatism is a key ingredient in this response. Most importantly, he advises, stay out of negative cycles, which can reinforce a downward trend and put enormous pressure on an organization. Leading by example often means reacting quickly, with conviction and finding a way forward. During the Q&A session, Shibulal provides insights into India's economy, and education system, discusses the rapid growth of Infosys and its prospects for the future. About the Speaker(s): Shibulal is one of the co"founders and member of the Board of Directors of Infosys Technologies Limited. Shibu, as he is fondly called, has over three decades of IT leadership experience. He has played a pivotal role in the Infosys journey and a signal role in the evolution of the Global Delivery Model which is now the de"facto industry standard for delivery for outsourced IT services. Shibu started his Infosys journey in 1981 by first spearheading its project management, followed by client relationships in North American region for a decade. He followed this with a five"year sabbatical with Sun Microsystems between 1991 and 1996, where he responsible for designing and implementing their first e"commerce application amongst other credible contributions. In 1997, on his return to Infosys, Shibu established and headed the Internet Consultancy practice. He moved on to serve several leadership roles at the group level, firstly as the Worldwide Head of Customer Delivery and later as Group Head, Worldwide Sales and Customer Delivery. Over the years, Shibu has been known to foster innovation, leadership, teamwork and work values within the organization. On June 22, 2007, Shibu took over from S. Gopalakrishnan as Chief Operating Officer and has been serving this role since. His focus has been on increasing competitiveness, improving customer experience, improving employee engagement and increasing the depth of services. Shibu received a master's degree in Physics from the University of Kerala and a MS in Computer Science from the Boston UniversityHost(s): Sloan School of Management, MIT Sloan School of Management

Toward India 2020: Challenges and Opportunities

Thu, 17 Sep 2009 13:53:29 GMT

This video is part of the B&K Securities MIT India Forum with featured speaker: Dr. Montek Singh Ahluwalia, Deputy Chairman of the Indian Planning Commission.

Dr. Montek Singh Ahluwalia has also served as a member of the Indian Planning Commission and member of the Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister. He had previously held positions as Finance Secretary, Ministry of Finance; Secretary, Department of Economic Affairs; Commerce Secretary; Special Secretary to the Prime Minister; and Economic Advisor, Ministry of Finance. Ahluwalia became the first Director of the Independent Evaluation Office, International Monetary Fund (IMF) on July 9, 2001. On June 16, 2004, he was appointed as Deputy Chairman of the Indian Planning Commission and was reappointed to the post in June 2009 by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. In 2007, Ahluwalia became a member of the Group of Thirty, an international body of the world's most senior and influential economists. He earned his B.A. (Hons) degree in New Delhi and his M.A. and M. Phil. degrees from Oxford University, where he was a Rhodes Scholar. His published work includes papers in professional journals and contributions to books.

Toward India 2020: Challenges and Opportunities

Wed, 09 Sep 2009 04:00:00 GMT

09/09/2009 11:00 AM Bartos theaterDr. Montek Singh Ahluwalia, Deputy Chairman, Indian Planning CommissionDescription: People sometimes ask Montek Singh Ahluwalia questions loaded with "aspirational objectives," such as when India will "get rid of poverty." Few are as well equipped to respond as Ahluwalia, one of the architects of India's breathtaking economic transformation. The current income of an average Indian citizen is about 1/15th that of a U.S. citizen. Ahluwalia envisions increasing India's per capita income ten fold. He sees this as a matter of "simple arithmetic." To achieve this advance, India must sustain GDP growth of 9% a year (which corresponds to a 7%/year growth in personal income) -- for 32 years. By 2040, India's 1.5 billion people could be living more like Americans. "Regrettably, I won't be around to see it," says Ahluwalia. By 2020, though, assuming such sustained economic growth, he would be around to witness "more modest results." Indians would double their annual income to $6,600, and the nation would be able to "provide a basic level of services to the vast majority of its population," essentially leaving behind its problems of poverty. This kind of growth, "an extremely worthwhile objective" for India, would also leave its mark on the rest of the world. It would inspire other emerging economies, for one thing. It would also shift the balance of power in global trade, with the combined economies of India and China taking on the U.S. So can India really achieve this kind of relentless economic progress? Ahluwalia's not sure, but invokes the successes of Japan, Korea and China, and sees reasons for optimism. Over the past eight years, India's averaged a 7.2% GDP growth rate, and looks likely to land on its feet after the current worldwide recession. On the other hand, the nation's vibrant democracy (420 million voted in the most recent elections) can make agreement on economic policy and its implementation difficult. Ahluwalia is "not complaining," but acknowledges that this kind of participative society "means we're taking longer to get done what needs to be done." He sees institutional strengths that will enable India to push its development agenda forward: a sense of confidence pervades Indian society; past reforms have "unleashed tremendous energy in the private sector;" the economy has opened up to greater domestic and foreign markets; and in spite of changes in government, the general economic policies continue to evolve. Ahluwalia acknowledges that defeating poverty may not address everyone's goals for success. The true objective for India, he believes, is "inclusive growth," an equitable and constructive distribution of economic gains via market forces, government and public means. About the Speaker(s): Montek Singh Ahluwalia has also served as a member of the Indian Planning Commission and member of the Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister. He had previously held positions as Finance Secretary, Ministry of Finance; Secretary, Department of Economic Affairs; Commerce Secretary; Special Secretary to the Prime Minister; and Economic Advisor, Ministry of Finance. Ahluwalia became the first Director of the Independent Evaluation Office, International Monetary Fund (IMF) on July 9, 2001. On June 16, 2004, he was appointed as Deputy Chairman of the Indian Planning Commission and was reappointed to the post in June 2009 by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. In 2007, Ahluwalia became a member of the Group of Thirty, an international body of the world's most senior and influential economists. He earned his B.A. (Hons) degree in New Delhi and his M.A. and M. Phil. degrees from Oxford University, where he was a Rhodes Scholar. His published work includes papers in professional journals and contributions to books. Host(s): School of Humanities, Arts & Social Sciences, Global MIT

Global and Domestic Imbalances: Why Rural China is the Key

Sat, 06 Jun 2009 04:00:00 GMT

06/06/2009 10:30 AM Wong AuditoriumYasheng Huang, China Program Assc Professor of International Mgmt; Description: Contrary to popular thinking, China owes its astonishing economic expansion not to far"sighted government policy but to hundreds of millions of entrepreneurial peasants. Yasheng Huang's research reveals not only how small"scale rural businesses created China's miracle but how that nation's recovery from the global recession and righting the massive East"West trade imbalance depend on this same under"acknowledged sector. Huang begins with questions, including why China produces so much relative to its own consumption. He shows graphs dramatically illustrating the rise of China's GDP with a concurrent drop in domestic consumption. A nation that doesn't consume what it produces must export. Huang has pounded away at the question of this drop in consumption. He rejects explanations pointing at a Chinese bent for thrift, and believes instead that households have become impoverished in the midst of the nation's decades"long boom. Huang's research analyzed previously unexamined data to resolve this paradox and produce a novel thesis, detailing the rise and fall of rural entrepreneurship in China. In the 1980s, enabled by government liberalization, tens of millions of peasants began home"grown private businesses, from small"scale manufacturing to service delivery. They supplemented meager agricultural incomes, generating profits that they used to better their standards of living. The Chinese economy boomed. But in the 1990s, a new regime took over, taxing the grass"roots entrepreneurs and pouring money into infrastructure and state"run enterprises. Politicians imposed steep fees on education and healthcare, soaking the newly minted rural capitalists. GDP rose, but household incomes dipped, as hundreds of millions pinched pennies instead of generating profits. The Chinese made lots of things that they couldn't buy. A global trade imbalance ballooned. The recession has struck the rural Chinese especially painfully (they make up 70% of the nation's population). More than 100 million who had migrated to cities for work have lost their jobs with the shutdown of factories, and there has been a "virtual collapse in non"farm business income growth," says Huang. New Chinese policies have begun to attend to rural issues, such as abolishing rural taxation, reducing fees, and spurring microfinance. This should help increase household income. But in key areas like land reform, there's only been talk. Huang believes a Chinese stimulus package aimed at reinvigorating the building boom won't do nearly as much good for the economy as liberalization of social policies and attempts to unleash once again the productive energies of the rural poor. About the Speaker(s): Yasheng Huang teaches political economy and international management. In addition to academic articles, Huang has published Inflation and Investment Controls in China (1996), FDI in China (1998), Selling China (2003), Financial Reform in China (2005, co"edited with Tony Saich and Edward Steinfeld), and most recently, Capitalism with Chinese Characteristics (2008). This book predicted and discusses in detail the current economic challenges facing China. It was selected by the Economist magazine as one of the best books published in 2008. Huang is currently working on a book examining consumption and urbanization in China. In addition, using newly"available household survey data, he is writing papers on rural finance and wealth creation and urbanization in China. Huang's China"India Lab aims to help indigenous entrepreneurs in China and India improve their management. He has received the National Fellowship at Stanford University and Social Science Research Council"MacArthur Fellowship. He is a member of the MIT Entrepreneurship Center, a fellow at Center for Chinese Economic Research and Center for China in the World Economy at Tsinghua University, a fellow at William Davidson Institute at Michigan Business School, a World Economic Forum Fellow, and a non"resident fellow for the OECD's global development outlook project. Host(s): Sloan School of Management, MIT Sloan School of Management

