Past Events
2010 Events | 2009 Events or older
2011 MIT SDM Conference on Systems Thinking for Contemporary Challenges
Addressing Complexity and Innovation in Healthcare, Education, and Product Development
October 24-25, 2011
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Venue: Wong Auditorium
Across industries and government organizations around the globe, a systems-based approach is increasingly seen as critical to addressing the urgent and complex problems we face today. For many organizations, the question is not whether to employ systems thinking, but how to apply it before it is too late.
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology's annual Conference on Systems Thinking for Contemporary Challenges, sponsored by the System Design and Management Program, will focus on addressing complexity and innovation in healthcare, education, and product development. MIT has carefully chosen speakers not only for their expertise in addressing complex systems challenges, but also for their role in leading the implementation of the day-to-day tasks that produce results.
MIT professors will frame the three-fold nature of systems thinking—technical, managerial, and socio-political—and outline how it is being applied in these critical areas. Industry leaders will describe best practices that demonstrate the challenges they face within and outside of their organizations, how they apply a systems-based approach, the benefits achieved, and the lessons learned.
The aim of the conference is to provide practical information from multiple disciplines that will spark ideas for how to implement systems thinking and innovation to address complex challenges, whether in industry, academia, government, or the world at large.
There will be ample time for Q&A with speakers and networking with executives attending the conference.
Confirmed speakers include:
KeynotesCo-sponsored by:
Secular Ethics, Human Values, and Society
with His Holiness the Dalai Lama
Tuesday, May 3, 2011
The Center in partnership with the Dalai Lama Foundation and University of Southern California is pleased to announce a multi-disciplinary meeting on "Secular Ethics, Human Values, and Society" with His Holiness the Dalai Lama on Tuesday, May 3rd, 2011. Visit the USC web site for more information and registration: http://dalailama.usc.edu/
New Ark Peace Education Summit: The Power of Non-violence
with His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Shrin Ebadi, & Jodi Williams
May 13-15, 2011
The Center will be a co-sponsor of the Newark Peace Education Summit, a three day conference focusing on peacemaking practices from around the world. It features panels and workshops with His Holiness the XIVth Dalai Lama, Newark Mayor Cory Booker, Somaly Mam, Nobel Laureates and peace advocates from a wide cross section of cultures, disciplines and perspectives. The summit will explore the programs, policies, and methods used by communities to establish peace, why and how they work, and how to replicate them in America and around the world. The event will be held at the NJPAC (New Jersey Performing Arts Center) in Newark, New Jersey, May 13-15, 2011. Do not miss this precious opportunity to cultivate peace.
January 27-June 7, 2011
Comeback America: Turning the Country Around and Restoring Fiscal Responsibility
A Talk by The Honorable David M. Walker, President and CEO of the Peter G. Peterson Foundation and Former Comptroller General of the United States
Introduced by Chancellor Phillip L. Clay
Wednesday, October 6, 2010 at 7PM
Venue: MIT Building E51, Room 325 (map)
Dave is President and CEO of the Peter G. Peterson Foundation. In this capacity he leads the Foundation's efforts to promote federal financial responsibility and accountability today in order to create more opportunity tomorrow.
Prior to assuming his position with the Foundation in March of 2008, Dave served as the seventh Comptroller General of the United States and head of the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) for almost ten years. This was one of Dave's three presidential appointments each by different Presidents from both major political parties during his 15 years of total federal service.
Dave also has over 20 years of private sector experience, including approximately 10 years as a Partner and Global Managing Director of Human Capital Services for Arthur Andersen LLP. During this period, he also served as one of the two Public Trustees for Social Security and Medicare.
In addition to his leadership responsibilities at the Foundation, Dave serves on various boards and advisory groups, including as Chairman of the United Nations Independent Audit Advisory Committee, as a member of The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board's Advisory Committee, and as a member of the Trilateral Commission. Dave has authored three books. The most recent, Comeback America, shows how we can return to our nation’s founding principles, and outlines a number of sensible solutions to get America back on track. He is a frequent writer and commentator, and is a subject of the critically acclaimed documentary I.O.U.S.A.
