And...go!

Two weeks in - how did this happen?  I cannot believe I'm 8% or something done with my internship (scary!).  Though I don't have photos of them, this week I made banana bread and strawberry pie in addition to trying to eat most of the stuff I made earlier (probably was a little over-exuberant on the cooking last weekend).

In the world of work, I visited another casting plant this week in Indiana which was a seven hour drive down on Monday and a seven hour drive to return on Tuesday.  We stayed at a Holiday Inn Express which had a pool, so, in the future, I need to remember to bring a swim suit on any overnight business travel, just in case.  In Indiana, I sat through another set of project meetings like I did in Ohio and got to see more of their casting  equipment installations as well as a die-cast area.  Basically my internship is trying to help them improve the system of project management and status reporting that they are currently using for these casting plants.

Wednesday and Thursday were spent doing self-paced required GM training for new employees, setting up meetings, and starting to look at org charts and to think about the stakeholder map I need to create for the end of July.

Friday...was spent off-site, but not visiting a plant this time.  This past Friday was the anniversary event for GM JumpStart which is a program they have to integrate interns, co-ops and new hires into the company and help them get excited and learn more about GM.

The Design Dome in Warren, where the conference part of Friday was held

The name of almost everything at GM has some fun play on vehicle terms, the main hall of conference rooms is called Gasoline Alley

The anniversary event was all held at the Tech Center in Warren, MI and consisted of a morning of speeches and panels (kind of like a conference).  These included a speech from Mark Reuss, GM President (fun fact: his Dad was also GM president) as well as a panel mixed between GM employees and other innovators.  Outside employees were included because this year HR had a chance to partner with MTV Scratch (a consulting arm of MTV/Viacom which helps companies make sure they stay in touch with the young people of today (in this case Millenials)).

In the afternoon, we had a ride and drive (where I drove only one car since you had to sign up for a driving slot).  Riding was fun, but driving the Sonic was more fun.  I thought it was a good little car.  Riding in the CTS-V was impressive, but would have been a lot cooler if I weren't crammed in the backseat with very little headroom.

Over 500 HP in this buggy - the CTS-V

I also rode in the XRS, Escalade, Terrain and Camaro and got to sit in both the Spark and the ATS that were stationed in the parking lot.  They had a Corvette, but all the driver sign-up spots were full by the time I got there and there had to be a staff member in the passenger seat, so no riding for me either.



The Spark is similar to the Fiat 500, but less expensive and with a good set of standard features

A baby blue grand sport corvette - could only look at this one unfortunately

Finally, after an afternoon in the hot sun, we had a break and then headed to the next town over for an afterparty.  At the party, which was co-sponsored by Scratch, we had dinner and time to mingle and then a local indie band called Dale Earnhart Jr. Jr. (don't know why they picked the name), played for us for an hour or so.  Their backdrop was a white sheet with a changing slide show of Detroit related photos - both modern and older.  It was cool.

One of the backdrops before they started playing

The three of them playing for us

I've been thinking a little bit more about why I like Michigan.  Yes, it has lots of companies and a variety of things to do and people are friendly (they say hi to you or at least nod when they go past - how nice! - I had forgotten that I did this to people when I came back to Boston from three years of working in Michigan and people looked at me kind of strangely), but I feel like it's got something which isn't nearly as present in Massachusetts which is what I'll call modern history.

Related to that note, click on this link for some really interesting stuff about the Motor City:
The Six Facts All Detroiters Should Know About Their Hometown

Massachusetts, but Boston especially, has so many ties to and artifacts of 200+ years ago, that sometimes I feel like we forget the cool stuff that went on recently, whereas the famous aspects of Detroit are primarily associated with the last 100, if not the last 50 years.  People are alive who've seen the changes, who've invented new technology, who've captured it on records and video and everything.  I don't know.  I'm not sure how else to describe it, but it just feels more dynamic here in certain ways (it doesn't hurt that everyone drives 75+ on 70 MPH highways either).

A packed weekend

I cannot tell you exactly what I drove and rode in, per the rule at the bottom of my registration form, but I can tell you that I woke up on Saturday almost as early as I do on a weekday to drive an hour and a half to go to a Chrysler facility in Chelsea, MI.

