Lets Get Operating

Decisions, Decisions

2012-02-23T22:38:00.000-05:00

While the potential '14s await an admissions package from LGO, the current first year class, I'm pleased to announce, has received our internship placements. Those of us who are doing on-cycle internships now know which companies we will be working with for the latter part of 2012. My assignment? Here's a hint:

Answer? Working for GM in Pontiac, MI (not Detroit, as the picture of their headquarters above might suggest). Pontiac is a 30-40 minute drive northwest of Detroit.

I will be working at their Casting, Engine and Transmission Center and besides trying to think of how I'll approach my internship, I have already started a custom google map for what's in the area - groceries, etc. Housing is provided, but I will need to get/buy/lease a car for that six month period due to an optimistically worded note my project description. And I quote, "public transportation is not optimal in this area, and will be difficult to rely on...". I get a kick out of that every time I read it.

Related to internship stuff, this means that when this semester ends, I will be 3/4 done with my classwork for LGO. Only a few more classes and a thesis after internship and we'll be getting sent off into the world before we know it. It's very hard to believe that a year ago I was just being told I was admitted...

Back to Academics

2012-02-13T23:56:00.000-05:00

Here are the classes that I am taking this semester (at least for now - MIT has a very generous Add/Drop policy and so this could change later in the term).

15.281 - Advanced Communication for Leaders aka Comm II
I get Comm II with the professor I had Comm I with so I feel like I have even more of an opportunity to get some helpful analysis on how I've improved over the past year. I'm taking this class because Comm I said that in presentations, I've got the info down and it's explained clearly, my energy could just be improved. Public speaking and presenting is not something that's terribly fun to do, but the more you work on it, the better you get. I'm taking the class because it will be challenging sometimes, but worth it. Also, the professor is great.

15.401 - Finance I
Since this is Finance in the spring, the professor knows that the people who are taking it do not plan to go into Finance (when asked if we would, none of us raised our hands). I think it will still be a lot of work, but won't be quite as intense because of the students who are in the class. I guess Finance I and II combined used to be one huge (and tough!) Sloan core class. As LGOs, at a minimum we either need to take Finance or Marketing before graduating. I was debating what to do - one? both? when? - and my Sloan ocean advisor basically said that you should not be allowed to leave Sloan without taking a finance class. Hence, this is my choice and I think it will be beneficial in the long run with many applications.

15.847 - Consumer Behavior
Took this class, almost on a whim - my second year "pilot" of our Sloan core team is the TA and I heard that the professor was good. I'm one of those people who cares equally about the topic as the professor. Sounded like it would be enjoyable and so far the lectures have lived up to my expectations.

15.900 - Competitive Strategy
Strategy is a half semester class and was noted by Sloan staff as another core-type course that would be good to have exposure to. It is also a prerequisite for other interesting classes. I'm taking it so I can fulfill the prerequisite and I also think it's a good balance for some of the more detail focused classes I'm taking.

2.739 - Product Design and Development
This course is jointly offered to LGOs, Mechanical Engineering masters students, MBAs, senior undergrads from the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) and other Sloan programs. It focuses on the holistic approach of product design, from concept development to marketing of a new product. We will be creating prototypes this semester; this class has produced sale-able products in the past, however, we were reminded that this was not the aim of the class.

ESD.267/268 - Two supply chain half-term courses focused on further developing our knowledge in this subject.
I chose these classes because A) they are required for my engineering masters track and B) to see if I can figure out more of the difference between supply chain and logistics (I took Logistics Systems in the fall). It seems like there's tons of overlap. Since supply chain issues were core to many of the internship projects proposed for the '12s, knowing these topics inside and out should be helpful.

and finally...

Lion Teams
Lion Teams is an active learning consulting-type class offered for LGO students to work with their CLGO counterparts. We help companies either based in or with offices in China work on a problem they are facing. We will spend time in China conducting meetings and presentations during the week before spring break or at the end of the semester in May. This semester I am working with one other LGO '13 and three LGO '12s on a project for Sandisk.

So many interviews!

2012-02-04T16:39:00.000-05:00

Interview has been the word for this week.

Backstory: what guides your thesis and is the capstone experience of LGO is a six month long internship with a partner company. This is done during the summer between your first and second years in the program and is a chance to put to use your work experience and lots of what you've learned at MIT. Sometimes internships lead to full-time offers with companies, but the immediate goal is to make positive change for the company you work for.

Both students and companies have input into this process and matching proceeds much like how medical residents get matched, students rank companies and companies rank students. The best compromise where everyone gets matched is the goal. Last year the 12s had many first and second choices, but the fact remains that you could be assigned to any project you rank.

Over the holiday break, internship descriptions began to appear. During plant trek we had to submit a list of projects we wanted to interview for and finally, after three days this week of meeting with partner companies for 20 minutes at a time for each interview, I managed to complete my 19 interview sessions to learn about 23 on-cycle projects. Phew! I thought that the interviews were going to be the hard part, but turns out that ranking, at least in my case, seems to be much more brain wracking.

Besides the inerviews that the '13s went through this past week, on Friday and again on Monday and Tuesday, LGO will be interviewing candidates for the class of 2014. We've begun InterviewFest and I've had fun speaking with prospectives, sitting in on a panel discussion about the program and then going out to dinner off campus. Tonight we'll be holding an event of food and fun at an on-campus pub, The Thirsty Ear, which is located in the new Ashdown graduate dormitory. Should be a good time.

Last but not least part of Plant Trek - Amgen and Puerto Rico

2012-01-29T19:41:00.001-05:00

I must say that the previous posts did not cover the entirety of our Plant Trek visits. One company that I have yet to mention, but who hosted us in lovely Juncos, Puerto Rico was Amgen, one of LGO's partners in the pharma industry. They hosted us for the whole day and had a well organized set of tours and panels to help us learn more about the company and then get to ask questions about what we had seen.

Over lunch, the VP of Site Operations, Esteban Santos, turned the roles around and asked us what the most high tech company we visited on Plant Trek was. Many of us said Boeing since their products have to fly or Dell since computers are often what you think of when you think of high tech. He countered that Amgen was even more high tech than that. Even though their products are pills or inject-able liquids which are simple to administer, all the processes and development that it takes to get a normal microbial or mammalian cells to produce a specific protein in large enough volumes to make these products is pretty darn high tech when you come to think about it. He majored in electrical engineering originally, but Amgen was a company that he found to be completely cutting edge. I hadn't thought about it that way before. As a visitor you mainly see a lot of tanks and pipes, but don't always think about everything that's going on inside. Companies that make larger products can seem more impressive because their parts take up so much more space, but Amgen certainly did a lot with their molecules.

Amgen organized tours, Q&A sessions and a quick case study like we often have back at MIT in our weekly Proseminar class and then they had a very nice reception outside for us, complete with food and live music. It was the end of our trip, the weather was beautiful and we had a wonderful time. Definitely worth a celebration.

After Plant Trek officially ended, at least three quarters of the class took the opportunity to spend at least a day or two more in Puerto Rico. Many people rented bigger apartments or houses to split the rent, but other students had their SOs come down so they could have mini vacations together. We stayed in San Juan (where we had flown into and would fly out of) but took day trips to see all kinds of things.

My two main excursions were to slide down a natural waterslide in the rainforest in Luquillo called Las Paylas (we parked in a man named Carlos's driveway as instructed by the website http://www.puertoricodaytrips.com/las-paylas/) and my other excursion was to kayak in a bioluminescent bay on the northeast side of the island near the town of Fajardo. When you put your paddle or hand into the water all these plankton would light up at the disturbance of the water and glow blue! It was windy that evening, so even the little waves breaking from the wind would light up. Both outings were very cool and I couldn't have the same experiences anywhere else.

All in all, during our trip around the US (and one of its territories!) we missed the snow that fell on Seattle and the snow that fell in Boston. I came home to a cold but at least not core-chilling day when it wasn't precipitating. Things worked out well. Plant trek has now come and gone, but I will still have lots of memories to last with me. Thanks to all the companies for hosting us, to the Plant Trek committee for planning and executing the trip so well and to the other students for keeping things fun. Yay!

Domestic Plant Trek - Week 2, Part 1

2012-01-21T16:57:00.000-05:00

Day 9 – Amazon in the morning and a free afternoon

We visited Amazon on MLK day, and, despite it being a holiday things were as busy as ever. That’s most of what I can say though, since they made us sign a NDA to not talk about it for five years. You can interpret that how you like. Amazon has the third largest number of LGO alumni. That I can say.

One thing that amused me though was, as we were in our bus driving away from their fulfillment center, we passed a large building with a Scholastic books label. I wonder if they work together or if Amazon is working towards putting Scholastic out of business. I suppose they need books to sell though, so someone has to print them.

Since we were back at the hotel early, my roommate and I spent the afternoon relaxing, reading and reading through the additional internship descriptions that had been posted. It was nice. Since we did not have the light rail passes on Monday, I went with a different group of people to a place called Mi Patio, which was close to the hotel. The waiter there was very nice, and another of their staff chased me down the sidewalk when they found my camera at our table – amazing! We had a good time and then ended up sitting in the hotel lounge for a while. I had a new cribbage opponent to play with, someone showed off a magic trick and we just sat around talking about random stuff.

Muy feliz en Mi Patio

Day 10 – Foodie Excursion and travel

With a 2:30 flight out of Phoenix, our morning was left nicely open. After a quick breakfast, seven of us went off in search of Pizzeria Bianco, listed as one of the top pizza places in the nation. Needless to say, we were not disappointed. We shared three different topping combinations on our pizzas (all ones officially listed on the menu) but my favorite was parmesan, red onion, rosemary and ground Arizona pistachios. So yummy! None of these had sauce (hence, Pizzeria Bianco), but they were fantastic. We all walked out of there very happy and would recommend it to future plant trekers if they end up in Phoenix. The only downfall of the places is that it’s small. The whole class just could not go there. We went right when it opened for lunch on our way to the airport, but I read that there can be quite a wait for dinner.

Pizzeria Bianco - mmm

They grow lettuces and rosemary in small garden patches on either side of the front door

The gang in happy anticipation - we stopped here on our way to the airport

With our visit to Arizona, we’ve now stayed in and visited all four time zones in the US.

After we arrived at our hotel in Austin about five small groups of LGOs all independently went to Stubb’s BBQ, which was about a mile away. Two other members of summer team seven and I split two large plates (totalling three types porks and a beef and three preparations of vegetables and some potatoes) and were good to go. Since it was Texas, I ordered a sweet tea. One of my teammates said a shot of BBQ sauce would do for his drink, but didn’t actually go through with it (this was his idea, not a menu option – they had a full sized ketchup squeeze bottle of BBQ sauce on every table). After dinner, came back to the room and went to bed since Dell would be early the next morning.

Day 11 – Dell and our last evening in Austin

Honestly, I think I did more reading about Dell before our visit than I had any other company on the trip. My stereotype to be blunt was that they were cheap ubiquitous computers of average quality that were sold back in the day by ads with that strange guy Carrot Top. While their factory tour was relatively short and sobering (the facility in Round Rock Texas was the last remaining assembly facility in the US - there used to be five I think), I found their strategy for the future and company environmental stance to be more impressive than I expected. I had no idea Michael Dell was so driven and accomplished from such a young age and didn’t realize how much industry pioneering work Dell had done as a company. I did not originally have them on my list of internships to interview for, but asked afterwards if I could add it. We’ll see if that happens. The internship is focused more on company strategy and since that was the part of the company that I found most compelling, it seemed like it could be good.

Dell had us sign a three year NDA, but I feel like most of the things I am talking about you could find from Dell’s website, Wikipedia or reading the news, so I think I’m doing ok. We were able to meet Michael Dell himself near the beginning of our day with them and that was pretty cool. He is still the youngest CEO ever of a Fortune 500 company – crazy! One of the employees I spoke with over lunch made the point that there’s something unique about founder run companies. I hadn’t really thought about that specifically before, but I would imagine it’s true.

After a full day with Dell, I went to Allen's Boots with two other people to check out authentic Texan cowboy gear. Apparently, cowboys make a good living because I did not see any boots for women less than $200. They came in all kinds of leathers and stitching patterns and most were handmade (other factors that bumped up the price). A brand with very soft leathers was Luchese - they had boots with ostrich leathers, crocodile leathers, goat leather and regular leather - all kinds of stuff - and to my pleasant surprise, they ran narrow. However, the pair that I tried on and liked was $550, so it was not exactly an impulse buy. I enjoyed trying them on, but made no purchase. Still fun to see and experience though.

Me wearing the boots :-)

Such a big selection!

The pair in the top picture close up - the toe part is crocodile or alligator or something I think

From there we went to dinner at Hula Hut with a bunch of other people and then headed to Sixth Street – basically everyone we met in Austin, and even in the airport leaving asked us if we had been there. It was a happening place with bars and clubs and bars and lots of music. We even saw one of our group’s taxi drivers playing with his band and they were really good! I also played table top shuffle board for the first time ever at Buffalo Billiards and got a perfect score on my first try. Needless to say it was beginner’s luck, but I still felt very proud of myself.