Opening the Mind's Eye" Learning to See

Sat, 06 Jun 2009 04:00:00 GMT

06/06/2009 10:30 AM KresgePawan Sinha, SM '92, PhD '95, Associate Professor of Computational Science Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences; Description: It's rare to find research that simultaneously advances basic science and brings good into people's lives, but Pawan Sinha's Project Prakash does precisely that. An investigator of human visual processing, Sinha is interested in how these brain mechanisms develop. For his work, Sinha realized the ideal subjects would be individuals who developed sight after blindness. Since he could not ethically create such an experimental population, he had to "rely on natural experiments" -- children born blind, but who recovered their vision. Sinha found these subjects in his native India, which has the world's highest number of blind children -- more than one million. They are victims of Vitamin A deficiency, congenital cataracts, and absent or atrocious medical care. But salient to Sinha's research, many of these blind children could be treated. He glimpsed a humanitarian and scientific opportunity, and Project Prakash (Sanskrit for light) was born. Starting a few years ago, Sinha and his team began screening blind children in a few villages to identify cases of treatable blindness, and remedy their disorders. More recently, he's gained support from hospitals and schools for the blind, reaching many more children. He began to establish a test population. Research on this unique group has yielded many original insights into the development of vision, and shaken some major scientific dogmas. Sinha found that after years without visual stimuli, the brains of these children could process new information flooding in -- challenging the notion of early critical periods in brain development. He discovered that patients who once learned about objects simply via touch could, once they gained sight, identify the same objects simply by looking at them. Sinha has also delved into the mechanisms of visual integration -- how our brains make sense of visual cues containing diverse colors, illumination, and patterns. He's learned that newly sighted patients have difficulty parsing overlapping images (such as triangles, squares, circles), but moving these images around magically sparks recognition. Research results are consistent across all ages, and show that early stages of sight acquisition involve seeing the world in a fragmented way, compromising recognition, and that motion cues are critical for putting pictures together meaningfully, serving "a critical bootstrapping function for visual learning." The kinds of integrative difficulties experienced by Project Prakesh children bring to mind similar difficulties in autistic children, for whom motion processing also seems to be deficient, and Sinha is now seeking a possible "causal chain in autism" that leads to the disorder's devastating social impairments -- a research path that might someday yield new therapies. About the Speaker(s): Pawan Sinha has earned a variety of academic and industry honors, including the 2007 Troland Research Award, the AT&T Research Award, the NEC Research Award and the first prize in MIT's 1997 Entrepreneurial Competition. He received a B.Tech. from the Indian Institute of Technology, New Delhi, and then came to MIT for his M.S., Ph.D., and post"doctoral training. He served as a research fellow at the Max Planck Institute, and an assistant professor of psychology at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. He joined MIT in 1999. Sinha is an inventor, and an accomplished cartoonist, who penned an award"winning comic strip called "Tumbleweed Garden" for the MIT student newspaper. Host(s): Alumni Association, Alumni Association

The Power of Competition: How to Focus the World's Brains on your Innovation Challenges

Sat, 06 Jun 2009 04:00:00 GMT

06/06/2009 9:00 AM Wong AuditoriumFiona Murray, Sarofim Family Career Development ProfessorDescription: Cooperation may be making us "a little bit too nice" when it comes to innovation, suggests Fiona Murray. She believes there's nothing like competition for injecting energy into the process of solving key innovation problems, whether in business or society. Murray is convinced competition make ventures "more effective, more global, more inclusive and more democratic," all important dimensions for business in a flattening world. She describes the rapidly expanding R&D expenditures of India and China, including the vast numbers of Ph.D.s these nations are producing in science and engineering. The corporate sector has found building global R&D organizations and collaborations difficult. In this challenging environment, where the advantage goes to those firms snagging the best scientists, Murray believes "prizes are complementary mechanisms" for attracting global talent. Just like historic rivalries among great artists (Nb., Titian, Tintoretto, Veronese), or the race to discover the structure of DNA, "fierce competition" can yield "dramatic productivity" and innovation, especially when the right rewards are at stake. Murray cites the 18th century competition to invent a mechanism for determining a ship's longitude, which offered a 20 thousand"pound prize. She jumps to the present, with the X Prize Foundation and its various competitions to solve engineering challenges and societal problems, such as the three"person reusable spaceship, and a 100"mpg car -- each with a $10 million prize purse. But it's not just the money. Recent studies show that prizes prove alluring when they focus efforts and resources on a problem that people are already studying, offering fame and "putting fun back into innovation." The fascination skews rational calculations, with competitors often spending well beyond the amount offered to the winner. Corporations should adopt the prize mechanism, believes Murray, to help generate new ideas (such as new applications for Google's phone); or to help solve very specific problems. Campus competitions are up markedly, she notes, which might be a distraction for students at places like MIT. Start small and inside the organization first, creating a shared bulletin board and offering small prizes, she advises, which will "generate energy." Then take competition beyond the company. And don't forget, "the work must be fun" in order to "get a richer set of people to participate." About the Speaker(s): Fiona Murray studies and teaches innovation and entrepreneurship with an emphasis on the life science sector. Her research examines how growing economic incentives, particularly intellectual property, influence the rate and direction of scientific progress among academic scientists. She also has a large project that uses modern bioinformatics methods to examine the patent landscape of the human genome and its implications for commercialization of genetics research. This research was recently published in Science. Murray attended the University of Oxford, where she received both a B.A. and M.A. in Chemistry. At Harvard University, she earned her M.S. in Engineering Sciences in 1992, and a Ph.D. in Applied Sciences in 1996.Host(s): Sloan School of Management, MIT Sloan School of Management

