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:

Keynotes

• Edward Crawley, PhD, Ford Professor of Engineering, Professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics and of Engineering Systems; Codirector, Bernard M. Gordon–MIT Engineering Leadership Program; Cofounder SDM
• Julian Goldman, MD, Medical Director of Biomedical Engineering for Partners HealthCare System; Principal Anesthesiologist, Massachusetts General Hospital “Operating Room of the Future”; Director of the Program on Medical Device Interoperability at MGH and the Center for Integration of Medicine and Innovative Technology (CIMIT)
• Thomas L. Magnanti, Institute Professor; Dean of the School of Engineering 1999–2006; Professor of Management Science and Electrical Engineering President, Singapore University of Technology and Design; Cofounder, SDM

From MIT

• Steven Eppinger, ScD, General Motors Leaders for Global Operations Professor of Management; Professor of Management Science and Engineering Systems; Codirector, System Design and Management Program
• Pat Hale, Director, MIT System Design and Management Fellows Program; Senior Lecturer, MIT Engineering Systems Division
• David Hartzband, ScD, Lecturer, Engineering Systems Division, MIT
• Sahar Hashmi, MD, SDM alumna and current MIT Engineering Systems Division (ESD) PhD candidate
• Richard C. Larson, PhD, Mitsui Professor of Engineering Systems and Civil and Environmental Engineering; Director, Center for Engineering Systems Fundamentals
• Joan S. Rubin, SDM Industry Codirector
• Warren Seering, Weber-Shaughness Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Engineering Systems; Codirector, MIT

From Industry

• Malvern Atherton, Chief Design Engineer, Control Systems, Rolls-Royce Corporation, SDM alumnus
• Devon C. Campbell, Head (Director) of Engineering and Systems, Novartis Molecular Diagnostics (MDx)
• Katharine Frase, PhD, Vice President, Industry Solutions and Emerging Business, IBM Research
• Doug Hague, PhD, Small Business Analytics Executive, Consumer and Small Business Banking, Bank of America, SDM alumnus
• John Helferich, former Senior Vice President of R&D, Mars Inc.; ESD PhD student; SDM alumnus
• Michael C. Little, PhD, Global Head of Diagnostics Development, Novartis Molecular Diagnostics (MDx)
• Thomas Pelland, Vice President and General Manager, Air Management Systems, Hamilton Sundstrand, SDM alumnus
• Irving Wladawsky-Berger, PhD, Chairman Emeritus, IBM Academy of Technology, and MIT Visiting Lecturer of Engineering Systems

Co-sponsored by:

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.

Professor Erica Dawson, Yale School of Management

Professor Rodrigo Canales, Yale School of Management

Tenzin Priyadarshi, The Dalai Lama Center for Ethics and Transformative Values