Happy at Hula Hut

The taxi driver's band in a bar we stopped at

My two winning red discs on the board - together they got me seven points which was enough to win the game before the other team even had a chance - woohoo!

Domestic Plant Trek - Week 1 to 2 - Transition to Warmth

2012-01-20T20:00:00.000-05:00

Day 7 – Day Off!

Today was our first and only day where nothing was scheduled. Unlike the day we flew in and the day of our Boeing Tour, both of which were sunny, our day off dawned grey and damp with snow/rain in the forecast. I was lucky enough to have a friend in Seattle, my best friend from high school, and so it was great to spend a day with her and her boyfriend.

With great company in Seattle

We took the monorail into downtown, walked through the Pike Place Market, where we got some of what we had for dinner and got to try chocolate pasta (yes it has chocolate in it, but has enough regular pasta ingredients that it looks and feels like pasta). Unlike vegetable pasta which I swear is only colored differently and has little flavor difference, you could taste that there was chocolate in the pasta. We went into a shop called Bavarian Meats, where every product inside was European, mainly German, we went into the original/first Starbucks and had a nice time strolling around even though the weather was rather miserable.

We went back to their apartment to drop off our food purchases then headed out by car around the city to a bunch of the different neighborhoods. We stopped for lunch at a place called Pie (you could guess what they sold – Liz – if you and Peter come to Seattle – you should go!), and then got warm beverages from another place (so many coffee shops!) in Fremont if I remember correctly.

Some of the view from the roof deck of their apartment building

Finally the sun started to come out. After lunch we drove past the university, went down to a park on a canal with locks, went to another park that used to be an army base that had nice views of another lake, stopped at a grocery store they often shop at and then an ice cream place called Molly Moon’s which is local to Seattle and everything they use is organic and ideally local. I tried both the strawberry balsamic and the cardamom ice cream and they were both fantastic. I would totally go back there.

The biggest treat though was yet to come. We went back to their place and her boyfriend, who went to culinary school and is currently running a food truck, made us dinner. We had salmon (fresh from the market) with a cider beurre blanc sauce and orzo cooked with shallots and some black truffle. It was super tasty and much more enjoyable than going out. We also watched a bunch of the BBC show Top Gear. Good times. I’m sorry I just had the one day off, but maybe that means I’ll have to come back again for another visit.

Day 8 – Flying and warmth

After another free breakfast at the hotel in Seattle, we boarded a bus and headed off to SEA where we would be flying to Phoenix on Southwest. Things went smoothly, but the plane did have to be de-iced because it was snowing (rather than sleeting like the day before) in Seattle and sticking some on the ground, the plane and all over. Of all the destinations of the first part of Plant Trek, I did not expect Seattle to be the cold one with snow. Crazy!

Rainy snowy slushiness at SEA

We landed in Phoenix, AZ mid-afternoon and, rather than charter a bus, all of us took a bus to the light rail station to the hotel. We ended up in a group of a dozen or so, had no problems getting to the hotel and had the evening to ourselves. It was refreshing that when the train doors opened on intermediate stops, the air rushing in was not chilling. Skies were overcast and the air temp was in the 60s.

Warm and dry in Phoenix though!

Since we had an unlimited ride rail/bus day pass in Phoenix, some other folks and I took the light rail to Tempe right by ASU where there were a lot of restaurants and more nightlife. I felt that in Arizona, one had to have Mexican (or almost Mexican anyway) food and so we ended up at a place called Canteen for tacos and margaritas. The tacos were not as filling as they thought they would be so a subset of us went further to a second dinner or snack if you will at In-N-Out Burger. This was instigated by students from the west coast and I went out of curiosity. It was the first time for me to have one of these burgers with a cult following. The burger was good, the price made it even more impressive (<$3!) and the whole adventure added to the fun of the evening. We took the light rail back to the hotel, got in around 10:30 and then went to bed.

The view from the hall on the floor of our hotel

Domestic Plant Trek - Week 1, Part 2

2012-01-20T00:22:00.000-05:00

Day 4 – A full day with GM

Woke up at 5AM to drive over an hour north to GM’s Lansing Delta Township Plant. We saw basically all their facilities on this campus – from stamping to the body shop to general assembly. This plant makes cross overs. Everyone there was friendly, excited about their product and enthusiastic about having us there. They gave us a great set of tours. They showed us so much that I actually can’t remember all the details.

The facilities even though they were in separate large buildings were connected by tunnels or bridges (tubes) so that the cars could stay climate controller throughout the entire assembly process. We were also able to see techs driving the vehicles off the line. One of their union leaders, who was leading another tour group of LGOs let them get in the cars when they drove off the line! I spoke quite a bit with Kurt Wiese who was in my tour group. He’s an executive director at GM and, besides finding out more about the company from him; I found out that he went to high school a few streets away from where I lived when I worked in Ann Arbor.

All the exhibits at the North American International Auto Show

Besides seeing GM’s plants, they hosted us with tickets to and a reception at the North American International Auto Show at Cobo Hall in Detroit. Even though I had lived in metro Detroit, I had never been to the auto show or Cobo Hall. It was pretty neat seeing all the concept cars, getting to sit in fancy ones and just see what each company was thinking of for the future. Lots of familiar brands had displays, but there also was a Tesla exhibit, a Maserati exhibit and a car by a brand called Falcon, I think I read that they’re made in Michigan with corvette engines, but I could be mixing things up. From watching Top Gear, I know that corvette engines actually pop up in a number of different vehicles.

Sitting with Eugene in a Bentley!

The BMW i8 - this concept car was used in Mission Impossible 4: Ghost Protocol

The sporty version of the new Fiat500 - I sat in both this and the Mini and liked the Fiat more

After a super long day at factories and the Auto Show, I got back to my friend’s house around 10PM, called home to wish my sister and dad happy birthday and then went to sleep.

Day 5 – Ford and Flying

Got to sleep in (relatively). Call for being on the bus was 7:55 instead of 6AM. We went to the Ford Truck Plant in Dearborn, MI, where they make all the F-150s. With all the different models and specification choices on these trucks, customers could order any one of 580,000 combinations. While GM had a number of LGO or Sloan affiliated people at the facility we visited, Ford did not appear to have any at this location. Henry Ford III, is a Sloan MBA ’10, but I heard he is now working out in California.

It was cool to see Ford and GM back to back so we could have one in mind when we saw the other. GM’s facility seemed to be more full of levels of equipment and stages of assembly, but I don’t know if that was because they made a greater variety of vehicles or did more manual assembly or what. Not sure. Even whether GM did more manual assembly than Ford is just my guess. At both facilities though, all the tracks and wheels and levels and whirring to move the car pieces around reminded me of a roller coaster and so I really wanted to ride one after those tours. No luck though. Cedar Point (park with tons of coasters in Ohio) was too far of a drive.

We spent just a half day at Ford, grabbed lunch in the area and then drove off to DTW, Detroit’s airport. We took Frontier Airlines, which I had never flown on, to Denver which we called “the windy brotherly emerald apple city of love” and “the lone star state” (we were punchy at this point) and then on to our final destination, Seattle, where we settled in at our hotel (just blocks from the Space Needle) for our Boeing visit the next day.

The Space Needle by night, taken from in front of the Experience Music Project Museum building (designed by Frank Ghery, architect of the Stata Center on MIT's campus) - I know it's a dark photo :-(

The funny thing is that both Frontier planes were Airbus planes, so, thank you Airbus for taking us to Boeing. We had worried about making our 45 min connection in Denver, but, turns out, the gates were only eight away from each other in the same terminal and I was even able to grab some dinner in between. Frontier Airlines’ defining feature, other than making people with carry-ons board after everyone else and actually having you measure your bags to those carry-on sizing things, is that they give you chocolate chip cookies midway to late in the flight. My row did a cookie time dance on our second flight segment. As I said, we were getting punchy.

Day 6 – Boeing Tour

Boeing involved waking up early, but not extremely early and it was pretty to see the early sky getting brighter around Mt. Rainier in the background. It turned out to be a sunny day in Seattle which led me to conclude that perhaps we had landed somewhere that just looked a lot like Seattle. I thought it was supposed to rain all the time!

At Boeing we congregated in their MIC conference room (management information center) and then split into two groups. My group went to the paint hanger first where we saw a very clean painting operations and learned how manual and time consuming it still was, even with the equipment they did have. Many paint colors, such as light blue take many coats of paint because they are relatively transparent. Also, they are hard to match, so if there are any defects, they often have to completely repaint the area with that color. I forget if it was all the coats of paint, or just one coat, but paint on a plane adds an additional 250-500 pounds of weight! So, from that perspective, many airlines stick with white bodies and a logo – less weight equals less fuel burn.

From the paint hangar, we went to the flight line, which is kind of like a giant driveway where they park planes when they are ready for customer inspection. Customers are given as much time as they want to walk through the inside and around the outside of the plane to make sure it meets their specifications. There was a Lion Air (based in Indonesia) plane that was ready for inspection and so, while they would not let us on the plane, we got to peek in basically any compartment that could open to the outside, as well as the engines and wings where covers had been lifted. I finally got to see how big a checked luggage compartment was on a 737 and, honestly, it was smaller than I thought.

The flightline was outside and in Seattle that day it was in the mid-30s. They had told us that since we wouldn’t have the same bus the whole day, we should only bring what we wanted to carry. Therefore, a bunch of people left their jackets at the hotel. They didn’t tell us that part of the tour would be outside and so this was a rather unfortunate combination.

The paint hangar and the flight line were basically next to each other, but for the next part of the tour, we took a bus up to their history of flight museum where we would be having lunch. They had planned for us to arrive at the museum and have lunch pretty quickly, but we arrived early and so were left in a holding pattern of sorts in the lobby only able to explore the gift shop. They didn’t let us down into the exhibits to help kill time. We were able to go up to an observation deck and see a 747 take off, but, again, it was cold. :-(

Lunch was excellent though and we ate with many execs from different departments of Boeing. I forget which one has more alumni, Intel or Boeing, but Boeing is in the top two for number of LGO alumni at a partner company. This is partly due to their tenure with the program though, they’ve been partners basically since the beginning.

After lunch we went to their manufacturing facilities – we saw 787s and 747s being built and actually got to walk through each of those airplanes that were partially completed. This was the first time and probably only time for a while (if ever?) that I could go into the cockpit of one of those airplanes. It was pretty neat. The building where all this took place is also the world’s largest building by volume and has the world’s largest mural on its side. An airplane and all the equipment that is necessary to make it, is not small.

Finally, we went to the Boeing Dreamliner Gallery. The Dreamliner is the 787, their newest airplane, and currently four are in use in the world (Japan), and the rest are still being made. I think they said that they have pre-orders for something like 1000 of them. This gallery was built to simplify customer ordering and to show them all the pre-set options for the plane – they can try out seats, walk into restrooms, mock up galley spaces and pick out fabrics and colors. Boeing charges $1M if a customer would like to deviate from their catalog of choices. This facility basically serves as a big showroom for how customers can put together a plane and helps streamline the spec-ing process. After the Dreamliner gallery it was back to our hotel and off to have dinner with a friend who lives in the area.

NOTE: I basically just have photos of the auto show because none of the facilities we visited allowed us to take photos inside them. Therefore, you will see more of what we did outside of the companies in the photos and have to just read about our plant visits.

Domestic Plant Trek - Week 1, Part 1

2012-01-15T20:12:00.000-05:00

Day 1 – Kickoff & Travel

We all arrived at Logan Airport, flew to Chicago Midway and then took a three hour bus ride to Peoria, IL (during which I switched my watch to Central Time). We checked into the Embassy Suites hotel in Peoria and had about an hour before a presentation from a LGO faculty emeritus – Mr. Shoji Shiba (or, as they would say in Japan, Shiba-san, meaning roughly ‘Mr. Shiba’) - about how to observe a factory, specifically remembering to look for things that are not there as well as things that are. He has been affiliated with LGO since 1993 and is deeply dedicated to quality management. Here’s an article about a prestigious quality award he received ten years ago, which details his expertise but also his general background.

After the presentation about using our three eyes and "unlearning" so we could observe more at the factory, we were treated to a cocktail reception and then dinner with CAT. We saw some familiar faces – CAT had visited us in June and in the fall - and got to meet a few new ones as well. It was cool to have the same kind of meetings, but on their “turf.” We got a quick overview from Denise Johnson ‘97 about her experience with the company and why she joined it and then the rest of the time was dinner and chatting with her and the other CAT employees in attendance. I didn’t sleep as well as I wanted to that night, but bed was certainly welcome.

Day 2 – Visit to CAT

A cold, misty, frosty morning in Peoria, IL

Monday dawned and we were up early – before 6 AM. Breakfast started at 6 and we were expected to have packed, eaten and checked out so we could get on the bus at 7AM. The weather was mostly heavy frost. We first went to a CAT facility right in Peoria for a factory tour and presentations in a conference room. In the morning we walked around their track type tractor facility and saw them making these large to giant machines. CAT makes track-type tractors in sizes D6 to D11 (D11 is the largest – one drove down an aisle while we were touring and the floor shook as it went along). We also heard about and saw them building the D7E, a smaller size track-type tractor with an electric drive train – it uses, on average 25% less fuel than the normal D7 (though burning fuel is how it generates the electricity). They also redesigned the cab so the operator could see out even more.