Luminescent Solar Concentrators Explained

Tue, 19 May 2009 04:00:00 GMT

05/19/2009 6:00 PM MuseumMarc Baldo, Esther and Harold E. Edgerton Associate Professor of Electrical Engineering, Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer ScienceDescription: Researchers are well along in designing a highly efficient, inexpensive solar cell, but the big barrier to the dissemination of solar power in society remains the problem of installation, says Marc Baldo. As an engineer, Baldo expresses confidence that "we're going to mow down" the problem of producing a great solar cell and making it cheap. His own lab has developed a unique approach that's found enthusiastic support from the federal government and others. Unlike conventional solar cells that use a single material such as silicon to perform both functions of absorbing light and converting it into electricity, Baldo's cell "separates the functions and optimizes both." His solar concentrator utilizes inexpensive material like glass or plastic onto which a thin film of dye has been painted. Sunlight strikes this surface, and the dye, which can be "tuned" or colored to trap specific wavelengths of light, emits light back to solar cells along the edge of the plate. There are enormous advantages derived from this design: The glass or plastic (considerably cheaper than silicon) catches diffuse light, so there's no need to track the sun, and it concentrates the sunlight much more efficiently than conventional solar cells. But solar concentrators alone don't signal the start of a new solar age. Baldo addresses the considerable uncertainty around the broad deployment of solar power. Installation costs for single homes appear formidably high, perhaps 2/3rd the cost of the entire system. Colossal solar fields that might replace fossil fuel burning plants must ship their energy across vast distances, losing electricity along the way. And right now the national power grid isn't set up to handle the fluctuations in energy that large"scale intermittent energy sources such as solar or wind present. Clouds are a "big pain" for grid operators, says Baldo. He believes the best start for solar will be in commercial and industrial installations such as the rooftops of factories, supermarkets or warehouses, sites where there's no loss moving power around, and where managers are already seeking ways to save on lighting and refrigeration, including smart electronics. His cost"effective concentrators could find their way to such installations in several years. In addition to solar concentrators, Baldo is researching biological models for making solar cells more efficient: He just received a $19 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy to study exciton circuitry in plants -- how plants capture light in packets of energy and direct the energy to where it's needed. Says Baldo, "This exciton is the last, great unexplored territory in solar cells." About the Speaker(s): Marc A. Baldo is a principal investigator in MIT's Research Laboratory of Electronics (RLE. His research interests include molecular electronics, electrical and exciton transport in organic materials, energy transfer, metal"organic contacts, heterogeneous integration of biological materials, and novel organic transistors. Baldo received his B. Eng. (Electrical Engineering) from the University of Sydney in 1995 with first class honors and university medal, and his M.A. and Ph.D. from Princeton in 1998 and 2001, respectively. In 2002 he joined MIT as an Assistant Professor of Electrical Engineering. Host(s): Office of the Provost, MIT Museum

From Information Theory Courses at MIT to Providing Chips and Technology for a World with Four Billion Cellular Subscribers: Memories and a Look Ahead

Thu, 19 Feb 2009 05:00:00 GMT

02/19/2009 4:30 PM 10"250Dr. Irwin Mark Jacobs, SM '57 PhD '59, Chairman, Qualcomm, Inc.Description: Cellphone and mobile communication aficionados (not to mention the rest of us) appreciate that our favorite tech gadgets increasingly resemble props from Star Trek. A shout out then to Irwin Jacobs and Qualcomm, the company perhaps most responsible for such astonishing gear. In his talk, Jacobs narrates his journey from MIT, as a faculty member in the early 60s, to California and his initial entrepreneurial venture, Linkabit. Jacobs and other MIT talent applied information theory to projects for NASA and JPL, including coding for deep space probes, and processor designs. Before Jacobs moved on, Linkabit had come up with the idea for satellites that enabled live data communications between headquarters and retail stores for both Wal"Mart and 7"11. The company's designs led to the direct broadcast satellite systems for XM and Direct TV. Its digital scrambling system fed digital technology into TV transmissions. The even bigger story for Jacobs (and the world) involves his next venture, Qualcomm (for Quality Communications), launched in 1985. This fruitful collaboration among MIT and Linkabit graduates launched the wireless telecommunications revolution. Qualcomm first gave the trucking industry OmniTRACS, a satellite"based commercial mobile system, and then dreamed up a technology for wireless and data devices -- Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) -- that has revolutionized business and personal communications. Qualcomm made it possible for a multitude of users to share a confined spectrum space, and then for high speed data to fit comfortably alongside voice applications. There are four billion mobile subscribers around the world, says Jacobs, of which 100 million users get voice plus data. Even in these dire economic times, new subscribers are growing, and he predicts six billion subscribers by 2013. Qualcomm's hard at work optimizing how data and voice share transmissions, making new applications possible (and affordable) worldwide. The goal: wireless broadband connectivity for all, and to each his or her own Smartphone or Kindle. As cellphones proliferate and merge with mobile computing, we'll be able to keep tabs on each other via GPS, says Jacobs. He believes phones "will quickly replace credit cards, even replace money." He sees particular opportunities in telemedicine, where phones armed with sensors can transmit patient information to specialists in hospitals, who then zip back treatment recommendations. Jacobs takes pride in Qualcomm's efforts to leverage wireless cellphone tech for social benefits: helping Indonesian women in business ventures; bringing farmers and fishermen a way of determining market prices for their goods without a middle man; and bringing in 3G phones for kids without computer capability in China. About the Speaker(s): Irwin Mark Jacobs pioneered the development and commercialization of Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) digital wireless technology. He served as chief executive officer of Qualcomm until July 2005. Jacobs previously served as co"founder, president, CEO and chairman of LINKABIT Corporation, directing its growth from a few part"time employees in 1969 to more than 1,400 employees in 1985 and first introduction of Ku"band Very Small Aperture Earth Terminals (VSATs), commercial TDMA wireless phones, and the VideoCipher satellite"to"home TV system. LINKABIT merged with M/A"COM in August 1980. More than 35 San Diego telecommunications companies, including Qualcomm, trace their roots back to LINKABIT. From 1959 to 1966, Jacobs was an assistant/associate professor of electrical engineering at MIT. From 1966 to 1972 he served as a professor of computer science and engineering at the University of California, San Diego. At MIT, Dr. Jacobs co"authored a basic textbook on digital communications entitled, Principles of Communication Engineering. Jacobs has received numerous honors, including the National Medal of Technology Award in 1994 -- the highest award bestowed by the president of the United States for extraordinary achievements in the commercialization of technology, or the development of human resources that foster technology. He earned a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering in 1956 from Cornell University and his SM and Ph.D in electrical engineering from MIT. Host(s): School of Engineering, School of Engineering

Challenges to the Global Economy

Wed, 11 Feb 2009 05:00:00 GMT

02/11/2009 5:30 PM Wong AuditoriumMartin Feldstein, George F. Baker Professor of Economics, Harvard University; Simon Johnson, PhD '89, Ronald A. Kurtz Professor of Entrepreneurship, MIT Sloan School of ManagementDescription: If economic analyses earned ratings like movies, this event would receive an X for extremely disturbing. Two of the field's most prominent voices spare any sugar coating in their unsettling accounts of the world's unfolding economic crisis. Martin Feldstein had a hard time choosing which of the innumerable problems to focus on, he admits, but ultimately settles on near"term challenges faced by the U.S. First off, this downturn is atypical; past recessions generally resulted from the Federal Reserve responding to inflation by nudging up interest rates and slowing the economy. This one involves two disparate but interacting problems: "the weakness of aggregate demand and the dysfunctional character of the financial markets." In laymen's terms, consumers are declining to spend money, the housing market's hit the skids; and banks big and small have no clue the value of their balance sheets, so they won't lend money to any but the best bets. There are some impressive numbers involved: The U.S. GDP is less than $15 trillion. A $12 trillion fall in household wealth (a combination of stock market and housing losses) has entailed a $750 billion decline in GDP. The government's attempts to pick up slack in the credit market haven't to date brought private markets back to life, says Feldstein. "We're in a very awkward situation, where the Fed is moving well beyond anything a central bank has ever done before to act as a credit provider." The stimulus package doesn't come close to addressing the $750 billion hole in our economy: it's "a poorly designed program that delivers so little bang for the buck." Turning from "the bleak picture of the U.S. to the rest of the world," Feldstein sees a chain of events pulling all major financial centers down, leading to "a mutually reinforcing global recession." The nations most likely to avoid "being dragged down" by this crisis: China and India. Astonishingly, Simon Johnson promises "to be quite a bit more negative." The U.S. banking situation "is much worse than what Marty said." The system needs a complete recapitalization -- a simple solution -- but practically impossible due to "the power of the banking lobby." Europe's banking system is even worse off (poster child: Iceland). European bank losses are dragging down not just banks, but entire nations. Their governments can't pull together fiscal stimulus packages, either. While "Europe is in denial," emerging markets like Russia have seen their reserves plunge, and are making stark decisions about "which of their people get bailed out." And don't think the IMF can come to the rescue; it has a meager $250 billion to loan, and is trolling for additional money from Western pockets, which just now have very big holes in them. Johnson's grim conclusion: Economists are reaching a consensus about the possibility of a very long period of slow or no growth: "There's a danger we could lose a decade." About the Speaker(s): Martin Feldstein is also President Emeritus of the National Bureau of Economic Research. He served as President and CEO of the NBER from 1977"82 and 1984"2008, and continues there as a Research Associate. From 1982 through 1984, Feldstein was Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers and President Reagan's chief economic adviser. He served as President of the American Economic Association in 2004. In 2006, President Bush appointed him to be a member of the President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board. In 2009, President Obama appointed him to be a memer of the President's Economic Recovery Advisory Board. Feldstein is a member of the American Philosophical Society, a Corresponding Fellow of the British Academy, a Fellow of the Econometric Society and a Fellow of the National Association of Business Economics. He is also a member of the Trilateral Commission, the Council on Foreign Relations, the Group of 30, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the Council of Academic Advisors of the American Enterprise Institute. Feldstein has received honorary doctorates from several universities and is an Honorary Fellow of Nuffield College, Oxford. In 1977, he received the John Bates Clark Medal of the American Economic Association, a prize awarded every two years to the economist under the age of 40 who is judged to have made the greatest contribution to economic science. He is the author of more than 300 research articles in economics. Feldstein is a director of two corporations (American International Group and Eli Lilly), and an economic adviser to several businesses and government organizations in the United States and abroad. He is a regular contributor to The Wall Street Journal and other publications. Feldstein is a graduate of Harvard College and Oxford University. Simon Johnson is also a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics in Washington, D.C., and co"founder of a website on the global economic and financial crisis, BaselineScenario.com. He is co"director of the National Bureau of Economic Research project on Africa and President of the Association for Comparative Economic Studies (term of office 2008"09). From March 2007 through the end of August 2008, Professor Johnson was the International Monetary Fund's Economic Counsellor (chief economist) and Director of its Research Department. In 2000"2001 Professor Johnson was a member of the US Securities and Exchange Commissions Advisory Committee on Market Information. Johnson is an expert on financial and economic crises. As an academic, in policy roles, and with the private sector, over the past 20 years he has worked on crisis prevention, amelioration, and recovery around the world, in both relatively rich and relatively poor countries. He is on the editorial board of the Journal of Financial Economics, the Review of Economics and Statistics, the Journal of Comparative Economics, and Cliometrica (a new Journal of Historical Economics and Econometric History). Johnson earned his B.A. from the University of Oxford, his M.A. from the University of Manchester, and his Ph.D. in Economics from MIT.Host(s): School of Humanities, Arts & Social Sciences, Center for International Studies