Phillip L. Clay is the MIT chancellor and professor of city planning. As chancellor, he is one of the Institute’s two most senior academic officers, with oversight of: graduate and undergraduate education, student life, student services, and the management of certain MIT large-scale institutional partnerships.
Widely known for his work in U.S. housing policy and community-based development, Professor Clay has been involved in several studies that earned national attention. Professor Clay is a founding member of the National Housing Trust, which focuses on housing preservation. He is also president of the Board of The Community Builders, Inc. the country’s largest nonprofit affordable housing developer. In addition, Professor Clay has served on the policy advisory council of the Federal National Mortgage Association (Fannie Mae). He served as Chairman of the Board of a local community college from 2002 to 2006. He serves as a member and Vice Chair of the MasterCard Foundation board, serves on the Kresge Foundation Board, and the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative Board of Directors. In addition, he serves on the Board of Trustees of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Professor Phillip Clay received his bachelor’s degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and his doctorate in city planning from MIT. A member of the MIT faculty since 1975, he served as associate head of the Department of Urban Studies and Planning from 1990 to 1992 and as department head from 1992 to 1994. From 1994 to 2001, Professor Clay served the Institute as associate provost. His publications include two books: Neighborhood Renewal: Middle-Class Resettlement and Incumbent Upgrading in American Neighborhoods, and Neighborhood Politics and Planning (with Rob Hollister).
Co-sponsored by MIT Leadership Center
Becoming an Extraordinary Leader: Transforming Yourself to Transform Others
Instructors: Professor Rodrigo Canales and The Venerable Tenzin Priyadarshi
October 18 & 19, 2010
Venue: Sloan School of Management
(By enrollment only)
Reconciling Peace-Making: A Transformative Ethic
A Talk by Robert Taylor
Thursday, October 21, 2010 at 7PM
Venue: Simmons Hall, MPR (map)
Robert V. Taylor is Chair of the Desmond Tutu Peace Foundation in New York. Born and raised in South Africa, Robert saw firsthand the potential for peace making when oppressed people find the courage to be who they are through discovering their voices and trusting their imagination. In 1980 his mentor, Archbishop Desmond Tutu sent Robert to the United States to avoid imprisonment for his anti-apartheid activity. A graduate of Rhodes University in South and Union Theological Seminary in New York he eventually became the highest ranking openly gay clergy person in the Episcopal Church at the time. He lectures nationally on compassion, peace-making and reconciliation engaging audience across the United States in realizing their full human potential and impact in the world.
His lecture will address the way in which reconciling peacemaking is a grounding transformative ethic in our personal lives and in society reorienting how we perceive ourselves and others. He will explore the ways in which technology and social media offer ground breaking opportunities for creating a new normalcy to local and global peace-making and reconciliation, and how this expands our understanding of the inter-connectedness of all people with implications for reframing the landscape of power dynamics among diverse peoples. He will draw on his own involvement in creating an open source peace platform with its potential for a transformative ethic of human engagement.
Co-sponosored by Technology and Culture Forum at MIT
Made for Goodness
A Talk by Mpho Tutu
Introduced by Philip F. Mangano,
President and CEO The American Round Table to Abolish Homelessness
Former Executive Director,
United States Interagency Council on Homelessness
Saturday, October 23, 2010 at 4PM
Venue: Simmons Hall, MPR (map)
(This event will be followed by a book signing by the author. Books will be available for purchase.)
The Reverend Mpho A. Tutu, an Episcopal priest, is the founder and Executive Director of the Tutu Institute for Prayer & Pilgrimage.
Ms. Tutu has run ministries for children in the downtown Worcester, Massachusetts; for rape survivors in Grahamstown, SA; and for refugees from South Africa and Namibia at the Phelps Stokes Fund in New York City. She earned her MDiv from Episcopal Divinity School in Cambridge, Massachusetts and began her ordained ministry at Historic Christ Church in Alexandria, Virginia.