In the afternoon, we went to their demonstration facility where they had simulators for driving most of their equipment. We were very excited to test these out. They had the complete set of pedals and steering equipment at each station. What made us even more excited was what came next. We went into a room with darkened glass walls and bleacher-type seating. This was the demonstration area. As the CAT guide started talking about their products, gymnasium type lights (the ones that take forever to get to full brightness) started turning on, so gradually, we began to see what was behind the glass.

Behind the glass was two acres of dirt enclosed in a building with many of their tractors and other equipment on it. There was a hill in the back, a hole and a pile of dirt kind of the middle of the arena. As each piece of equipment was presented, it would either dig or push or level or whatever it was meant to do. Some of the tools used lasers to grade the land more quickly, so you wouldn’t need as many passes or surveying equipment. I thought that was very impressive. They can actively monitor the level of the ground their passing over and adjust the blade height accordingly.

Two acres of dirt under one roof

Finally, to the amazement and little-kid joy of us, they allowed us to go out onto the arena floor and climb on their biggest machines – the D11, a 100-ton capacity dump truck, a loader that could fill that truck in 3-4 scoops, and a number of the other machines we saw earlier. It was lots of fun and something we definitely could not have done otherwise. Definitely a memorable experience.

The 100-ton dump truck and corresponding loader

After seeing CAT, that evening we took a three hour bus ride back to Chicago and had then evening out on our own. In Chicago, I ate deep dish pizza at Lou Malnati’s with about ten other people, including someone’s sister who lives in town. That was fun and tasty and filling. For that kind of pizza, when the menu says “serves X”, it means “serves X”. We ordered three large pizzas for eleven people and could not finish them. We ate about two-and-a-half pies. I went back past the hotel with some people and ended up staying in – showering and going through the photos I had taken so far.

Dinner!

Day 3 – Travel day

A day to sleep in a little – the first thing we were required to do was meet up at Union Station in Chicago at 10:30. This is so we could figure out how to check in as a group with Amtrak and then take the train to Detroit. Amtrak boarded us, as a group, first, and we actually have our own car, which has been nice. While on the train, we were behind a freight train for a little while and so went slower for part of our five hour journey than expected. On the train I taught a fellow classmate, Clayton, how to play the card game cribbage. It will be easier to play again when we’re not on a train. It was good that I had the board though, since the train did not have wifi. Five hours is a long time to be literally chugging along. We got to be completely casual and it was fun.

Good Morning Union Station!

We arrived at our hotel in Novi around 8PM, (the train got to Detroit 45 minutes late). Everyone else checked in and I went to stay with a local friend.

Holding...

2012-01-15T03:01:00.001-05:00

I've already written over two pages of a word doc about what's been happening on Domestic Plant Trek, but I want to finish getting the whole week's info down before I put up a series of posts. The trek has been fun, but definitely tiring also. Between having limited access to internet when it would be helpful to kill time by blogging (on our train trip leg and airports/planes) and then wanting to have a shower, eat or go to bed during the little free time that we have, it's been more challenging to write and publish blog posts than I expected. I also spent a few evenings with friends around the country which was another wonderful way to spend my time. Kudos to Ashleigh and Stephen for already posting though! I hope to join them shortly...

Rounding out 2011 and Happy New Year!

2012-01-02T12:15:00.000-05:00

Last year at this time, I was like any other LGO applicant, eagerly awaiting interview callbacks and hoping I'd get to advance to the next round. As I wrote in the comments section of one of my other posts, I found out last year on January 7th that I had made it to the interview round. It was exciting and the next weeks were filled with scrambling to book plane flights and check with friends whether I could stay with them during my visit to Boston. A lot has happened since then.

Most recently, our winter break! This year, I spent Christmas with my family (who are also in Massachusetts) and, since they are close by, I have been in and out of my apartment here in Porter Square. Things have been very relaxing - last week I went out with a friend from high school and a few days later I enjoyed a homemade dinner at another friend's place. Yum! Other than that, I redeemed my RedBox free movie on your birthday code, organized things around my room, watched the Top Gear India Special and have been getting excited about our Domestic Plant Trek trip.

New Year's I spent in the middle of Pennsylvania. It's a bit of a long story, but I was there intentionally and had a good time.

Thinking beyond January, for spring course bidding I did not get everything I wanted first round...the issue is with a class called Pricing. It's very popular because the coursework is useful and because the professor is good, or so I've heard. What made it all the more frustrating was that I bid 503 points and you needed something like 519 to get in. So close! I've been trying in subsequent rounds that are open to everyone where I have no special priority, but I don't know if I'll get in. (Note: there is now one spot in each of the sections and I'll find out whether I managed to get one of those from Round II bidding or whether I've been pushed to the waitlist round on this Thursday). Getting the Sloan courses that you want can be a long and tricky process if they're popular. On the other hand, I know of people who got what they bid for and had to use hardly any points.

One other thing besides bidding that we had to do over break is to submit preferences for internship projects. These aren't for our final assignments, this is just to see who's interested in what projects enough to assign us all interview times when we get back from Plant Trek since we don't have time to interview with everyone. The deadline was 12/28 at midnight (11:59:59 PM on 12/28) to submit a ranked list of at least eight projects. People on the internship committee do more work than I ever knew about. Their efforts have been revealing themselves gradually but the sum is impressive. I'm sure they loved that I submitted my preferences at 11:57 PM on 12/28. But still...Thank you team! (I'll give you my final thanks though when I get my assignment :-)

Yay!

2011-12-19T01:44:00.000-05:00

It's rather hard to believe, but I just finished my second semester here in graduate school at MIT. Half of the semesters where we will be taking classes (as opposed to traveling and working on our internships) are done. My last final, Accounting, was on Friday and now all that's left to do before the new year is bid for next semester's classes.

Sloan, unlike the rest of MIT, has a bidding system for course registration. You're given 1000 points and then told to allocate them among the classes you want to take based on how popular the class is, the professor who's teaching it is, when it meets, etc. Our bidding round closes Tuesday the 20th at 5PM, so I need to make up my mind soon about which classes are getting what points. What's hard is that you can have an ideal schedule in mind, but there's no guarantee you'll get those sections or even that class. It's a strange system and I hope to perfect my technique as time goes on. Other than that, the past few days have been filled with sleeping in, cleaning up, going to parties and Christmas shopping. Not a bad deal.

Next semester, my classmates doing off-cycle projects will not be with us in classes at MIT and that will be strange. A few of them will remain in Boston working on projects with the local hospitals - Mass General and Beth Israel, but others will be scattered throughout the country and others still will be overseas. 10, maybe 11 of the 50 LGOs in the class of 2013 will be doing off-cycle projects. I say maybe 11 because we had a last minute off-cycle project offering and they're working on assigning it as I write this.

Friday afternoon after my last final felt AMAZING. Having never taken this many classes at once (six classes, plus I took a seminar as a listener), and having had fewer finals in undergrad, finishing three exams in the four days !right after my birthday! was a big accomplishment. To celebrate, the LGOs (whom a guy on my Sloan Core team now refers to as LeGOs) had a well-attended house party Friday night and now probably don't know what to do with ourselves.

Well, now that finals are done for us and applications are in from prospective 2014s, let's all take a nice, deserved break and enjoy the rest of 2011. I might put up another post before 2012 comes around, but if not, look forward to updates about Plant Trek coming in January!

Countdowns of all kinds

2011-12-09T22:15:00.001-05:00

Countdown for applications - LGO '14 applications are due in five days!

Countdown to the end of term - my last final of the three I'm taking is December 16th and then I'm done for the holiday break.

Next big thing for LGO - Plant Trek!

We had an informational meeting this morning where the all but final schedule was handed out to everyone and we met the two Sloan Ops Club members (regular MBAs) who will be joining us on the trip. Each year Ops club gets to add a few people onto the contingent of LGOs who go.

This year's trip will take us to see CAT in Peoria, IL; GM and Ford in greater Detroit, MI (multiple sites); Boeing in Seattle, WA; Amazon in Phoenix, AZ; Dell in Austin, TX and Amgen in Juncos, Puerto Rico. I'm part of a group that has decided to stay longer in Puerto Rico as a mini vacation. This should be a great trip and one that is incredibly packed with things to do. I'm really looking forward to it.

To help learn about out partner companies, one thing I've done since LGO started is set up Google alerts for them. Google alerts are custom searches for keywords and when they are found in news articles, it delivers the article to your email or RSS feed. While searching for "GM" in the news sometimes brings up articles about pro sports, the filter has been useful, even if I cannot read all the stories, I try and scan as many headlines as I can. Sloan's CDO (Career Development Office) has recommended this as a way of doing research on companies to help in writing cover letters and interviewing.

Speaking of interviewing, when we get back from Plant Trek, we'll be beginning our On-Cycle interviews for the projects that will be the foundation for our theses. Lots of things are happening and that's good.

Field trip, thanksgiving and warmth

2011-12-01T00:56:00.001-05:00

This afternoon, one of my engineering classes, Mechanical Assemblies (MIT # 2.875 - Mechanical Engineering is course #2, so all their classes are numbered 2.*. Sloan is #15) went on a field trip with another Mech E class to Instrumentation Laboratory in Bedford, MA, a medical device company. Our professor has been working there on and off as a consultant for the past year and so we were able to see their manufacturing floor and testing areas. This was relevant to our Mechanical Assemblies class because throughout the semester we've been analyzing a consumer product (our team's choice was a NERF gun that shoots foam suction cup-tipped darts).

For Mechanical Assemblies, we've had weekly projects where we've modeled the parts on the computer, drawn exploded views, written assembly instructions, explained dimensional tolerances and key characteristics that need to be present in order for the NERF gun to function properly, as well as defined other process parameters, like how long we think the assembly would take, how much our materials and labor costs would be, how we would layout the factory, etc. Today we were able to see a real world example of how this is done and got to see ways that assembly stations, or work cells (as IL called them) are arranged in-person.

I'm still getting used to being on a school schedule again, after taking some much needed time off over Thanksgiving. Break was filled with food and naps, some TV or a movie and then more food and more naps. Comfy clothes, nice people. All was good.

This week and November in general have been abnormally warm. Besides the small amount of slushy snow we got in an oppositely freakish manner right at the end of October, this week has hit 60 degrees multiple times. Because the leaves on the ground aren't yet snow covered or frozen stiff, I can't tell whether this means that I'm actually getting sick now or just having super late fall allergies. The weather is definitely different from last year...though the giant snow that I remember was actually in January, when I flew out for LGO Interviewfest, not November. Since the photo below is of the unusual January 2011 snowfall, I would NOT expect ::crosses fingers:: something like that in 2012.

The snow in Cambridge IN 2011, note the car mirror sticking out of the snow bank in the middle

Related to thinking about Interviewfest and coming to campus, applications are due 12/15 for the LGO class of 2014, so finish up those essays and please apply - I hope to see you next year!

Snapshots (without pictures)

2011-11-16T22:42:00.000-05:00

Ok, I've been delinquent for too long here. Been focusing mainly on the ray of hope that is Thanksgiving break.

Over the past two weeks though I:

Saw Google Chairman Eric Schmidt speak at Sloan's Innovative Leaders Series
(I even got to ask him a question! which he unfortunately misinterpreted...)

Attended a LGO Proseminar given by Apple
(I can say no more because that's what they asked, ahem, told us to do)

Gave two campus tours and met many cool people at LGO Ambassador Day!
(thank you to everyone for coming and please apply to be a part of the class of 2014)

Attended the Ambassador Day Proseminar given by Novartis
(nice to have an alum presenting both about her company but additionally about her experiences as a student)

Played in two more IM hockey games
(both losses, but I think I still improved)

Consumed more Halloween candy than I would care to disclose
(bought on sale, after Halloween)

Learned more about partner companies through their recruiting week receptions
(as well as saw the second years go through interviews and get some offers!)

Took two more guitar lessons
(though I should practice much more)

Received team feedback that I think differently in a good way, using alternate ways of reaching the same conclusions, and that I need to challenge them more with these different approaches
(overall, pretty intriguing comments and I will try and take them to heart)

SIP, Recruiting Week and Ambassador Day Update

2011-11-01T22:22:00.000-04:00

SIP, Sloan Innovation Period, has come and gone. It's the week after midterms when all you have is a mandatory ethics module (along with any other Sloan mini courses you sign up for). The LGOs also have engineering classes. The regular Sloanies just have their mini courses and so there are more shanigans going on that week than most. Highlights of SIP fun this semester included Korean BBQ, a trip to the Foxwoods casino in Connecticut, Sloan's Oktoberfest and a performance by a fellow Pacific '13 Philip Cohen at a local club called T.T. the Bear's Place (http://www.philipcohenmusic.com/).