Ravi Inukonda, Legatum Fellow

Mon, 05 Jan 2009 20:46:49 GMT

Ravi has worked for both Microsoft and EMC Corporation. He has also started two of his own companies. Now, as a Legatum Fellow, he works to use mobile technology to support small business enterprises in India.

Murali Govindaswamy, Legatum Fellow

Mon, 05 Jan 2009 20:30:23 GMT

Murali worked as an engineer at Ericsson until he enrolled as an MBA candidate in the Entrepreneurship and Innovation Program at the Sloan Shcool of Management. Now he wants to use the WiMAX technology to bring internet connectivity to India.

Rural Life in the Himalayas - Excerpts from a trip through Ladakh, India and Yunnan, China

Thu, 24 Jul 2008 05:36:17 GMT

Video taken during a summer 2008 trip by Catlin Powers and Scot Frank to Ladakh, India and Yunnan, China. Detailed within are some aspects of rural life, the terain, modes of transportation, people, and culture. This trip was related to field research into suitable areas for more portable and light weight solar cooker and heating system for the Himalayan region. In association with One Earth Designs, a non-profit focusing on engineering solutions for high-altitude community innovation.

An Evening with Vikram Chandra

Mon, 05 Nov 2007 05:00:00 GMT

11/05/2007 6:30 PM 6"120Vikram Chandra, Author, Lecturer, UC BerkeleyDescription: In the tradition of his favorite childhood writers, Dickens, Thackeray and the "curiously forgotten James Hadley Chase," Vikram Chandra explores the seamier sides of human relations. In Chandra's latest, sprawling novel, Sacred Games, his backdrop is Bombay, a city steeped in corruption from head to toe. Reading three short sections, the author introduces us to some key characters, including Sartaj Singh, a detective from Chandra's last book, Love and Longing in Bombay, who navigates the underworld and politics; and Ganesh Gaitonde, a ruthless gangster who slashes and bribes his way to the top of a crime kingdom. This book began as a little thriller, Chandra explains, but during his research with policemen and gang members, he realized that "local crime has links to things apparently far removed." Between local politics and criminals Chandra perceived "a constant exchange of power and value." But, he says, "If you're going to talk about politics in today's India, you cannot not talk about religion." And, he continues, "all of this exists within what's been called the great game, the struggle for power between nation states in the sub"continent." Chandra acknowledges his debt to traditional thrillers and noir, but says that his aim is to twist tradition and make things real. That was one reason he chose the first person for his portrait of the gangster Gaitonde. Chandra seeks opportunities for "specificity and particularity" to advance his characters beyond cutouts and formula. The book has received tremendous attention in India, and compelled many people to reveal unsavory personal encounters with corrupt politicians. Chandra notes dryly, "I've become the go"to guy for stories of badness. I'm kind of sick of this. I don't want to be in this violent, dirty world for the next eight years." Chandra, while acknowledging the cinematic quality of his writing (not surprising given that his mother and other family members are in the Bollywood biz), says he much prefers sitting alone in a room for eight years cooking up a book, to the collaboration cauldron of movie"making. Sacred Games has been optioned, and says Chandra, "I think they're insane. I said, 'Save me two seats at the premiere. See you in three years.'" About the Speaker(s): Vikram Chandra graduated from Pomona College in 1984, then attended the Film School at Columbia University in New York. He left film school halfway through to begin work on the novel,Red Earth and Pouring Rain. Chandra wrote the novel over several years, and worked with John Barth at Johns Hopkins University and with Donald Barthelme at the University of Houston. He obtained an M.A. at Johns Hopkins and an M.F.A at the University of Houston. In 1997, Chandra wrote Love and Longing in Bombay, a collection of short stories, which won the Commonwealth Writers Prize for Best Book (Eurasia region. It was also short"listed for the Guardian Fiction Prize; and was included in "Notable Books of 1997" by the New York Times Book Review,. His latest book, Sacred Games, was published in 2007 in the U.S.Host(s): School of Humanities, Arts & Social Sciences, Literature Section

The U.S. Energy Crisis and the Role of New Nuclear Plants

Mon, 05 Nov 2007 05:00:00 GMT

11/05/2007 3:30 PM 32"141Thomas A. Christopher, President and CEO, AREVA NP Inc.Description: "This machine of ours is running out of control" is Thomas A. Christopher's sobering assessment of the consequences we face as a result of our insatiable appetite for energy. His talk is notable for its lucid and detailed descriptions of energy markets, nuclear and power plant design and operations, and for Christopher's blunt message about our energy future. As the cost of fuel goes, so goes the price of electricity, Christopher warns. And the cost of fuel, whether coal, which produces 60"70% of our electricity, or natural gas, is spiking upward. Christopher sees resource shortages today unlike any he's ever known, and electricity markets are consequently extremely volatile. Consumers are buffered _ for the moment _ by legislation many states impose on utilities. But as fuel prices continue their rise (because China and India import U.S. coal; the U.S. increasingly imports natural gas; and utilities expensively retrofit plants to reduce emissions), and domestic demand increases 3% per year, electricity costs will follow. Depending on where you live in the U.S., Christopher says to expect rate increases of 15% to 50% a year. And this is where nuclear power comes in; the economics make it inevitable, Christopher says. A combination of slimmed"down reactor construction designs and a less cumbersome federal permitting process will make possible a new generation of nuclear plants -- the first to come online in decades. Christopher describes 17 thousand page permitting documents describing such safety features as how a plant will withstand the crash of a fully loaded jumbo jet into its reactor containment building or spent fuel pit. With the growing demand for renewable energy, the U.S. government is attempting to encourage the first handful of these $4 to $6 billion projects by backing up bank loans. After Seabrook and Shoreham led to protracted licensing processes and escalating construction costs, few banks want to be first to jump into the financing game, notes Christopher. U.S. energy demand is growing by 20"30 thousand megawatts per year, says Christopher. So even if several of the new, larger capacity nuclear plants come online by 2015, and even if the 104 older plants continue running smoothly, there still won't be enough nuclear energy to satisfy the nation's needs. So while "the country needs nuclear power as one part of the electricity generation mix," concludes Christopher, "the truth is our society is going to have to get adjusted to high electricity prices." About the Speaker(s): Thomas Christopher, a graduate of the Naval Academy and Naval Nuclear Program, also holds an M.S. in Engineering Mechanics from Georgia Tech and an M.B.A. from the University of Pittsburgh. He joined Westinghouse Power Systems Division in 1973 and served in various management positions in Project Management, Engineering, and Field Services before being appointed General Manager, Nuclear Services Division, in Monroeville, PA. In 1996, he became Vice President and General Manager of the Siemens Westinghouse Power Corporation's Energy Services Divisions, responsible for global service of gas turbine and steam turbine power plants. He joined Framatome ANP in April 2000, as President & CEO of Framatome ANP, Inc, now AREVA NP Inc. Since December 1st, 2004, he has been a member of the Nuclear Executive Committee of AREVA. Host(s): School of Engineering, Nuclear Science and Engineering