Ms. Tutu is an experienced preacher, teacher, and retreat facilitator. With her father, Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu, she has authored the recently published book, “Made for Goodness”.
The Reverend Mpho Tutu is the Chairperson Emeritus of the board of the Global AIDS Alliance, the Chairperson of the Board of Advisors of the 911 Unity Walk, and a trustee of Angola University.
Ms Tutu is married to Joseph Burris; they have two daughters, Nyaniso and Onalenna.
Philip F. Mangano is President and CEO of The American Round Table to Abolish Homelessness, whose mission is to be a strategic partner with every level of government and every element of the private and faith-based sectors to prevent and end the long misery of homelessness for our poorest neighbors. Internationally recognized for his bold leadership on an issue seen as intractable, Mr. Mangano’s unique blend of business experience, public service, and personal commitment energize partners to focus on solutions. The Round Table is committed to strategies that are research and data driven, performance-based, consumer-centric, and results-oriented and to rapid dissemination of innovation, information, and inspiration to its partners. For the past seven years, Mr. Mangano led the national strategy to prevent and end homelessness in his position as the Executive Director of the United States Interagency Council on Homelessness. Mr. Mangano was appointed as the Council’s Executive Director in 2002, serving under both President George Bush and in the first 100 days of the Obama Administration. Mangano’s successful results-oriented strategies and innovative initiatives focused the Council’s mission to coordinate the Federal response to homelessness and to create partnership throughout government and the private sector to end homelessness. His new strategies resulted in an unprecedented national partnership of 20 Federal agencies, 53 Governors, and over 1,000 Mayors and County Executives partnered in over 350 local jurisdictional Ten Year Plans. With his leadership, new interagency and community collaborations have been established across the country. The prioritization by the Council on the prevention of homelessness and rapid re-housing of homeless people focused Federal policy and encouraged local plans and investments from the public and private sectors.
Integrity and Inner Transformation
A Talk by Don Morrison, Chief Operating Officer of Research In Motion (RIM- Blackberry)
Introduced by Professor Murial Medard
Thursday, November 4, 2010 at 7PM
Venue: Simmons Hall, MPR (map)
Don Morrison is the Chief Operating Officer of Research In Motion. Don oversees all domestic and international operations focusing on the development and execution of a world-class, customer-driven organization to support the BlackBerry wireless solution. Before joining RIM in 2000, Don undertook a number of senior leadership positions in Canada, the United States, Europe and the Middle East with AT&T and Bell Canada. Don is the founder of the Golden Thread Charitable Foundation and the Morrison Centre for Peace and Conflict Research. He is on the board of HealthyKids International and is a member of the Strategic Planning Committee for SickKids Hospital Foundation. Don holds an MBA and BA from the University of Toronto and also participated in the Executive Program at the University of Virginia, Darden Business School.
Muriel Médard is a Professor in the Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at MIT. She was previously an Assistant Professor in the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department and a member of the Coordinated Science Laboratory at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. From 1995 to 1998, she was a Staff Member at MIT Lincoln Laboratory in the Optical Communications and the Advanced Networking Groups. Professor Médard received B.S. degrees in EECS and in Mathematics in 1989, a B.S. degree in Humanities in 1990, a M.S. degree in EE 1991, and a Sc D. degree in EE in 1995, all from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Cambridge. She has served as an Associate Editor for the Optical Communications and Networking Series of the IEEE Journal on Selected Areas in Communications, as an Associate Editor in Communications for the IEEE Transactions on Information Theory and as an Associate Editor for the OSA Journal of Optical Networking. She has served as a Guest Editor for the IEEE Journal of Lightwave Technology, the Joint special issue of the IEEE Transactions on Information Theory and the IEEE/ACM Transactions on Networking on Networking and Information Theory and the IEEE Transactions on Information Forensic and Security: Special Issue on Statistical Methods for Network Security and Forensics. She serves as an associate editor for the IEEE/OSA Journal of Lightwave Technology. She is a member of the Board of Governors of the IEEE Information Theory Society.
Co-sponsored by MIT Leadership Center