I went to Oktoberfest and out to support my fellow Pacifican Phil. It was nice having just engineering classes and only having to show up for three days that week. Especially with nothing the previous friday (due to just having finished midterms), having a five day week now after a four day and three day one seems rough. Back to real (school) life!

This week, the LGO lounge has been hoppin' 'cause the '12s are back from their internships for their job interviews and partner company recruiting (Three apostrophes in one sentence!! :-). Although the second years are the focus this week, many receptions the partner companies have been hosting have welcomed us first years and so I've had some good opportunities to deepen relationships with partner companies that have been on campus before as well as meet some new ones that haven't been to campus yet.

Speaking of being on campus...I don't know how many of you who are reading this will be coming to Ambassador Day next Monday, but if you do, I will be leading tours of campus - one in the morning and one in the afternoon. I'm sure I'll be around other times, too, but if you want to chat about LGO, the application, or MIT in general, I will try and fit that in or talk to you before or after. Also, if you have comments about the blog - what you'd like to see more of, are sick of hearing about or still want to know - let's have a conversation. The comments section on the blog itself hasn't done much, but I'd be happy to get in person feedback :-)

Hockey!

2011-10-30T18:12:00.000-04:00

Our first IM Hockey game was last Wednesday and, even though we lost rather gloriously (7-1), it was not a shutout and we had a lot of fun. My personal success was that I won a faceoff! I also brought some fans to the game in the form of my roommates. They were super excited to see us play something hockey-ish - something I appreciated but didn't fully understand :-)

Since we're newbies and ice time is limited (we went on right after a C-league game - we're in D-league) each of the three periods in the game was 11 minutes instead of 20. During warmups many of us tested our pads by diving on the ice and then repeated the dive at the end of the game. Maybe that will become our signature move.

My roommates not only acted as a great cheering section, they also took quite a number of photos. I would like to share some of those with you.

Mid-game action

Our opponent - Delta Upsilon

I've got the puck!

Checking out what's going on, ready to get back into the ice

Our next game is versus the LGO '12s on Tuesday night, so it will be interesting to see how we do then. No matter what it should be time for some good trash talking and bad hockey. Woohoo!

MIT Quirks and Extracurriculars

2011-10-17T10:28:00.000-04:00

Hi again. I had to share this. One more vestige of undergraduate life. In order to graduate, each undergraduate needs to complete a certain number of PE classes. I had heard people refer to this PE class combo using this particular title (see screen shot below), but hadn't seen it officially acknowledged by the MIT's department of athletics, physical education and recreation before. This is a screen shot from their website:

Awesome!

In a related note, Winter IM sports are almost here and I've signed up for the LGO D-League Ice Hockey team. I still need some gear (some you can rent from MIT and some things, like sticks, our upperclassmen have passed down some) and probably need hockey skates rather than figure skates, but it should be a lot of fun. D league is the most basic level you can play at (some people don't know how to skate yet!!) and so I'm not really worried. I can skate okay, I can't stop too well and I've watched but never played hockey. Given that history, I should be in the middle to middle-front of the pack. There's a practice/intro session tomorrow night so I'll have to see what I can scramble together. Oh, and we also have three mid-terms this week.

Besides IM sports, I'm taking beginner guitar lessons through the MIT Live Music Connection (http://lmc.mit.edu/), an undergrad club (but open to all) formed in 2008 for people who play less classical instruments. They have these "open source" music lessons, hold jam sessions and help MIT bands put on shows on campus.

We meet on Monday evenings from 8:30-10 for "lecture" and then there's expected recitation (practice on our own). Even though there's tons of music on campus, these guys still found a niche to fill and it's been pretty cool. I need to keep practicing through! Our first songs were Mary had a Little Lamb, the opening to Stacy's Mom, the opening to Welcome to the Jungle, a Bon Jovi intro, part of the Rolling Stones' Paint it Black and...the opening to the Super Mario Brothers theme. As I said, I just need to keep putting in the time. We'll see how I do in class tonight :-)

Reaching Out

2011-10-14T08:00:00.002-04:00

One of the recent advances I've made in getting the word out about LGO is having my blog added to the MIT Sloan Student Blog (http://mitsloanblog.typepad.com/). In our early New Student Recruiting Committee meetings (yes, I'm documenting my experience for my benefit AND yours), some current students had mentioned that LGO is hard to find from both the Sloan and Engineering pages, so my goal is to make it more visible than it was before, no matter how small that change may be.

A fun surprise from working on getting cross-posted on the Sloan blog was that I "met" (through the phone) my summer probability professor's wife! Turns out, she works for Sloan admissions and is the person coordinating the blogs. Hi Harriet! Thanks for getting this coordination effort rolling.

Besides just getting rolling, the cool thing is that it looks like things are starting to take hold. From looking at my 'Stats' page I've already started getting referral/link traffic from the Sloan blog page and have added a few more hits to my total. A next step I'm looking at would be to approach the general MIT admissions blog (http://mitadmissions.org/blogs) and see if I could have even one guest post on their site.

I know quite a number of undergraduates post and read the MIT Admissions blog, but I don't know how much the blog interfaces with the incoming grad population since it is usually focused at applying to specific departments rather than learning about MIT as much in general. Engineering departments here generally don't have student blogs, and you can't apply to LGO straight from undergrad, so it's hard to know how to best reach potential applicants (Hey applicants, if you're reading this and have some ideas, let me know!).

I seem to have a funny relationship with social media. I have a Facebook page and I have a Linked In profile but I don't use twitter. I haven't posted any of my own photos on Facebook and yet I write this publicly available blog. Overall, I guess I like the casual prose of blogging versus the sentence or two that are status updates. I took four writing classes while an undergrad at MIT and Writing ended up being my humanities concentration (all undergraduates need to have a humanities concentration, but it could be music or history or economics as much as it could be writing). It's just something I like doing.

As a final aside, if you want to know anything about MIT in general, with a 95% service level, I probably know about it or can get you information on it. Honestly the more fun and legend-like the better. Having been an undergrad here for four years and then worked with alumni while I was employed out in Michigan there are a lot of things that have passed my ears in addition to the things we've been learning about as LGOs. Feel free to ask me questions over email or come talk at Ambassador Day (11/7/11 - be there!).

Weekend in Michigan

2011-10-12T08:00:00.001-04:00

Wow, October is already almost half gone. Other students and I have decided that days might seem to go on and on but weeks disappear like nothing. How are we over a month into term already? While we've had over four weeks of classes, this post is going to at least start out not about classes.

For our long Columbus Day weekend (MIT gives Monday and Tuesday off!), I went to Michigan. I flew out on Friday, landed at DTW around 4:30 and went to the Red Wings home opener at 7PM (Wings beat Ottawa 5-3 -Yay!). On saturday, I went back to one of my favorite restaurants out there, The Forest Grill, which is in a town called Birmingham (right by the Law Firm of Victoria - not kidding!) and then on Sunday, went to a cider mill for cider and donuts...

Filling something like cheesecloth with apple chunks to be pressed into yummy cider! Another press is on the left

...and then out in a boat on Lake St. Clair all the way down to the Ambassador bridge connecting Detroit to Canada. Turned out that the weather was as nice out in Michigan as it was in Boston this weekend - mid 70s and bright sun. Best weekend of the fall for sure.

Ambassador Bridge - Canada's on the left, Detroit Rock City is on the right

There, we could see the GM Renaissance Center and the Red Wings' home - Joe Louis Arena - from the water. I waved to Canada and was reminded that this weekend was their Thanksgiving.

GM's Headquarters, the Renaissance Center or RenCen for short :-)

On Monday, since they did not have the day off, I visited my old workplace, got to see changes that had been made, hear a little about what was going on as well as share what I had been busy with "out east". People seemed really pleased that I stopped to see them. I'm pleased that they were pleased!

All in all, an AWESOME weekend, but one that felt much shorter than it actually was. I flew back Tuesday morning and was doing reading for class while waiting to board the plane. Seems like you're either in work or fun mode, there isn't much in between and you've got to maximize both.

Applications are coming! (and my application story)

2011-09-30T08:00:00.003-04:00

I discovered the LGO program at the end of last summer. I had recently found and been looking at the MIT 1-year MEng in Manufacturing (http://web.mit.edu/~meng-manufacturing/), but then found Leaders for Global Operations. LGO is like that program plus an MBA with a longer internship. From my perspective, I wanted to apply for the engineering degree and the MBA would come as the bonus. I used the engineering application and applied through ESD (Engineering Systems Division). The program homepage http://lgo.mit.edu/ became research central, to try and learn as much as I could.

You might be one of those people who leaves things to the last minute and so will find what I'm about to write crazy. I know people have different styles, so take this with a grain of salt. I started writing my essays in September. I started writing my essays from the 2009 questions (the 2010 app hadn't been finalized yet!). I had five full drafts written (one of each question) when the 2010 application came out and, to my dismay, one of the questions had changed! So, first word of advice. Don't do anything until you've got your year's application.

Now for less crazy, everyone applicable advice. Especially if you start with enough time, have as many people read the essays as you can. I had professors, work colleagues, friends and all kinds of people read it. I felt that the essays were really important because they would help explain my unusual story. Some of you who already majored in Industrial Engineering or worked for partner companies might have a little less explaining to do. So, back to writing. At one point, each of my essays had gone through about three drafts and then one former professor just tore them down. I was blown away; I was dismayed; I was a combination of confused and sad and completely indignant that someone could think that these paragraphs that I had already spent so much time on could be improved that much.

I took a lot of his advice but not all of it. In the end it's you who's writing these essays, hopefully interviewing with the program, and who admissions has to see is a good fit for the program. Your personality and drive need to be there. Disclaimer: As far as I know I'm one of the people in 2013 who spent the most amount of time on their essays, so it is possible to be much less rigorous and get in.

Besides my application, I went to Ambassador Day (Nov 7th, 2011 this year!), and a Sloan on the Road event in Detroit, MI. Ambassador Day is when you come to MIT and spend a day going to classes, meeting students and going out in the evening. It's busy and it's a lot of fun. Sloan on the Road events are mostly MBA focused, but especially if there are LGO alumni in your area, there will often be a quick Q&A with them as well. Some Sloan on the Road events have already occurred, but here's the page to get more information about them. They're usually held in the evening so you can go after work: http://mitsloan.mit.edu/mba/admissions/attend-event.php. Disclaimer: these events are meant for you to learn more about the program and see how well you fit with other students and the school. They have no bearing on your admission status.

Other than the essays, most of the application is the same as any other business school or even college application - tell us about yourself, include recommendations, and, since it's partly a business program, include a resume as well.

If you're wondering about your fit with LGO and even MIT here are some adjectives for you to mull over.

LGO students and the program:
Collaborative
Fun
Laid-back
Leaders ( the L in LGO matters a lot )

MIT:
Open
Never sleeps - not necessarily because of class work, something's just always going on
Networked - tons of connections of the Cambridge community and MIT alumni, also awesome wifi ;-)
Encouraging - lots of program and campus resources to help you do what you want to, whether that's start a business, start a club, etc.

Internships - Appearing on the edge of the horizon

2011-09-28T08:00:00.004-04:00

Even though it's just a few weeks into the fall semester of our first year, we received an extra early reminder to think about internships when clothing company Zara (part of Inditex) asked to interview students early while their employees from Spain were in the US on business. To back up a bit, here's a quick explanation of how internships play a role in the LGO program.

Every LGO student will spend six months, either from February to August (Off-cycle) or from June to November (On-cycle) working with one of our partner companies on a project that the company has proposed. This project will become the basis for the student's thesis. Luckily, even though we will graduate with two degrees, MIT allows us to write just one thesis that will count for both. So, even though Off-cycle internship interviews won't mostly begin until next month, Zara kicked things off last week. It's gotten people to start thinking about when they want to go and what they want to do.

I am interested in doing Off-cycle for a number of reasons:

1) If you do an off-cycle internship, you have one remaining fall semester and one remaining spring. On-cycle leaves you with two springs. I like off-cycle because if you have more than two elective classes that looked interesting and were only offered in the fall, you will have that extra semester to get to take them. The one fall everyone has (this one) is pretty full with the four required Sloan classes and so isn't very customizable. There are at least two other classes only offered in the fall that I'd like to take, therefore, I'd like to be around campus for Sept-Nov 2012.

2) If you're here for the entirety of your second year, you can join and really commit to a Sloan club - you can follow a leadership role through. This is actually true for On-cycle internships for LGO committees, so I'm more on the fence about this reason. If I did off-cycle, I wouldn't be here to help out with the LGO Admitted Students Open House in March/April. Maybe I could participate via Skype...

3) Two semesters of school, two "semesters" of internship and then another two semesters of school. MIT classes can consume a lot of your time and brain power. Having six months in the middle doing something with a completely different structure (focusing completely on one thing), gets you re-charged to tackle six of seven different commitments.

4) Other silly reasons: I like Boston weather from September to November more than the weather from February to May. Also, my birthday is in December and it would be nice to be "at home" then, after living in Michigan and not seeing my family for my birthday for three years.

5) Finally, for better or worse, you have more time to write your thesis! Could be good but could be painful if work expands to fill the time allowed for it.