Geeks and Chiefs: Engineering Education at MIT

Thu, 05 Apr 2007 04:00:00 GMT

04/05/2007 4:00 PM 10-105 Bush RoomYossi Sheffi, SM '77, PhD '78, Director, Engineering Systems Division, and Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering and Engineering Systems Director, MIT Center for Transportation and LogisticsDescription: With wit and candor -- including some jabs at engineering school traditionalists --Yossi Sheffi questions the future value of the current MIT engineering education, and proposes an alternative. In days past, engineers answered the call to invent gizmos, gadgets and complicated devices, but in our time, they must increasingly respond to challenges involving complex systems. -Process design is where many of tomorrows' challenges lie," says Sheffi. How to fashion a global supply chain, for instance, that consistently ensures items are available on time, on the shelf, at a low cost, a chain that is responsive to external demand and shocks _this is difficult, he says. But it is this kind of know-how that provides a competitive advantage. Walmart, says Sheffi, -didn't come up with new exciting stuff but they dominate the marketthrough process, not product innovation." The kind of engineer who can succeed and lead in this global market -- one that is increasingly fed by graduates of schools in China and India, notes Sheffi _ may no longer be the type educated at MIT. The Institute is top-rated, but is mired in an approach -fit for mid-20th century manufacturing-based society," and is now -resting on past laurels." Yet, why change, Sheffi ponders. -We are #1. Rah rah." But look at MIT's School of Engineering -among friends," he suggests, and you must admit there's -significant calcification, duplication and conservatism." He finds multiple fluid mechanics and thermodynamics courses among the various departments. -How many courses have 'control' in their name? 228!" Students are a key barometer of this stodginess, says Sheffi. There's been a 20% decline in engineering graduates in the last eight years. So MIT must shift gears, and embrace two basic missions: continuing to produce world-class experts (geeks) _ practicing engineers who design complicated systems _ and generating world-class leaders (chiefs), who will deploy their technological expertise in the real-world. -My hypothesis is that the great leaders of the next century will have to have a technological background, because we're going toward a technologically innovative society." These leaders will be problem definers as much as problem solvers, and, says Sheffi, -either we or China will educate them." Sheffi suggests a School of Engineering-wide undergraduate program, where all the fundamentals courses are rethought and taught differently. This means sacrificing problem sets for case studies, and -learning how a subject fits into the grand scheme of things." MIT should integrate humanities with engineering subjects, ensuring undergraduates understand business, ethics, legal language, environmental concerns, organization and process design. There should also be a formal leadership workshop, required time in a foreign culture and along the lines of the European Union, a five-year educational model. If MIT builds it, others will follow, assures Sheffi. About the Speaker(s): Yossi Sheffi is an expert in systems optimization, risk analysis and supply chain management. He is the founder and the director of MIT's Master of Engineering in Logistics degree. In 2003 he launched the MIT-Zaragoza program, building a new logistics university in Spain based on a unique international academia, government and industry partnership. He obtained his B.Sc. from the Technion in Israel in 1975, his S.M. from MIT in 1977, and Ph.D. from MIT in 1978.Host(s): School of Engineering, Engineering Systems Division

Building Technology that Matters: Global Opportunities in Engineering

Thu, 01 Feb 2007 05:00:00 GMT

02/01/2007 4:00 PM 34-101Rich Templeton, CEO, Texas InstrumentsDescription: -The great innovations are in front of us as a society," believes Rich Templeton. This means glowing opportunities for young people entering the workforce, especially those pursuing science and engineering. -The world is getting technologically more sophisticated, and people who understand how this world works will be advantaged, no matter what their occupation: researcher, scientist, lawyer or salesperson." In the 130 years since Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone, one billion land line phones have been installed. In the 20-year-history of the cell phone, three billion units have come into circulation around the globe. That number may go up to four billion soon. -I don't know of any other product that two-thirds of the world's population uses," Templeton remarks. He views the explosion of consumer markets as an enormous incentive to entrepreneurs and others moving into the job market. He urges listeners to consider the emerging economies of China and India as a welcome change, not a threat. -We've got three billion additional consumerswho will drive the economy, overnight. We've never seen that type of transformation in the history of the world." The convergence of electrical engineering and life sciences will create a robust area for product development. Templeton envisions such equipment as portable, low power, and low cost ultrasound machines, capable of operating in remote villages, or implantable devices to diagnose and monitor an individual's health. Templeton himself is a product of an engineering education, but to his college advisor's chagrin, chose to head first into sales. It's a choice he's never regretted. -It wasn't about making money, it was because I enjoyed it," Templeton says. He's found that a technical background immeasurably helped in his relations with customers. When students ask about choosing a career path, he advises, -Relax, do what you think you'll have fun doing, and work on things you're not familiar with, challenging stuff that scares you because you don't have a background in it." About the Speaker(s): Rich Templeton assumed his current duties at Texas Instruments (TI) in May 2004. He also serves on the company's board of directors, to which he was elected in July 2003. From April 2000 through April 2004, Templeton was chief operating officer of TI. He was executive vice president of the company and president of TI's semiconductor business from June 1996 through April 2004. Templeton is credited with helping to define and execute TI's strategy to focus on semiconductors for signal processing. Operationally, he guided TI during the worst downturn in the semiconductor history, while maintaining the company's strategic investments in R&D and advanced manufacturing. Templeton joined the company in 1980 after earning a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from Union College in New York. He spent his operational career in the company's semiconductor business, beginning in sales. In addition to his TI duties, Templeton is Chairman of the Semiconductor Industry Association, and is a member of the Business Roundtable and the Dallas Chief Executive Roundtable. Host(s): School of Engineering, Research Laboratory for Electronics

Effective Examples of Educational Technology and Priorities for Future Investment

