Last Day

Today is my last day of classes.  I passed in a group assignment (my last homework to turn in) already and will be taking my final quiz later this afternoon.  Then I am done academically at MIT (though I suppose I'll only know for sure once all my grades come in).

From my internship with GM and the fact that I'm buying a car this summer, I've been looking a lot more closely at cars lately.  This tendency is also heightened because, in a city like Cambridge, there are more open parking lots and fewer cars hidden away in garages.  So, when I came to the Sloan building today and noticed a logo on the front of a car that I did not immediately recognize, I had to investigate.

Does this look familiar to you?

In retrospect, I should have recognized the logo from our domestic plant trek to the North American International Auto Show in Detroit.  Turns out it's a Tesla.

A Tesla S in fact - depending on the battery size either ~$62K or ~$72K

That was a fun surprise.  I had never seen one "in the wild" before.  The car had a British aesthetic to me, reminiscent of Jaguar or Aston Martin.  I hope Tesla considers that a compliment.

In between now and graduation, I will be packing, moving and cheering on the Red Wings, however far they make it in the NHL playoffs.  Other students are looking for their new apartments or houses, others still are going to the British Virgin Islands next week.  Either way, we will no longer have homework hanging over our heads.  Yay!

Apologies

It is spring of the second year and with that comes multiple things - thesis writing, senioritis and nicer weather.  You are both busy and in the time that you are not busy, you are less inclined to sit in front of the computer writing blog posts.  Besides that, I am in the process of buying a house, so that adds a whole other level of busy-ness (business? :-) going on in my life.

But seriously, what an awesome classroom view?  Tons of flowering trees and blue sky

However, it has been over a month...when I used to post multiple times a week.  So let's get to it.

Last week brought the LGO Alumni conference.  Many LGO alumni of the both recent and further past gathered on campus on May 2nd and 3rd to celebrate 25 years of MIT LGO (then LFM) existing.  One of the questions that came up multiple times was what would the next version, LXX, be?  We would be Leaders, but of or for what?  Sustainability and prosperity both came up as possibilities for one of the X's.  I'm not sure yet what my LXX vision is.

There were speeches by alumni and professors, about their work and life and what role MIT and LGO has played.  One alum even brought his son who was in the area touring colleges to the conference.  Professor Arnie Barnett, who has taught many of the LGO/LFM students through the years, gave a talk on his research in aviation safety and added a few key thoughts on leadership.

Arnie's thoughts on leadership - Click on the photo to enlarge it

In addition to alumni and professors, there was a special panel of founding members of the program.  It was very cool to hear them talk about the need for the program, their vision for its mission, how they approached industry for funding and how it worked creating better ties across the institute.  Just like I enjoy speaking to alumni about how their experiences were the same or different from mine, it was extra special to get this glimpse into a specific piece of LGO history.

Founding members - L to R - Kent Bowen, Tom Magnanti, Gary Cowger and Bill Hanson 

Extra fact about one of these founding members - Tom Magnanti has the honor of being named an Insititue Professor.  According to MIT Policies and Procedures:

The title of Institute professor is an honor bestowed by the Faculty and Administration of MIT on a faculty colleague who has demonstrated exceptional distinction by a combination of leadership, accomplishment, and service in the scholarly, educational, and general intellectual life of the Institute or wider academic community.

The number of Institute Professors at MIT is about as small as the number of Nobel Laureates at MIT.

Even though graduation is not until June 7th, I have ten days of classes left.  My thesis is now printed, I have three of the four signatures that I need and the fourth one, along with a celebratory cupcake, is planned for Thursday.  The number of remaining regular assignments is dwindling to what I can count on one hand and I am so excited now to see what the next phase of things will bring.