Everyone's got their own reasons for choosing what time they choose (including what companies are offering internships when), but right now this sounds good to me.

Mentoring

2011-09-26T08:00:00.001-04:00

One thing I felt like I was missing in my undergraduate experience at MIT was mentorship and a smaller sense of belonging. I felt very attached to the school as a whole and to my dorm, but within my department, I didn't feel like I was given much direction.

I know as future leaders, we should have to be able to lead ourselves first and should be able to give ourselves direction, but I didn't even feel always like I had someone to check my direction with - to bounce ideas off of and see if I was on to something.

Therefore, besides the many obvious benefits of LGO, I have been extremely pleased to have a community of staff, faculty and alumni that is very accessible and who care about my success. What I'd like to write about today is an optional aspect of the program that was started a few years ago and that's alumni mentorship.

We have a great resource in Jan Klein, who has taught the LGO leadership course for years and years. Due to her tenure with the program, she knows many many alumni well. At a student's request, she will pair you with an alum mentor based on anything you might request - industry, gender, age, background, engineering major, etc. My mentor is Melinda Manente, LGO '95 (back then is was Leaders for Manufacturing, so she's actually LFM '95). http://www.linkedin.com/pub/melinda-manente/0/128/588 She is local and has worked for Intel for the past 16 years.

This past Wednesday, she was part of an alumni career panel available to all students and then we went out for dinner afterwards to talk a little more one on one. Having not done the formal mentor thing before, I had a few ideas for my first talk, but things went pretty organically. We talked about my interests, her own career and family development, what she looks for from the perspective of a manager and how my background and preferences might fit with various companies. We talked about questions I might ask to gauge a company culture, and then started coming up with a plan to help me get those internships or ultimately, full-time jobs. My action plan from the meeting was to work on mock-interviews.

From discussion with Melinda and a one-on-one with Bill Hanson, another long-time LGO staff member, I'm getting closer to understanding what would be good in the long run.

I'd like to work for a company that makes a product that is on a human scale. I want to be able to look at a production step and be able to see or measure that something's wrong. I think this is why aerospace is less appealing (so big!), but also why, even though my work experience includes medical devices, pharma is not as exciting as I think it should be. I would have a much harder time assessing what's wrong or making changes or manipulating things when the product is a vat of microbes or even a computer chip. The spatial orientation and awareness that drew me to architecture is what makes these fields less exciting.

Finally, I don't want to work for a company whose products hurt people. As much as I think America being safe is a good thing, I think that that coming at the expense of others dying is really hard to stomach and so I can't work for defense in good conscience. There are so many good opportunities that will come out of this program so I'm not worried about finding something that will work.

It feels a little bit odd to, as Professor Spear often encouraged us, "put my stake in the ground" but this should provide some good initial direction and help me focus my efforts. The more I think about what will get me excited, the better results I'll have in the long run.

Overdue - More cool stuff from the summer

2011-09-24T22:02:00.001-04:00

One thing I was remiss in mentioning that I did over break at the end of the summer was go to Boston's GreenFest 2011, which was held on City Hall Plaza. Earlier in the day it had poured rain and so many of the tents and smaller exhibits were partly dismantled, but one exhibit remained intact and stood out from the rest. This was a set of high MPG cars that their owner/creators had driven in for the occasion. All of these vehicles had motorcycle license plates since they were non-standard cars, and they each got over 80 MPG.

RooPod was the vehicle that I looked at the most and it's owner/creator Roo Trimble was very nice in explaining the thinking that had gone into the vehicle. His day job is architectural metalwork and so not only was this car cool from an eco perspective, but it looked very polished and well done. My one concern was safety, but he replied that it was safer than a motorcycle. Can't have everything at once I guess. His goal is to get sponsorship to further trick out this vehicle, to develop a second version of the car or to possibly expand production. Here is his website http://roopod.com/ explaining more about the RooPod including technical specs, etc.

Roo has been putting in tons of his own time and money to see this vehicle become a reality. It's been an incremental process, but he's really passionate about the vehicle and knows tons about all the individual components that had to be customized and come together to make it comfortable, functional and street legal. We had a fun chat in August and I wish him success in pushing this project forward.

Owner Roo trimble, drying off from the rain, talks about his vehicle the RooPod (3 wheels, and the door is the roof!)

Besides the RooPod, there were two other custom high MPG vehicles in attendance, the Moonbeam and another car whose owner didn't leave much information about. It had more of a throwback look and a fiberglass top.

Moonbeam - looks like a space-y cousin of a Volkswagen beetle

The fiberglass high MPG car, I was thinking if Moonbeam was 60s inspired then this would be 70s and RooPod would be some kind of 80s/Modern combo

Club lecture - BioChem, Patents and Hair Care

2011-09-16T18:22:00.000-04:00

Over lunch today I went to a talk Dr. Robert Langer gave to the Sloan Healthcare club. Dr. Langer is an MIT Institute Professor (the highest title for a professor at MIT reflecting both depth of research an accomplishment at the institute as well as exceptional teaching and commitment to students). There are fewer Institute Professors at MIT even than Nobel Laureates so this was definitely a treat. He has a research group named after him, the Langer Lab, and many of his graduate students have used their work to start up companies from advances they've made in the field of chemical engineering.

His talk today reviewed a number of these theses-turned-companies and explained more about his strategy of filing for blocking patents (those worded vaguely so they must be acknowledged for development of many different products rather than just one). His name is on over 800 patents and many of these have been licensed by large companies. His list of accomplishments and contributions is amazing (he is the most cited engineer in history!). Many of the products he and his students have developed have been in relation to drug delivery but my summary of his work would take too long. For more information on Langer and his lab, go here.

The final item he discussed today was a product I've seen not at doctor's offices or medical journals, but on the shelves of personal care and cosmetics store Sephora. His team has applied their research to develop a molecule more hydrophobic (water averse) than silicone, for use in anti-frizz hair care products to counteract humidity. Silicone is what all other hair care manufacturers use but it can weigh down hair. The Langer molecule has equivalent effects without the build-up and their line is called Living Proof. I had vaguely heard before that the brand had MIT connections, but did not understand the depth of pedigree until today. The reviews on Sephora, for those of you who are curious, give the line about 4/5 stars.

So, for lunch today I had the privilege of listening to an engaging talk by a MIT professor who has accomplished much and affected many people's lives - both patients, his students, and people with bad hair days. It was one of those moments when I appreciate how accessible people are at MIT and what fantastic things have come out of this plot of land in Cambridge.

It's September and we've been oriented again

2011-09-07T01:43:00.000-04:00

While it was wonderful, break has ended and we've been inundated with Sloan and regular MIT graduate orientation events since the end of August. It's been fun and nice to meet new people, though nothing will be as zany and awesome as MIT undergrad orientation, but it's already confirmed before fall has even begun that the MIT's firehose, not just of classes but clubs, committees, C-functions, etc. will be turned on full bore this coming semester. I'm someone who likes sleep. It will be interesting to see how those interests play out.

During Sloan orientation we were assigned to oceans and new teams (only one LGO per team this time - we're all split up). I'm in the Pacific (F) Ocean (cohort) and have a team of seven people. We are the Puffins. All the teams within an ocean are named after seabirds. We have two people from Massachusetts originally, two from Florida originally, one originally from France, one from India and one from Korea. Funny how there's a greater diversity in countries than there is in states for our team with regards to where we grew up. We've got our email list, Dropbox account and Google calendar all set up and ready to go so hopefully we can be effective from the very start.

Sloan orientation had more class type events than I expected, lots of catered food (about half of the orientation events were in the Marriott hotel right nearby) and then a fun day off campus at a place called the Warren Center doing team building activities. I think it helped a lot to get our team loosened up and more comfortable with each other. We've met up at subsequent orientation events, too.

Today was Registration Day, but we had a class. I've never had that happen before at MIT but Sloan continues to play it's 'we'll do things our own way no matter how the rest of the institute does it' role, so I shouldn't be all that surprised. Engineering classes and a relatively standard schedule start tomorrow. I need to be on campus starting at 8:30 again. Given the classes I wanted to take there was no way to avoid it.

In addition to the Sloan Core (four classes), I'm taking Logistics Systems (15.770/ESD.260) and Mechanical Assemblies: Their Design and Role in Product Development (2.875). I've also been assigned to the Sloan Marketing elective this fall, but might choose to drop it and take it another semester. It's offered every term and we just need to take it before we graduate. I also then have to do work for committees (which I need to do more of) and general fun/outreach/interaction stuff. As I said before, I'm wondering how this will mix with my need for sleep :-)

Alternate Plant Tour

2011-08-29T07:18:00.000-04:00

On Friday, I went on the factory tour at Taza Chocolate (http://www.tazachocolate.com/) in Somerville, MA. I got tickets for their tour through the MIT Activities Committee (http://web.mit.edu/mitac/). The MIT Activities Committee sells tickets to various local events, museums, etc. at a discount to the MIT community. Taza is a walk from the Central Square T stop and was started by some people who worked at Zipcar actually.

Taza is one of 20 bean to bar chocolate factories in the US. All of their chocolate is dark chocolate. There is no dairy at the facility and their bars are primarily cocoa beans and cane sugar. Taza is fair trade, organic, kosher, vegan, etc.. The only issue is for people with nut allergies since they roast the nuts they use in some of their chocolate in the same roaster that they roast their cocoa beans in.

We got to see the beans themselves and machines that roasted the beans and separated from their shells. They showed us the stone grinding machines that they use to grind the chocolate and all the piping that the liquified chocolate gets moved around in (the room is 85 degrees F!). At the end, we saw employees putting chocolate into molds and then moving it into a room for cooling (50 degrees F).

The stone grinding methods came from Mexico and the chocolate recipe is traditional, too. Most of their chocolate is disks and has a gritty texture from the minimal stone grinding, but the chocolate in the bars is ground further and is a little smoother. They add cocoa butter to those bars.

The red machine in the background is the bean and nut roaster. The one in the front is the shell separator. What looks like dirt on the floor is actually cocoa powder, shell and nib bits.

Granite grinding wheels, about 20 pounds each are used to grind the chocolate

An employee adds a giant yellow chunk of cocoa butter to the big white vat in the background while watching liquid ground chocolate flow from the plumbing in the foreground

Filling the molds before they are passed into the cool room.

The majority of their chocolates are hand wrapped, though they recently got a machine to help them wrap some of the round ones.

Shelved boxes of their Mexican style round disks

Taza states that their chocolate has a shelf life of a year and that their busy season is from fall until about Valentine's Day. They sell individual bars, but also sell chocolate in bulk to bakeries and restaurants. During the tour there were all kinds of samples along the way, which made things even more enjoyable. They have a few kinds of the smoother bar chocolate and then about 11 different flavors of the coarser Mexican disks, such as orange, coffee, salted almond, vanilla, salt and pepper, yerba mate and some ones with chili in them and others I can't even remember. All in all the tour took about an hour and it was a fun short excursion for break. I'd recommend a visit if you're in the area.

The end of the summer which is why I last posted 8/4

2011-08-19T12:17:00.000-04:00

The final weeks of class (there are only ten in the summer, as opposed to a normal semester which has more like 14) were crazy, full of projects, papers and tests. While many classes were ramping down, 15.064, our probability and statistics class, seemed to grow in the amount of our time it took up. It had the problem set that was due latest in the term, our only official final exam, and a final project. The final project was a paper helicopter drop to see which team could get the best combination of hang time and accuracy. For photos and video of our drop, see Steven's blog post here :-)

In 15.066, our Optimization class, teams presented their final projects where they had to both formulate and solve a complex problem of their choice. Team 7, my team, presented a real world application of how to distribute oil, given that a company just found a new well, but Team 1 presented something more tasty: how Friendly's Ice Cream should distribute ice cream and other food supplies to their franchises. To appease us all, they brought in snacks for the class. David was one of the servers (as well as a presenter).

I picked the black raspberry and chocolate chip cookie dough combo cup - now that's what I call breakfast!

In our leadership class, 15.317 (all classes that begin with the #15 are offered through Sloan), we had an art session of sorts and drew out what each of the teams wanted to leave behind from our summer work and experiences and also what lessons we had learned and skills we wanted to bring forward. Each group had a mix of serious and silly.

Artwork! Drawing was one thing we didn't do much of this summer

Excited about the end of term, and curious about what other teams had drawn, most of us were out of our seats for the presentations

Finally, done with the stats exam and leadership summer wrap-up (leadership is a class we'll be checking in with throughout the two years), we gave out certificates with superlatives and nicknames for each person and then had a celebratory lunch outside of Redbones BBQ. It hit the spot and the setting under the trees was really nice. It kept threatening to rain, but we were able to stay dry.

End of the summer - we made it!

As lunch ended we all dispersed almost hesitatingly, kind of feeling like, what are we going to do now? What is this free time that is now available to us? A number of people were going home, a number of people were getting married over break actually and a bunch of people were staying in Boston. I'll be eager to hear stories when we all reconvene in a few weeks.