Sat, 02 Dec 2006 05:00:00 GMT

12/02/2006 9:30 AM Wong AuditoriumJames Duderstadt, President Emeritus, University of Michigan; Andrew Chien, '84, SM '87, SCD '90, VP Technology Group, Intel Corporation; Ashok S. Kolaskar, Vice Chancellor, University of Pune; Chris Mackie, Associate Program Officer, Mellon Foundation; Irving Wladawsky"Berger, Chairman Emeritus, IBM Academy of Technology, and Visiting Lecturer, MIT Sloan School of Management and Engineering Systems DivisionDescription: James Duderstadt believes recent efforts to digitize scholarly journals, along with Google's massive digital library enterprise, "could be as important as the Internet in changing the scaffolding for learning and scholarship in the world." In this final panel of the iCampus series, Duderstadt asks his colleagues to take up the question of how to propagate or scale up successful initiatives in educational technology, so that they have a transformative impact on higher education. Andrew Chien points to the evolution of retail e"commerce, with many merchants following trailblazers like Amazon, and some ultimately serving as "portals to enable small players to accelerate their reach and innovation." Chien suggests that over time, "collaboration and competition will allow us to choose from a variety of interesting things." The Mellon Foundation believes that for technology to succeed, it must be developed collaboratively in the first place, says Chris Mackie. In an effort to "reduce the predilections of institutions to build silos and a balkanized world," Mellon is talking to different institutions "about the concept of building an academic services bus environment to match enterprise services bus environments." Technology can be counted successful only if it "resonates in the marketplace," says Irving Wladawsky"Berger. "What's an example of exciting technology that people like?" he asks. "Highly visual interfaces-there are millions of people playing games." Wladawsky"Berger says he's "convinced that embracing highly interactive approaches in cyberinfrastructure and the Internet will revolutionize the way people interact with machines at all levels." He also endorses engaging learners and teaching problem"solving skills through story"telling techniques. In India and other developing nations, says Ashok S. Kolaskar, there are "many people living in the 17th century, with infrastructure very behind." For large numbers of Indians who have no access to a decent education, technology is critical. Building an extensive broadband network, and providing something like Open Course Ware could "bring up the bar," and make the difference between a community college education and advanced higher education. Kolaskar also emphasizes teacher training, since the new "plug and play generation" knows more about technology than their elders. Initiating a freewheeling exchange between panelists and such distinguished audience members as Chuck Vest and John Seely Brown, Duderstadt discusses lifelong secondary learning opportunities for all adults (assuming that increasing life spans will mean people lead productive careers into their 80s and 90s). Vest urges that with an aging workforce, "Somehow we must find ways of intelligently mixing generations on a large scale, so we're learning from each other in a new and different way." Chris Mackie says technologies could play a crucial role in establishing "cross generational models" of higher ed, supporting students from the earliest age, and helping mentor them via alumni networks when out of college. About the Speaker(s): James J. Duderstadt received his baccalaureate degree in Electrical Engineering from Yale University in 1964 and his doctorate in Engineering Science and Physics from the California Institute of Technology in 1967. After a year as an Atomic Energy Commission Postdoctoral Fellow at Caltech, he joined the faculty of the University of Michigan in 1968 in the Department of Nuclear Engineering. Duderstadt became Dean of the College of Engineering in 1981 and Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs in 1986. He was appointed as President of the University of Michigan in 1988, and served in this role until July, 1996. Duderstadt has received numerous national awards for his research, teaching, and service activities, including the E. O. Lawrence Award for excellence in nuclear research, the Arthur Holly Compton Prize for outstanding teaching, the Reginald Wilson Award for national leadership in achieving diversity, and the National Medal of Technology for exemplary service to the nation. He has been elected to numerous honorific societies including the National Academy of Engineering, the American Academy of Arts and Science. Duderstadt has served on and/or chaired numerous public and private boards. These include the National Science Board; the Executive Council of the National Academy of Engineering, the Committee on Science, Engineering, and Public Policy of the National Academy of Sciences; and the Nuclear Energy Research Advisory Committee of the Department of Energy. Host(s): Office of the Provost, iCampus

Roles of Industry, Academic and Government in Addressing Competitiveness Through Education and Technology

Fri, 01 Dec 2006 05:00:00 GMT

12/01/2006 10:30 AM Tang Center/WongDeborah Wince-Smith, President, Council on Competitiveness; Lawrence Bacow, '72, President, Tufts University; Vernon Ehlers, U.S. Representative, Michigan; Diane Jones, Deputy, Office of Science and Technology Policy; Richard Lampman, Sr.VP for Research, Hewlett-Packard; Rick Rashid, Sr. VP for Research, Microsoft CorporationDescription: -Are we going to tinker on the edges of a system no longer operative or talk about how to design the supersonic jet of the conceptual economy's high performance learning enterprise?," asks Deborah Wince-Smith, throwing down the gauntlet for fellow panelists. She describes our current education system as rooted in the 19th century, and failing to provide students with the tools to participate in a global, -conceptual economy." Learning must engender innovation -- what Wince-Smith calls -I to the 5th power: the intersection of imagination, insight, ingenuity, invention and impact." At Tufts University, says Lawrence Bacow, -We imbed engineering in liberal arts," generating interaction between arts and sciences students and engineering faculty and students. Among liberal arts students, this fuels both technological literacy and such an interest in engineering that there's been a trend-reversing net migration from arts and sciences to engineering. -By not isolating arts and science students in an engineering ghetto, we've created a more literate engineer," says Bacow. Richard Lampman says Hewlett Packard looks to hire -a whole person who needs to be able to interact on a broader basiswho can be an entrepreneur, work in global cross-cultural teams." For him, the, the principal consideration in education -is how to get students capable of doing more than just solving problems -- that's table stakes. To go beyond that, they need a lot more." To find developers for Microsoft, Rick Rashid travels increasingly to India, China and Europe. He can't meet the demand in the U.S. -for people who are mentally agile, can solve problems under pressure and can work with other people." He's witnessing an enormous drop off in relevant graduates nationwide, with a disproportionate loss of women and minorities. -If you step back broadly and look at engineering, you can be very concerned, but look just at my area, computer science, and it's reasonable to start thinking about panicking," says Rashid. Vernon Ehlers says his role on the panel -is to represent the ignorant people of this country" -- not the children who know they want to be engineers, but the -passionless kids" who don't get the basic principles of math and science. As someone who grew up in a town of 800 with no early college ambitions, Ehlers understands these kids. He says, -If we're serious about meeting the manpower needs of the nation, we literally have to start with preschool." He also advises -teaching teachers to be excited about math and science, so they can convey this to their kids. Diane Jones didn't know what a Ph.D. was until college. Getting a science education was a -pretty difficult" path for her, and she learned that her field was elitist. That's one reason she counsels -looking for talent in new places," like the community colleges where she's taught. You'll find smart kids there, she says, and it's where to head -if you really want to go after women and minorities." She also sees engineering, especially IT, as the way up for first generation students in this country. About the Speaker(s): Deborah L. Wince-Smith serves as corporate chair and director of several high technology companies, as well as on boards, committees, and policy councils of numerous national nonprofit organizations, including the University of Chicago Board of Governors for Argonne National Laboratory, the Council of the Woodrow Wilson Center, the University of California Review Committees for Los Alamos and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratories, the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, the Pilgrims of the United States, and the International Women's Forum. Wince-Smith served as the first Assistant Secretary for Technology Policy in the Department of Commerce Technology Administration from 1989 to 1993. During the Reagan Administration, Wince-Smith served as the Assistant Director for International Affairs and Competitiveness in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. As a Program Manager at the National Science Foundation from 1976-1984, she managed U.S. research programs with Eastern European countries and U.S. universities. Wince-Smith graduated Phi Beta Kappa and Magna cum Laude from Vassar College and received her master's degree from King's College, Cambridge University. Host(s): Office of the Provost, iCampus