New month, new topic

2011-08-04T22:30:00.000-04:00

This will be short since the work load has only been ramping up lately. The end of our summer term is just over two weeks away and it promises to be a marathon finish. Group projects, a group paper, individual projects, problem sets and a final exam. After that we've got two weeks to spend as we please and it's going to be WONDERFUL!

Now a little about a feature of our industry partnerships - Plant Tours!

In the summer of the first year, LGO students go on plant tours. These initial ones are usually local (in-state) and the class of 2013 has kept it up. So far I visited National Grid, New Balance, and Raytheon. Some of my classmates visited Amgen with the CLGOs while they were here. We have one tour left for the summer with Genzyme. All the facilities were wonderful to host us and show how everyday operations occur.

Here are a couple of my takeaways from these plant visits...

One thing that surprised me was all the inventory that National Grid had to manage. When I originally thought of the company, I pictured routing electricity and telling it where to go, but you forget all of the equipment that is used in doing that. Lots of transformers, meters to read what power is used and lots and lots of cable to fix/splice/form. One of the facilities we went to with them was a training center where we were reminded of the fact that not only do they have meters at the buildings of their customers, but these meters are of many different ages, manufactures and types, and they still need to service each one.

At New Balance it was cool to see a product made so completely in one place. We saw everything from the bolts of fabric stage to fusing the shoe to the sole in a final assembly operation. All of the machines were closer together than I expected. Some were automated, but many were the equivalent still of a person and a robust sewing machine. New Balance has existed now for over 100 years, but the current owners took over in the 1970s. The employees seemed very happy with the owners and I have to say that their factory, set up in a carefully renovated mill building from 1909 was very nice.

Ok, the architect is talking here...they kept the original hardwood floors and left much of the exterior brick wall exposed on the inside. Also, old mill buildings have HUGE windows so there was plenty of natural light. I enjoyed the building in addition to the tour and presentation they gave us.

Raytheon...the main thing I can say was that the scale of everything surpassed what I had imagined - building size, product size, testing area, number of employees, price tags - it was all larger than life to me. It was also interesting to learn a little about how they had implemented lean processes and systems for products that are made in relatively small batches. I worked for a completely different industry, but we also had issues of low demand and small batch sizes.

Now...back to work! I did finally order a camera, so once I have that in hand and things get less busy, I'll be sure to get back to posting more frequently complete with pictures. Thanks for reading!

A good thing to do on a summer night

2011-07-22T01:10:00.000-04:00

On Tuesday night I went to a concert at the Bank of America Pavilion in Boston. It's very close to the water and easily accessible by the T. The Pavilion is basically a giant tent that seats 5000 people. It's open to the warm summer air and so it's great to go hear some music, see the sky change color as the sun sets and to feel the air get cooler as night descends.

For this particular show, I went to see Parachute and Michelle Branch open for the Goo Goo Dolls. Overall, the concert wasn't as good as I had hoped it would be, but the Goo Goo Dolls are a band I've been interested in seeing live for a while and now that curiosity has been satisified. They were good and it was nice to hear many of their familiar hits. They did, however, also play songs from their CD that came out last summer, too, so this wasn't a total washed-up tour, but the biggest audience reaction was from the classic favorites.

One of the problems with playing the old and new songs together was that, to generalize, the old songs are harder punkier rock whereas the newer ones are more acoustic alternative radio listening so it made for a sort of bi-polar set list. Besides the occasionally strange song juxtaposition, I guess it just felt like some extra spark was missing compared to other bands I've seen. As I said before though, I'm still glad I saw them.

Summers to me recently have begged for a concert or two, especially ones at venues where you can enjoy the weather at the same time. Last summer, in Michigan, I saw Colbie Caillat and Sheryl Crow at an open air venue and that was fun. Getting a ticket last minute on Craigslist for $15 made it even better. Alternatively, I also saw the Scorpions that summer, so don't go making too many generalizations about my music tastes...even I've tried and it's pretty hard...

As far as summer, it has been incredibly warm here this week and a bunch of last week, too. Boston, yes, is usually humid during the summer, but I don't know if there's been this long of a spell that has been this hot in quite a while. Today (Friday) the high is supposed to be 99F. I wonder if we'll make it into the triple digits or not. It seems as if we're certainly not alone in the heat department though; on Facebook, a Detroit radio station posted that it hit 100 there for the first time in fifteen years on Thursday. Wow.

P.S.
There won't be many photos on the blog until I get another camera. I accidentally knocked mine off of a table here at Sloan and turned it into a camera shaped paperweight. Does anyone have recommendations for inexpensive but good digital cameras? I've been looking at the Panasonic Lumix series...

Team 7 Satellite Office

2011-07-19T23:37:00.000-04:00

This weekend, Team 7 spent a day and a half on the south coast of Massachusetts, chilling out by the pool and on the beach and...reading Copenhagen and discussing a little stats. Yes, we did some work. But that wasn't our priority. Priority #1 was taking some time to get our group and SOs together for a short break in the middle of our summer term. It was GOOD. LGO, can you just forward our mail here? :-)

Joint Venture: China LGO and LGO Meeting and Sharing

2011-07-15T23:59:00.001-04:00

Background: LGO has a sister program with Shanghai Jiao Tong University that was started in 2007. It is referred to as CLGO and is also focused on manufacturing and operations. CLGO students visit LGO every summer and, every other spring, the LGOs go to China during their International Plant Trek.

This year, at the beginning of July, almost 30 CLGO students came to the United States to tour east coast cities (they visited Washington DC, Philadelphia and New York) and visit MIT. Before Boston, the CLGOs had their own tour guides, but once they got to Boston and Cambridge, we were their hosts.

We had a welcome event at the sailing pavilion with introductions. There, we first got to speak with the CLGOs in depth. Their English is very good - they said that the cases they read for class are the same ones we do. Even though the cases are written in English (which is definitely impressive), the class discussion is still usually in Chinese. We shared dinner and they presented us each with a lovely gift - a business card case and key ring set with traditional chinese designs.

Meet and greet and gift sharing at the Sailing Pavilion

The CLGOs also came to a number of our classes and saw how we learned about leadership, lean/six sigma principles and high velocity organizations. The Lean/Six Sigma class was probably the most interactive because were were doing our airplane building simluations.

Siwen (Sterling), Si (Steve) and Sam work on lego organization

The CLGO synergy committee, made up of LGO students, did a great job at planning meals and activities for our Chinese guests, many of which we could also attend. I had an Italian dinner in Boston's North End with CLGO students on Friday night (helping decode the menu and choose representative Italian dishes for them to try) and went on a Whale Watch out of Boston Harbor with them on Sunday. We saw many humpback whales that afternoon, feeding and diving all around the boat.

The group waiting on the docks to go on the whale watch

An awesome whale tail!!

Other activities we shared were many other meals and a trip to go berry picking a little outside of Boston. We had received feedback from the previous year's visit that our Chinese guests wanted to see more non-city life, so berry picking seemed like a nice, sometimes literal, taste of nature! During the berry trip, besides picking the fruit itself, the farm owners gave a tour of the processing facilities they had so we got some operations experience as well.

Talking about how things work on a farm

Transportation for the day

Xiaoming (Tina) looks really happy

Zach is also competing for the "really happy berry picker" prize. He was the one who bought many pints of blueberries at Haymarket a week or two earlier...

The day was a tremendous success

The visit was informative for students from all countries. I felt like I was able to learn a little more what actual life was like (the students with families reminded us that they just had one kid and couldn't have more) and how the US is really perceived (very independent rather than community oriented, ex. many Americans move away from home and into their own homes relatively early in life). We got to share things as well such as "No, there are no outlet malls accessible via subway."

But seriously, we shared America with the CLGOs by answering many questions, besides just where they could get "good stuff cheap." Although, yes, the CLGO students wanted to buy luxury brands for people back home since things like Coach purses are less expensive here than they are in China, they also came to group events excited to see us again and get to share more experiences. We talked about everything: from habits in class to the American police heirarchy (local/state/national) after we saw some cops on the street after we left a restaurant.

Overall, they CLGOs were very congenial and eager, open to trying all sorts of foods (though some types were definitely preferred more than others, Mexican did not seem to be popular) and doing all sorts of things. They were very courteous and thoughtful, too (I was offered a seat on the subway multiple times, one got me a drink at the welcome party, etc.).

At our farewell dinner, rather than say goodbye, the CLGOs said "Welcome to China!". I thought that this was a nice way to finish because it spoke of another beginning rather than just an ending. I would like to go on the international plant trek next spring and am looking forward to seeing them again soon.

I hope this can be us sitting together on the other side of the world next time

Back to go forward

2011-07-12T22:55:00.000-04:00

While I'm organizing pictures from the CLGO visit to go with my official long post, I'll share another shorter and sillier event that happened earlier this month.

For our leadership class, we watched most of the film '12 Angry Men'. In it, 12 men are jurors for a murder trial and basically all of the movie is shot in the room where they're trying to decide if the person is innocent or guilty. Summary: lots of evidence of different leadership and communication styles appears and then we talked about it.

So, a core group of people decided that, shortly thereafter, we should wear polos and ties (if we had them) to leadership class in reference to the movie. Most people participated, however, Jan Klein our professor didn't immediately notice. Thinking about one of my previous posts, most of the guys wear collared shirts anyway and so our professor had no real reason to think that much was unusual. She probably just didn't know what to think about the ties. Since our plan wasn't obvious to the person who had shown us the movie, we ended up having to explain our scheme. It didn't seem as clever then, however, it was still fun and it gave us an excuse to take another class photo. Hi world!

More like 50 not so angry men and women

Old and New

2011-07-12T22:43:00.000-04:00

Building E60 reflected in building E62

I really like this picture I took during one of our study group meetings in the newest Sloan Building, E62. This building, just dedicated in May 2011, has many study rooms, meant specifically for group work, outfitted with whiteboards and computer monitors (the low tech and high tech ways to share ideas).

Since, over the summer, we do the majority of our assignments with our LGO teammates, we spend time after class often in spaces like this. I just thought the view was appropriate. The building reflected in the window is probably at least 75 years older than Sloan's newest acquisition and it's cool to think of the people who went here decades ago before there were things like the internet and computers and whiteboards and... ....it must have been very different.

July 4th! (Wow, it's July!)

2011-07-06T00:22:00.000-04:00

Yesterday many of us set aside the afternoon to carry on an LGO tradition. BBQ and relaxing at the MIT sailing pavilion up until the Boston Pops Concert and "Fireworks Spectacular". The MIT sailing pavilion is right on the Charles River, almost exactly in front of the barge where they shoot off the fireworks (yay unobstructed view!), and they have grills where you can cook. Students and SOs started coming around 2-2:30 and we ate and drank, talked and played games...for hours and hours...but time went by pretty quickly. The day was hot (mid-80s), but by 4 or 5 the sun started going behind a few taller buildings and some clouds gathered. There was threat of rain, but none actually came down, which was great. Instead the breeze picked up and made things even more pleasant.

Sun still high and hot over a 4PM not-as-crowded-as-I-expected Sailing Pavilion, you can see we were literally right on the river

By 8PM though, the sailing pavilion was packed, both with LGOs and other MIT students and friends
(Sorry about the candid, guys!)

A great spot for sailing and grilling

Leading up to the concert they had lots of smaller patroitic things going on.

They shot off canons on the Boston side of the river, hence all the white smoke

Lady Liberty and Uncle Sam and other American icons went boating past

The top of the Prudential Center was decked out in Red, White and Blue lighting
(same building that did MIT 150 in its windows)

They had a jet flyover (sorry, I don't know what kind)

The concert started at 8PM with patriotic music and sing-alongs. Our international friends might not have known what to think of this whole display, but they seemed to enjoy themselves and take in the moment nonetheless. They, along with us, noticed that just when everyone started singing, the flag at the pavilion started waving. Awesome!

Representatives of Australia and Canada

Our high flying flag

At 10PM the local coverage went national, so we got to hear that transition. The fireworks went from a little after 10:30 until 11PM.

This was the giant barge where all the fireworks were launched from. They synchronized the launches to music that played over speakers on both sides of the river.

Since many people took photos of the fireworks, I thought you might want to see some of our happy, in-awe faces instead.

Happily taking in the glow of the show

Happy, belated 4th everyone! Hope Tuesday was manageable :-)

Class Stats

2011-07-05T21:04:00.000-04:00

As we shift from probability to statistics, here are some less publicized stats about the LGO '13s.:
6% of LGOs have military experience
8% have at least one child (one was newly minted in June!)
10% have their pilot's license
10-15% have gotten sick in the first month
possibly due to getting
20-30% fewer hours of sleep than we're used to
50-60% - conservative estimate of LGO 13's with Significant Others
(married, engaged, and other long term relationships)
70-80% of guys on a given day will wear a collared shirt to class (polo or button-up)
95% of summer classes are held in the same room : E51-315

I could have ended with something cheesy - 100% will find lifetime friends - but that will be up to life to determine. Things are looking good though...

Notes and thanks

2011-06-30T00:04:00.000-04:00

Today marked out last 15.064 (Engineering Probability and Statistics) class with Prof. Arnold "Arnie" Barnett. He gave ten entertaining lectures on the chance we might listen and learn something. To commemorate this event, here are a number of selections from the master himself that I jotted down along with my class notes:

~On conditional Probability
"If you don't believe that unicorns exist, you're not going to agonize about whether a unicorn drives a toyota corolla now will you?"

"There are probability problems that have for centuries remained unsolved; they will not be on the quiz."

"Amnesia, you may recall, no pun intended, is a lack of memory."

"It was actually on the board, but due to the curvature of the earth, you didn't see it."

~On the mean aka 'expected value' of a set of numbers
"An expected value would seem to be a value you'd expect, but you wouldn't toss a die and expect 3.5, now would you?"

"Are you with me? Arnie, in a dull voice immitating an apathetic student: 'No, I'm against you!'"

"Given that probability is an inherently exciting subject, more assignments should give you that much more happiness."

"Let us do something beautiful."

"I make plenty of mistakes on the board, but this time, accidentally, I got it right."

"I was looking for a picture of a railroad tunnel and the only one I was able to steal was of a tunnel in Australia. [shows us normal looking photo of a railroad tunnel] Given that it's in Australia, you might think it's upside down..."

And the [online distribution calculator] will ask...
"My child, what is the mean of your curve? What is your sigma, and what would you like to know?"

Again, a discussion between Arnie and his internal apathetic student voice:
"That's the only proof for today."
"That's one too many"
"Oh, stop it!"

"I'm not going to go through algebra on the board. Some of you will find it boring. All of us will find it tragic."

~On a probability distribution he had just written out:
"Does this have a mean of 150? If you think so, then you partied too late!"

~On career moves
"Later on if you work as a consultant, you can't just say, 'I worked out the mathematics.' They won't trust you."

~On why he can't know the temp at a certain time in Singapore or Boston (parts of an example problem):
"I'm at the north pole trying to find penguins who might be customers for my book"
(Sorry Arnie, but I think the penguins are in the south pole. If you head north you'll have to look for literate polar bears or seals or something.)

"You might say, 'This is a graduate course - are you going to teach us anything?'"

"Actually, what I just said was wrong, but I couldn't understand it either."

"In the end we are all normal, which is kind of odd for me to say."

"Isn't that amazing? The correct answer is yes."

Thank you Arnie for teaching a class where P(you would say something witty) was high and uniformly distributed. We learned a lot and appreciated your approach. It was amazing. The answer is YES. Thanks again!

Work* aka Some fun things having nothing to do with class

2011-06-25T00:40:00.000-04:00

I titled this post work*, since * notation in probability means "everything but the thing that has the star next to it". That is the last that I will speak of classes and class related things in this post.

Tonight, I did three new things.
1. I finally went into the Women's Lounge (the Margaret Cheney Room) in Building 3. I knew about it as an undergrad but didn't know how to get access, finally found out and went in and it's nice to know that the space is there. All female students need to do is email the Student Activities Office, have their ID card activated and then they have 24/7 access as long as they are a student.

It's a quiet, completely safe space and was actually started back in 1882 in honor of Margaret Cheney (a MIT graduate of that year). So, the Cheney room actually had to make to move with the rest of campus when MIT moved from Boston to Cambridge. FYI, MIT, unlike Harvard or Columbia or a number of other top schools, was never all-male. It had its first female graduate in 1873. I'm going to try and add in general MIT history, facts, trivia, etc. to give you a sense of this place beyond just the business school itself.

2. I saw The Adjustment Bureau featuring Matt Damon and Emily Blunt in 26-100 (one of the largest lecture halls on campus). LSC, the Lecture Series Committe, usually puts on two movies a week during the school year for $4. Over the summer, though, their policy is to pick one movie to show every other week, but to show it for free - six films are being shown now though August. So, tonight, I was occupied from 8-10PM watching a free movie. The only thing bad about this set-up is that the seats in 26-100 are uncushioned which makes sitting through a 2 hour movie somewhat less pleasant. Despite the non-ideal seating, 26-100 though is the traditional location for all LSC movies, both over the summer and during the year.

3. When I left the movie tonight with some friends, one of them reminded me that the Cambridge Dance Party was tonight. One subway stop north of campus around Central Square, the city closed a block or so of Massachusetts Avenue (the main NS thoroughfare through Cambridge which also splits MIT in half) set up lights and a DJ and gave citizens four hours tonight to get out and party. See the photos below for more details of the awesome-ness.

How often do you see a traffic notification sign like this?!? :-)

The official party sign in front of City Hall

The party as you looked "up" Mass Ave (towards Harvard). City Hall is on the right.

Looking across Mass Ave from one sidewalk to another - The block was pretty packed!
(By the way, the Post Office is the grey/white building in the background)

Simulations

2011-06-23T12:35:00.000-04:00

So for a number of our classes we've done simulations to demonstrate concepts we're talking about. I've found these really helpful in getting us interested, keeping us awake, and engaging with the material on a deeper level than I'm sure we would have otherwise.

In ESD.930, our Lean Six Sigma module, we've been simulating putting together lego planes; in 15.761 Operations Management we played the "beer game" (which involved no beer, just a simulation of shipping cases of beer), and in ESD.60 today we've been working on a paper airplane assembly line. In the break in between the two paper airplane sessions, people have been throwing them around the room (how could you not??).

My biggest takeaway from these simulations so far is from ESD.60 - stick to the plan for a certain length of time, then stop and revise. Rather than firefighting mid-stream, it's better to work in a pre-determined way for a certain length of time to see most accurately where problems occur. Professor Spear phrased it as "stick to the process with absolute discipline...temporarily." If people break role to help even things out, it's much harder to find out what's really wrong. You can modify roles after that first trial run.

After identifying the 12 steps in making the four different types of paper airplanes we were tasked to make, we distributed those steps amongst the five people in our team. Turns out that first distribution of steps created a distinct bottleneck during wing folding, so, for the following round, we decided to change that. We also wanted to improve the material handoffs and plane tracking so people knew which one they were working on (we had to make 18 min five minutes - none of the 11 teams succeeded in the first two rounds). In the third round, after making multiple changes and labeling the planes with what each station needed to do, we were able to complete 14 planes. Some teams even got to 18, when, in the first round, no one had successfully completed more than nine.

Later in the class we also talked about the concept of viewing employees as a commodity that can be "bought" and "sold"/"returned" and "repurchased" again versus a scarce resource of trained people who know about processes and how to improve them. There it all depends on company culture which is a bit of another story.

OK, paper airplanes are done - after lunch we'll get back to Lego airplanes and I'll get back to this later.

And it begins

2011-06-21T23:39:00.000-04:00

Only three weeks in to classes and we spent 7+ hours after class working on one assignment which we still haven't finished yet. There was some time spent socializing and eating dinner, but it was mostly focused on trying to get probability done. If I didn't like the prof as much as I do, I would have more trouble finding it to be worth it. I left the LGO office around 10PM tonight and we'll need to work on things more tomorrow. I knew it was going to be a challenge, but somehow I still wasn't that worried coming into the program. Now it's appearing to be harder than I exected. D'oh!

In a week or two we're going to have to map out the classes we think we want to take for all the two years and to commit to our concentrations - Mechanical Engineering, Engineering Systems Division (in other places known as Industrial Engineering), Electrical Engineering, Aero/Astro, Chemical and Civil Engineering. I found out today that both the course load in terms of credits and the funding for the program are really 2/3 Sloan and 1/3 Engineering. We need to take 120 Sloan units (regular classes are usually 9-12 units) and 66 engineering units to graduate. That makes me kind of sad. I wish it were more 50-50.

When I was reading the blogs of the current students when I was applying, I thought to myself, "Wow, they don't post very much. If I do this, I've blogged before and I'm sure I'll post more. It will be fun." The truth is that I do enjoy it and it is in a way fun, but it's so much more easy to accomplish when you have time on your hands, which LGO is so good at helping you get rid of. I won't have four posts per year or anything, but I think, sadly, things may end up being closer to four posts per month rather than per week. Hopefully it will still be informative.

Other news...it's good to be a Bostonian because the Boston Bruins (NHL) won the Stanley Cup last week in Game 7. I got to hear cheers and car horns right outside my apartment after the game. That was fun. I've been in town now for two Red Sox world series championships (2004 and 2007), the Patriots won the Super Bowl in 2005 when I was in college and the Celtics won just after I finished undergrad in 2008. Now the Bruins complete the set! If the Red Wings couldn't win (I lived in Michigan before this and that's when I first started watching Hockey, so they're my "home" team), then the Bruins are my next choice since MA is where I grew up.

Team 7

2011-06-14T21:41:00.001-04:00

Earlier I had meant to write more about our first days of the program after The Universe Within, but there were almost so many things to say, I didn't know where to start. Now I'll try and get back to that a little...

Besides our classes, quite soon after arriving we all got into business attire and had our group and individual photos taken. These will be used in promotional materials, will be hung on the wall of our program office and will also be printed along with our resumes in a class photo/info book available to staff as well as partner companies. We had to look good. So, while we all were so snazzy looking, I had someone snap a couple of our team. Here they are:

Team Seven looking like we're the group you'd like to hire...

And Team 7 being Goofy (we're all doing a 7 with our hands in some way or another...at least we're trying to)

We stayed in this and other intermediate business attire (business casual, not suits) our first full week when we met with partner companies. We've already had a workshop with Cisco, some people went to a presentation by Dell, we've been given a case study by Caterpillar and we met many different company reps at the LGO Governing Board reception. I still find it amazing how all these high-powered capable people show up and want to talk to us. Eventually, though, I think we'll either get used to it and or accept it and take on the role that they'd like us to grow and join them someday. You can't sit around saying other people are awesome all the time. You need to step up and command some awesome-ness yourself.

On our way to being awesome, we've got to do some work though, so today I got a candid of us working on some of our problem sets (I think we're just wrapping up). Assignments have finally started to come due this week so now we're getting more into the swing of things. The LGO office is great in that they have small breakout/group study rooms with big monitors (if you want to share what's on your computer) and whiteboards to scribble on. This is a photo of us in one of those rooms.

Working together on 15.066 HW (Optimization, here done with spreadsheets)

Speaking of working together, on Monday night, the hockey/probability party exceeded my expectations and, despite odds to the contrary, we both got work done and enjoyed the hockey game. Yay!

Tonight, after some of us stuck around the office to do work individually, we had a spontaneous dinner outing with half the team tonight (Team 1/2? Team 3/6?). We went to explore a few places close to but not right at campus. We had Middle Eastern food for dinner and then grabbed bubble tea at a place next door. Bubble tea is an Asian drink often served cold (milk and tea or just tea, often flavored) with tapioca balls (bubbles) in it. You drink it through a giant straw so you can suck up the bubbles at the same time. It's kind of odd, but rather tasty and fun to do every once in a while. These were two places I had not been to when I was at MIT before, so it was fun to continue exploring.

Before I forget the details...

2011-06-14T21:17:00.000-04:00

Here's a little bit of information about my commute for the summer from home to LGO. I live in Porter Square which is on the Red Line (the one with direct access to MIT (and Harvard)). I feel incredibly fortunate in that I am not only very close to the stop itself, but I am right across from a large, chain grocery store, Shaws, which is something rarer to find in the city.

So, how to get to school in a little more detail...

You can see the funky wind sculpture thing (three red metal sails) on the roof of the station. That's at the end of my street :-)

So getting to the station itself is not a big deal. Living near a subway as opposed to taking the bus to school or walking is that, if you have to wait, at least on the Red Line, you always do so INDOORS. No rain, no snow and it's just about always warmer down there. When I went to MIT as an undergrad I always felt like Porter was another world away, but really it's no big deal. In the fall, hopefully I can tell you that MIT grad housing is no big deal, either.

Porter is a subway stop, however, that is especially, literally "down there". You have to do some serious climbing to get in or out. Take these photos below...

The first escalator, this one (climbing back up at a moderate but not hurried pace) is ~30 steps.

At the first level change there is one escalator going up, one going down and a set of stairs in the middle. Most people seem to split the difference and walk up or down the escalator. I try and do the same.

Escalator #2

The second escalator not only is twice as long...~60 steps climbing the escalator at a moderate pace, but it is wider and so somehow feels even more steep and precarious. This set is past the point where you pay for the subway and is three escalators wide with two sets of stairs. Again, most people climb the escalator. Just standing there takes too long, but going up each and every step with no help is more than people want to do at the very beginning or end of their workday.

Three stops to get from Porter to Kendall/MIT

If you're a normal person, you ride the T, but if you're sneaky, observant and/or smart, eventually you learn which end of the platform to stand on to get off closest to where you need to go. For coming to MIT/Sloan, I always try and stand near the front of the train because that let's me off closest to the exit near the business school.

This whole thing reminds me of the freshmen seminar I took called "You Can Get There From Here." As long as you wake up early enough, it's pretty true.

Classes and Committees

2011-06-13T17:39:00.002-04:00

We've now completed our 5th day of class after the leadership module The Universe Within concluded. In those five days we've had sessions for:

15.064 Engineering Probability and Statistics
Turns out this is our most hilarious class so far...no joke. I will post quotes soon :-)

15.066 Systems Optimization
(aka linear programming plus a few more advanced things)
Looks like it will be very applicable to real company issues and might be useful for an internship - how to make the most of what you've got of minimize costs of making/buying what you don't.