Growing Pains - Transitioning to a Sustainable Energy Economy

Wed, 01 Nov 2006 05:00:00 GMT

11/01/2006 6:00 PM MuseumJohn Heywood, SM '62, PhD '65, Sun Jae Professor of Mechanical Engineering; Stephen Ansolabehere, Professor, Department of Political Science, MIT and Professor of Government, Harvard UniversityDescription: Both small, private and large, public actions are essential if we're to have any hope of addressing global warming and achieving a sustainable energy future. John Heywood lays out three options for making some immediate inroads: conservation, which he says has somehow become a -bad word;" improving mainstream technology; and finding new ways to produce and use energy. First, the public must put aside delusions that new technologies -will save us." Hydrogen fuel cells and plug-in hybrids -are not there in terms of practicality." So, says Heywood, we -must get on the broader path that says the energy you and I use in the individual, small-scale sense must be far less per task." Why heat a 2000- square-foot home when -the square footage I occupy is two?" wonders Heywood. Improve the fuel consumption of the current internal combustion engine, and press auto manufacturers for small cars that can get 200 miles per gallon. Run the numbers on your home's energy costs, encourages Heywood, and tell your neighbors to switch off their lights. We're -humans with appetites," and we need market-based incentives to change. We need help from regulatory and fiscal policies as well to shape up. -It's me and you, what we do, what we buy, how we use it _ all these things _ that will start us down the path," says Heywood. One giant obstacle to our self-reform, says Stephen Ansolabehere, is the fact that -energy is abundant and cheap." The U.S., like China and India, sits on a huge pile of coal that could very well power our lives for the next 300 to 3,000 years _ if global warming doesn't first destroy the world's economies. We've been lulled into complacency, and so carbon emissions per person in the U.S. continue to rise, with China and India on the same trajectory. Right now, the menu of alternative energy sources like solar panels and hybrid cars don't appeal to Americans because they cost more than the usual fare. The key is to -make coal on the same scale of price with other technologies," says Ansolabehere, -to make other technologies competitive." So, asks Ansolabehere, -How do we get the U.S. under control, and then engage China and India?" His simple answer: -Taxes change behavior." Europe and Japan successfully demonstrate this approach. They acknowledge the costs coal imposes on society by taxing pollution, and have a much lower rate of emissions per capita than the U.S. One small, promising sign, he says, is that American consumers seem slightly more open to a carbon tax (a fee paid by companies, and then passed on to consumers) today than they were three years ago. The cap and trade system offers a gentler push on companies to lower carbon emissions, but citizens must forcefully lobby their political representatives to support this alternative. Without these larger efforts, it will be extremely difficult to reduce our collective carbon emissions as we cling to comfortable lifestyles. About the Speaker(s): John Heywood has authored or co-authored 171 publications in journals and conference proceedings, in such areas as automotive technology; energy and transportation, air pollution and combustion. He started at MIT in 1968 and became director of the Sloan Automotive Laboratory in 1972. He was co-director of the Leaders for Manufacturing Program from 1991-1993. He was appointed co-director of the Ford-MIT Alliance in 2003. He received a B.A. from Cambridge University and a Ph.D. from MIT. He is a member of the National Academy of engineering and a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Stephen Ansolabehere studies elections, democracy, and the mass media. He is coauthor (with Shanto Iyengar) of The Media Game (Macmillan, 1993) and of Going Negative: How Political Advertising Alienates and Polarizes the American Electorate (The Free Press, 1996). Ansolabehere is also a member of the Cal Tech/MIT Voting Project. which was established in 2000 to prevent a recurrence of the problems that threatened the 2000 US Presidential election. Ansolabehere received a B.S. in Economics and B.A. in Political Science from the University of Minnesota and a Ph.D. in Political Science from Harvard University.Host(s): Office of the Provost, MIT Museum

Globalization of Science: Opportunities for Competitive Advantage from Science in China, India and Beyond

Sat, 10 Jun 2006 04:00:00 GMT

06/10/2006 11:00 AM Wong AuditoriumFiona Murray, Sarofim Family Career Development ProfessorDescription: When Fiona Murray visited research centers in China recently, scientists greeted her quizzically: -People were baffled about what a business school professor was doing in stem cell and gene sequencing labs," Murray says. As it turns out, Murray's tour was integral to her own MIT Sloan research exploring how science serves as a source of competitive advantage. As China and India and other developing countries produce scientists and engineers at a quickening pace, Murray hopes to find out if their capacity to capitalize on scientific ideas is expanding in a comparable way. One challenge to this kind of research, says Murray, is that the market for scientific ideas -is poorly functioning." Traditional markets, say for pork bellies, oil or diamonds have well-defined products, well-established metrics," but how do you measure the quality of scientific ideas? Murray's solution is to visit key scientific and engineering institutes in other countries to observe both scientific infrastructure -- the physical state of laboratories -- and how researchers collaborate and generate useful knowledge. She also scans the scientific literature to see how many papers a particular country publishes, in what subdisciplines, and how many citations scientists receive. Murray's work may aid commercial enterprises intent on taking advantage of growing global scientific and engineering expertise. Some initial insights: places like China and India hold tremendous potential for firms, whether through their permissive regulatory climates or unique natural resources. But, she advises, don't enter one of these countries expecting to hire scientists at bargain basement prices, since -the real costs of scientific labor are hidden." Also, expect poor lab facilities, enormous bureaucracies and a crazy quilt of intellectual property and licensing rules. Counsels Murray, -Start by collaborating on R&D with research institutes and labs. That allows you to understand their expertise, social rules of engagement and to potentially shape the rules." About the Speaker(s): Fiona Murray studies and teaches innovation and entrepreneurship with an emphasis on the life science sector. Her research examines how growing economic incentives, particularly intellectual property, influence the rate and direction of scientific progress among academic scientists. She also has a large project that uses modern bioinformatics methods to examine the patent landscape of the human genome and its implications for commercialization of genetics research. This research was recently published in Science. Murray attended the University of Oxford, where she received both a B.A. and M.A. in Chemistry. At Harvard University, she earned her M.S. in Engineering Sciences in 1992, and a Ph.D. in Applied Sciences in 1996.Host(s): Sloan School of Management, MIT Sloan School of Management

The World Turned Upside Down: The Impact of the Return of India and China to their Historical Global Weight

Tue, 04 Apr 2006 04:00:00 GMT

04/04/2006 4:00 PM 10-105Clyde V. Prestowitz, Jr., President, Economic Strategy Institute Description: The world isn't so much flat as gravely tilting, "and may be on the way to some kind of self-destruction," believes Clyde Prestowitz, Jr. We're due for a major rebalancing of global economic might, which the U.S. may well experience as catastrophic change. There are historic cycles, he tells us. As recently as 1850, China was the world's largest economy, but by 1950, the U.S. and Europe had come to dominate the scene. Once again "the hinge of history is taking a big turn." China and India are fast overtaking Western nations in economic growth, driven by the digital revolution: "Half the world has come onto the capitalist road 'at the moment when the road becomes a freeway," says Prestowitz. The implications are staggering. While millions may rise from poverty, the possibility that these new economies develop along the lines of the American consumer model means increased competition for global natural resources, such as water and oil, and a drastic rise in global warming. In the meantime, says Prestowitz, Americans "are having a party." This nation is the world's only net consumer, while everyone else is a net seller. We assume the dollar holds universal sway, since all international commodities, from coffee to airplanes to semiconductors, are priced in dollars. So we run huge trade deficits, and live above our means, while we "outsource the management of the value of the dollar to Asia." This is unsustainable, Prestowitz warns. The central banks of China and Japan, which each hold a trillion dollars, "have become increasingly nervous" about the value of the money the U.S. prints, and may start to "dump dollars" in exchange for gold and other commodities. Prestowitz says the U.S. still has "the best hand of cards" but is playing them as badly as possible. We must balance the federal budget deficit right away, through tax increases; prepare for a drastically devalued dollar; and strive for global agreements where Asian nations agree to spend more, and the U.S. agrees to save more. About the Speaker(s): At ESI, Clyde Prestowitz has played key roles in achieving congressional passage of NAFTA and in shaping the final content of the Uruguay Round, as well as providing the intellectual basis for current U.S. trade policies toward Japan, China, and Korea. Prior to founding ESI, Prestowitz served as counselor to the Secretary of Commerce in the Reagan Administration. He also served as vice chairman of the President's Committee on Trade and Investment in the Pacific and sits on the Intel Policy Advisory Board and the U.S. Export-Import Bank Advisory Board. Prestowitz regularly writes for leading publications, including The New York Times, The Washington Post, and Foreign Affairs. He is the author of the best-selling book on U.S.-Japan relations, Trading Places, and co-author and editor of several other books on international trade and business strategy. His latest book is Three Billion New Capitalists: The Great Shift of Wealth and Power to the East. Prestowitz holds a B.A. with honors from Swarthmore College; an M.A. in East-West Policies and Economics from the East-West Center of the University of Hawaii; and an M.B.A. from the Wharton Graduate School of Business. He is fluent in Japanese, Dutch, German, and French.Host(s): School of Engineering, Engineering Systems DivisionTape #: T21111