15.317 Organizational Leadership and Change
Our first session was three hours back to back. I think all of us understand that this will be valuable, but it's hard to go for that long talking about it in theory. I spoke with a number of people who'd rather less class time and them maybe report about how we're doing for real in our committee and team meetings. Jury is out on how it will go.

ESD.60 High Velocity Organizations
Makes sense to see examples of what and how companies or other types of organizations do well and also to identify what is "wrong" - we talked today about the importance of not normalizing deviance.

We're still waiting to have a class for ESD.930 Module on Lean 6-Sigma Methods, but that will be tomorrow. ESD.930 and The Universe Within are referred to as modules, I guess, because they are not full credit classes. In total, this summer, we will take six differently named courses with the total work load of around five classes. That's still plenty to do.

In addition to our work for classes, last Friday, the 10th, we signed up for the committees that we will be a part of this year. Students are representatives on committees ranging from recruiting new students and partner companies to planning our "plant treks" (a series of company visits we will do in January and over spring break) and facilitating visits with CLGO (our Chinese program counterpart - you think American universities are competitve - just think about a country of 1 billion people - these students are top notch). They told us that we can sign up for as many as we'd like but that we'll probably significantly contribute our time to two of them. They waste no time in getting us going. I have not had any committee meetings yet, though. Probably will have them soon.

The Committees I've signed up for are:

New Student Recruiting
Getting a quality group of students to apply to the Class of 2014 and beyond, we'll be blogging, and setting up events I enjoyed like Ambassador Day in the fall for students to meet people in person and find out more about the program, InterviewFest, when the first round of callbacks occurs in the application process and Open House after everyone knows whether they've been admitted or not. We'll be running these events and making presentations and being incoming students' points of contact.

Communications
Very closely tied to new student recruiting, they work on not only getting the word out about LGO to potential applicants but also to other schools, companies, etc.

New Partners
Working with the program staff to contact other companies who we'd like to become partners. Partners sponsor internships, offer employment after graduation and visit us periodically to present cases and get to know us. More partner companies can enable us to have a greater range of internships, and related to that a possible greater diversity or number of admitted students. Also, some partner companies have been with us forever, but others have come and gone so we always need to be ready to fill gaps as needed.

I'm looking forward to seeing how this all plays out, but right now waking up around 6:15, getting to Sloan by 7:45 to start class at 8 and go til 2:30+ to possibly go to a committee meeting or a partner company reception to go home and do homework and maybe eat or sleep or something is a long day. My goal, if I'm waking up that early, is to be in bed around 10:30 or 11, but it's hard sometimes. Tonight some of our summer team (yeah Team 7!) is going to have a probability/hockey party and try and do work while watching the Bruins vs. the Canucks in Game 6 of the Stanley Cup. I don't exactly know the odds of how much work we'll get done, but I'm sure it will be fun.

Weekend outing

2011-06-07T14:06:00.000-04:00

So much has happened this past week that it's been hard to keep up with all the details. My next anecdote will be less LGO related and more MIT related. For my particular sublet, I ended up living with two other MIT alumni - one who is now there for grad school and another who is working in the area. We did not know each other while we were here even though all of us graduated undergrad in 2008; we met just through their listing for a sublet on Craigslist.

On Sunday (6/5) it was one of my roommate's birthdays and so the other '08 and I met her and some of her friends for Ethiopian/Eritrean food at Asmara restaurant in Cambridge. What's distinctive about Ethiopian food is that it is served on this thin, bubbly, quite sour bread and is eaten with your hands by pinching the bread around the meat or vegetables you are eating. This is a place where you definitely use your napkin!

I had Ethiopian food once before, and hadn't been too crazy about it. I went with some people to a place in Boston that took forever to get to and where the sour-ness of the bread overpowered the other flavors of what we were eating. Needless to say, I was not a fan. So, this past weekend, I had my reservations, but I thought I'd give it a second chance and that, at a minimum, meeting other people's friends and expanding my circle would be good.

Turns out some of this girl's friends live in Tang Hall where I'll be living during the fall AND that, upon a second try, I like Ethiopian food, at least from this place. The stews and vegetables and meat were spiced sort of like Indian food (Ethiopia is on the Eastern coast of Africa, right by the horn, so it makes sense that there would be some similarities) and the bread wasn't as overpowering as before. Overall we had both satisfying food and conversation. Dessert of ice cream birthday cake at Toscanini's afterwards definitely didn't hurt though!

I ended up getting home on Sunday a little later than I expected, but it was tasty and definitely worth it. I'm happy that I changed my attitude about this food that's pretty new to me and that I got to meet new people. LGO is great, but one of the things that I see as something I want to keep in the back of my mind is to build connections with the general MIT graduate community. Living in a dorm in the fall and talking more to this girl's friend is definitely a way to help me do that.

I wish I had pictures

2011-06-07T13:52:00.000-04:00

Day 1 of the program was last Wednesday and, after class, about a third of us decided to go have dinner and drinks together to celebrate the beginning of what I'm sure will be an awesome two years together. What made the evening notable though was how the weather progressed.

We had watched a movie that afternoon in the Universe Within, so the shades were down in the classroom. We heard one large BOOM outside but nothing else and presumed it was a short/passing thunderstorm. After class it was overcast but not very threatening when we headed to dinner. However, by the time we made it to a nearby bar in Central Square to watch Game 1 of the Stanley Cup, the sky had gotten pitch black. After we got our drinks, people near the windows were peering out and pointing so I went out onto the sidewalk to see giant chains of lightning all over the sky. It was spectacular. The hockey game was then interrupted for a severe weather alert where we were shown scenes of tornadoes touching down in Western Massachusetts and the weatherman standing next to a deep maroon radar screen.

The lightning by itself was dramatic, but we closed the door to the sidewalk once it began to rain sideways. The satellite signal for the TV reception went in and out about three times, causing the patrons in the bar to alternately cheer and groan. Some LGOs has left already and others, thinking it was going to get worse, braved the rain (getting soaked on the way home). I stayed until the beginning of the third period and turns out by then it was basically done raining so, except for some giant puddles, my trip home was OK.

As I wrote, the tornadoes were in the western half of the state and a number were confirmed to have touched down. Nothing major other than than the thunder and rain happened in Boston but it was still really amazing weather to witness. Like the snow that the incoming '13s saw at the admissions days this spring, the thunderstorm was definitely of greater magnitude and intensity than what we normally get in Massachusetts. The only conclusion I can arrive at is that our class will be... A force of nature!

Backtrack of sorts to "The Universe Within"

2011-06-05T10:22:00.000-04:00

The LGO class of 2013 officially began their time together on Wednesday June 1st when we assembled for our first class "The Universe Within". This is a week-long module taught by Jon Carroll, who went to MIT for undergrad, studied physics and was on the varsity fencing team (fun facts I found from the MIT alumni dircetory webpage). His position now is a professor at Sloan focusing on behavior and policy science, specifically with regards to safety.

He's been really nice, enthusiastic and funny and we've done lots of exercises as a class and in our summer teams to understand what makes a good leader, a good team and how we can best work together and listen to each other. I'm slightly confused as to why this week-long module is called The Universe Within if so much of it has to deal with how you interract with other people, but I'll go with it.

Wednesday and Thursday we spent on campus doing these class and group exercises. We found out our teams that we'll be working with all summer. For the class of 2013, there are 50 students, 15 of whom are women, and 8 teams. I am on Team 7, which has two women and which we've at least temporarily called "Where is Number 7?" because we're a team with only six people on it (only two of the teams have seven members). I'm happy with my teammates and look forward to finding out how to best work together to conquer the six classes we're taking this summer.

On Friday the 3rd, we woke up extra early and met at Sloan to spend a day out on Thompson Island in Boston Harbor doing Outward Bound activities. On the island we did group challenges, low ropes course elements and finished the afternoon with challenging ourselves on various higher elements like a climbing wall. We built trust, confidence and strengthened the abillity to rely on these people we'd known for less than a week. It was impressive. We all had the same goals, got to work and did it. On the way home, we got together for a great photo with Boston harbor and some of the skyline in the background.

A happy LGO class of 2013

The Universe Within module continues through next Tuesday the 7th, and then on Wednesday the 8th, we will meet new professors and begin the classes that will take us through the rest of the summer.

MIT150 - Inventional Wisdom

2011-06-05T09:56:00.001-04:00

I will discuss the first few days of class soon (we began on 6/1), but I'm instead going to write about MIT's 150th for a little while, since the finale event, Toast to Tech, was tonight. MIT was founded in 1861 by William Barton Rogers. He was also its first president. To honor its sesquicentennial anniversary, MIT had 150 days of events which included a special exhibit of 150 objects at the MIT museum, an open house to the general public, six colloquiums, the dedication of the new Sloan building, a festival of arts, science and technology (FAST) and global alumni gatherings.

Party in Killian Court in front of Building 10 (with the Great Dome)

Tonight, for Toast to Tech, MIT hosted a party with music, drinks, dancing, cake and fireworks to celebrate the end of those 150 days (which happened to coincide with reunion weekend). The fireworks went on for 15 minutes over the Charles River, music from many decades was played and everyone was served cake from a giant 750 pound cake shaped like buildings of MIT. The same bakery had also made 1000 cupcakes for the event.

MIT Campus Cake with a Cupcake Charles River

A skyscraper across the river (The Prudential Center) also had written MIT 150 on it via turning lights on only in certain rooms. It was very cool and a great way to cap off what has been a busy and amazing year for the institute.

MIT 150 written in the lights of the Prudential Center across the river in Boston

Even though as LGO students we've only started out time as MIT graduate students, we've already gotten a chance to have some fun with the general community and alums.

Incoming!

2011-06-04T18:33:00.001-04:00

Since my family is still in Massachusetts, I was lucky enough to leave work early in May and then move home for a few weeks before coming to Cambridge. I was excited to return to Cambridge and MIT to start LGO, but one of MIT's big weaknesses is dealing with grad students who don't start in the fall. I wasn't worried about classes and my classmates this spring, I was worried about housing.

Housing is the primary weakness of this program. I will explain...

ON-CAMPUS
Cons: If you want to live on-campus, you enter a lottery for a FALL assignment (you'll only know if you got one at the end of May) and in the meantime you have to find a summer sublet, either on or off-campus. Unless you get a sublet before you find out your fall assignment and then those two buildings happen to match, you'll be moving during the break between summer and fall classes. Just plan on it. Also, you cannot have your furry friends live with you.

Pros: You can get furnished housing if you're single, if you're married and lucky you could live in a building literally right next to sloan. Whether you're married or single, MIT shuttles run past all the dorms from 6AM to 2AM and the housing office allows you to break you lease at any time if you have an academic reason (like our internship) with little penalty.

OFF-CAMPUS
Cons: Leasing becomes both easier and harder with this option. It will probably be harder and more costly to break a lease, you will be further from campus and won't have shuttles. You'll need to arrange for LGO roommates over the course of two days during the admitted student open house weekend, pay a premium to live by yourself, or end up with random roommates. You might not have A/C in the summer (if that matters to you)...yes Boston/Cambridge is in the northeast but it can still get humid and hot sometimes.

Pros: You can live in the same place summer and fall (no move in August), you can get more space (especially if you live further from campus). If you sublet your place during your internship you may not have to move much at all. You can find a place that allows your pets, though those are still harder to find in Cambridge than people would like. The one good thing about starting in June is that if you do want to buy furniture when you get here, there's lots on Craigslist since most other people are moving out.

CONFESSION/NERD ALERT
In order to figure out what my best course of action was for housing, earlier this spring, I opened up Visio and drew some flowcharts. That helped, but starting school in June makes things a mess.

I, personally, ended up with a furnished summer sublet right by the T (name for Boston subway) and then will be moving to on-campus furnished housing in the fall. I've got that extra move, but, overall am happy with my decision.

An Introduction

2011-06-04T18:08:00.000-04:00

Hi! So you know whose perspective you're reading from, I wanted to introduce myself. My name is Victoria, I grew up in Massachusetts and lived in Michigan for three years after graduating from college. My family has been in the US kind of forever and I am fluent only in English. For my undergraduate degree I studied architecture at MIT. After college, in Michigan, I worked at an architecture firm reviewing in-house drawings, and information sent to us by consultants, and then I worked at a class III medical device company in their manufacturing engineering department. There, I performed process qualifications and improvements, and did lots of technical writing as well.

I found out about LGO from an email. It was not sent to my MIT one and I had taken the GRE while I was in college, so I don't know how or why I got it at the time, but it turned out to be very fortuitous. Here I am today. In the fall, I will write more about the admissions process so that future classes can receive the information when they're thinking about it the most - application time!

My interests lie in both product design and supply chain management and I will be choosing either a ESD or ME track for my engineering masters. Hopefully this blog will prove useful and interesting and at least something in it will resonate with you.

Now...on with the program!