Fuel Cells and Portable Power Solutions

Tue, 21 Feb 2006 05:00:00 GMT

02/21/2006 6:00 PM MuseumDonald Sadoway, John F. Elliott Professor of Materials Chemistry; Department of Materials Science Engineering; Description: Please don't get Donald Sadoway going on hydrogen power, a much-hyped government alternative to fossil fuel. "If anyone thinks the answer to the energy problem can fit on a bumper sticker, you're wrong. Complex problems require elaborate solutions," says Sadoway. He knocks the hydrogen fuel cell, delineating its many deficiencies: the catalyst required for the electrochemical conversion reaction is pricey platinum; if we use hydrocarbons as a source for hydrogen, we're putting more carbon dioxide in the atmosphere than we're removing; and it's unlikely people will wish to drive with a high temperature reactor under their seats, or locate large stores of raw fuel "down at the station at the corner." Ultimately, hydrogen will simply cost too much to be an effective fuel alternative, and it doesn't address climate change, says Sadoway. He puts his stock instead in batteries, which, since they were invented around 1800, have been steadily improving in performance and range of applications. From lead acid batteries, through nickel metal hydride to lithium ion, "we're raising the ceiling higher and higher," says Sadoway, referring to the number of watt-hours a battery provides. But we have not yet arrived at the battery powered vehicle yet because the government has directed research elsewhere and because private money is more interested in batteries for laptops and cell phones. Sadoway is convinced: "If we put our money into battery research (the all-electric vehicle) would be here right now. This is a resource-limited problem." Sadoway also responds to audience questions concerning China and India's economic development, fusion power, and the need for a range of solutions to address energy issues. Download this video at Apple's iTunesU site About the Speaker(s): Donald Sadoway has taught at MIT since 1977. His research seeks to establish the scientific underpinnings for technologies that make efficient use of energy and natural resources in an environmentally sound manner. He holds a number of patents, and has served as principal editor of the Journal of Materials Research as well as a member of the editorial board of the Journal of Light Metals. He holds the Bose Award for Teaching in the School of Engineering at MIT, 1997. He received a B.A.Sc.in Engineering Science,and an M.A. Sc.and Ph.D.in Chemical Metallurgy from the University of Toronto. Host(s): Office of the Provost, MIT Museum

The World is Flat

Mon, 16 May 2005 04:00:00 GMT

05/16/2005 4:00 PM 10-250Thomas L. Friedman, NY Times Foreign Affairs ColumnistDescription: Chances are good that Bhavya in Bangalore will read your next x-ray, or as Thomas Friedman learned first hand, "Grandma Betty in her bathrobe" will make your Jet Blue plane reservation from her Salt Lake City home. In "Globalization 3.0," Friedman contends, people from far-flung places will become principal players in the marketplace. In his latest book, The World is Flat, Friedman describes the unplanned cascade of technological and social shifts that effectively leveled the economic world, and "accidentally made Beijing, Bangalore and Bethesda next-door neighbors." Today, "individuals and small groups of every color of the rainbow will be able to plug and play." Friedman's list of "flatteners" includes the fall of the Berlin Wall; the rise of Netscape and the dotcom boom that led to a trillion dollar investment in fiber optic cable; the emergence of common software platforms and open source code enabling global collaboration; and the rise of outsourcing, offshoring, supply chaining and insourcing. Friedman says these flatteners converged around the year 2000, and "created a flat world: a global, web-enabled platform for multiple forms of sharing knowledge and work, irrespective of time, distance, geography and increasingly, language." At the very moment this platform emerged, three huge economies materialized -- those of India, China and the former Soviet Union --"and three billion people who were out of the game, walked onto the playing field." A final convergence may determine the fate of the U.S. in this final chapter of globalization. A "political perfect storm," as Friedman describes it -- the dotcom bust, the attacks of 9/11, and the Enron scandal -- "distract us completely as a country." Just when we need to face the fact of globalization and the need to compete in a new world, "we're looking totally elsewhere."About the Speaker(s): Thomas L. Friedman won the 2002 Pulitzer Prize for commentary, his third Pulitzer for The New York Times. He became the paper's foreign-affairs columnist in 1995. Previously, he served as chief economic correspondent in the Washington bureau and before that he was the chief White House correspondent. Friedman joined The Times in 1981 and was appointed Beirut bureau chief in 1982. In 1984 he was transferred from Beirut to Jerusalem, where he served as Israel bureau chief until 1988. Mr. Friedman was awarded the 1983 Pulitzer Prize for international reporting (from Lebanon) and the 1988 Pulitzer Prize for international reporting (from Israel). His book, From Beirut to Jerusalem (1989), won the National Book Award for non-fiction in 1989 and The Lexus and the Olive Tree (2000) won the 2000 Overseas Press Club award for best nonfiction book on foreign policy and has been published in 27 languages. Born in Minneapolis, Friedman received a B.A. in Mediterranean studies from Brandeis University in 1975. In 1978 he received a Master of Philosophy degree in Modern Middle East studies from Oxford.Host(s): Office of the Provost, OpenCourseWareTape #: T20058

Fortune Favors the Bold

Thu, 23 Oct 2003 04:00:00 GMT

10/23/2003 6:30 PM E25-111Lester Thurow, HM, Jerome and Dorothy Lemelson Professor of Economics and ManagementDescription: Economists and geologists have something in common. Geologists can trace the San Andreas Fault in chalk and tell you there's going to be a major earthquake somewhere along that line but they can't say when. Economists, Lester Thurow included, know that the massive trade deficit the U.S. is building ($550 billion as of this year) can't balloon indefinitely, but when the dollar will collapse -- tomorrow or a thousand years from now -- is anybody's guess. And, he warns, don't expect a soft landing. Thurow's talk, which draws both title and subject matter from his new book, describes the promise and hazards emerging from the latest technology-based industrial revolution. While new technologies pay off with enhanced productivity, businesses cut thousands of jobs a month. Globalization may mean foreign markets for American goods, but it also means that Walmart purchases 10% of all of mainland China's exports. And he warns, watch out as more high-paying professional jobs get outsourced to nations like India. Thurow sees a future of vast inequities, within our borders and among countries of the world, unless governments and institutions like the World Bank pursue such innovative policies as embracing biotechnology and educating women.About the Speaker(s): Lester Thurow has advised presidents and informed the American public on such critical issues as deficit reduction and unemployment for more than 30 years. He has been an economics columnist for many national and international publications including The New York Times, The Boston Globe, Newsweek, and Nikkei Business Japan, and published numerous best-selling books, of which Fortune Favors the Bold (HarperBusiness, 2003) is the latest. Thurow is Coordinator of MIT Asia-Pacific Initiatives, and Chairman of both the Technion Institute of Management and The Lemelson-MIT Awards Program. He was a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford University in 1962, where he received his M.A. and took first class honors in Philosophy, Politics and Economics. In 1964, he received a Ph.D.in Economics from Harvard University. Host(s): Office of the Provost, MIT LibrariesTape #: T17666

Vision: Challenges and Prospects

Fri, 13 Jun 2003 04:00:00 GMT

06/13/2003 10:00 AM 3-170Pawan Sinha, SM '92, PhD '95, Associate Professor of Computational Science Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences; Description: In a fraction of a second, most of us can recognize a face in a crowd, or make out a face from a blurry image. Pawan Sinha focuses on our uncanny ability to recognize faces as a way of getting at one of the key problems of neuroscience: how our brains represent and then encode objects. He theorizes that facial perception is a holistic process: we broadly take in the relationship, for instance, of eyes, nose and mouth. He tested this hypothesis by creating a computer program that could similarly grasp facial structure, and the program was able to "see" a face within a larger picture. In his Hirschfeld Project, Sinha is trying to distill the caricaturists' understanding about the important landmarks of a face. He's discovered that you can shrink an image of a face to 13% horizontally or vertically, and it will still be recognizable. Sinha's work on how the brain perceives faces has immediate application in security surveillance systems, pedestrian-alert systems for cars, and in robotics. But closest to Sinha's heart is a new project in India, home to 30% of the world's blind, where he will assist and study children with recovered sight following congenital blindness.About the Speaker(s): Dr. Sinha has earned a variety of academic and industry honors, including the AT&T Research Award, the NEC Research Award and the first prize in MIT's 1997 Entrepreneurial Competition. He received a B.Tech. from the Indian Institute of Technology, New Delhi, and then came to MIT for his M.S., Ph.D., and post-doctoral training. He served as a research fellow at the Max Planck Institute, and an assistant professor of psychology at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. He joined MIT in 1999. Sinha is an inventor, and an accomplished cartoonist, who penned an award-winning comic strip called "Tumbleweed Garden" for the MIT student newspaper. Host(s): School of Science, School of Science

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