Chrysler Parking lot with their flags and water tower in the background

That day, Detroit chapter of the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) held a conference for its young professionals.  From what I could understand this conference happens every year but rotates for which of the "Big 3" it's hosted at.  This year, as you read, it was Chrysler.  We met at their proving grounds for a morning of talks and a panel discussion and then an afternoon of interaction with vehicles.  I'm not sure exactly how much more I can say.  What I will say was that that afternoon, in cars, I went over 100 MPH five times.  I was behind the wheel for none of those (of the vehicles we could drive as opposed to ride in, the max MPH we could go was 70), but it was still impressive and lots of fun.  Thanks to some freebies, I've now got a picture to go above my mantle (yes, I have a mantle!).

The poster says "Let Freedom Rev"

Besides the poster, I did manage to snap a picture of this car in the parking lot.

Normally cars aren't this ridiculous, but they are still definitely cooler (and sportier and of greater variety) out here in MI than what you'd see in MA.  For example, when I left my apartment complex today a car that was a couple decades old was coming through the gate.  Saturday night, I watched more of the Stanley Cup finals and made tabbouleh.  Lots of chopping in between periods.

Sunday, I slept in for the first time in about a week, had a tasty breakfast at home and I bought a comforter that actually fits my bed (I was getting by with a full blanket on the queen bed since it's only me).  Then I met up with a friend and former coworker to go strawberry picking.  I picked five pounds of strawberries in 90 degree heat (it was in the 90s basically the whole weekend).

Early June?  Strawberry Season!

After our farm time, we went to have dinner for Ann Arbor restaurant week at a place called Vinology.  The food there was tasty and pretty and creative (cheesecake with a pretzel crust!!), but a bit salty.  Still enjoyable and very enjoyable company.

Some strawberries ended up in these biscuits - it's amazing what you can make when you don't have homework

Once all the weekend stuff was done it was time to pack because I would be visiting another casting plant this week.  At least I could sleep in the car...

Hello from Michigan!

The housing that GM put me in, I have to say is great.  They have an office that assists students doing internships with the company and provide housing to anyone whose home is more than 36 miles away from their worksite (I think Cambridge qualifies!).  While they house four undergraduates in a 2-bedroom unit, their policy is to only put two graduate students of the same gender in the same place, so, for now at least, there are no other female graduate students working in Pontiac where I am, and so I've got a two bedroom mostly furnished place with A/C to myself.  The complex also has tennis courts, a gym, a sauna and a pool and hot tub all around the main leasing office/community building.  It feels like some strange cross between home and a hotel.  When I arrived the internet worked, the TV worked - everything!  Maybe in a future post I'll give more of a house tour.  That would mean I'd have to finish unpacking :-)

Kentucky Kasenga the Grand Prix outside of my unit (I also have a covered parking spot a little further away)

Sunday night, after running around to multiple places getting groceries and other things, I decided I really wanted to cook.  So, I made myself homemade broccoli cheddar soup and beer bread (used a bottle of Blue Moon and white flour, but I've heard you can use most any beer or flour).

All from scratch!

While I won't write in detail every week for sure, I thought I'd share some highlights of the first week of my internship with General Motors.

Day 1 of the internship the initial orientation was in Warren, MI, about a half hour from Pontiac.  Warren was also where I got my badge.  At the end someone who worked in Pontiac came down to Warren to meet me and I was able to follow her back to the plant.  In Pontiac, I got a phone, and a laptop, and started getting settled at my desk.  Everyone seemed quite prepared for my arrival and so I was pleased about that.

There aren't phones at cubes anymore - they just give you a cell phone - nicely they gave me a case and a car charger, too!

Day 2 - I spent 3/4 of the day at another building on the Pontiac campus going through lockout training.  Lockout is a way of stopping the flow of energy, anything from electricity to the full of gravity from harming anyone while they work to fix, repair or maintain equipment (usually involving going where people wouldn't normally go if they were just operating the machine).

The training, I thought, took longer than it needed to, but what was cool was that we ended by walking around this stamping building which also housed the training room.  I saw them making body parts for the Sonic, but the guy leading our training said that they also stamp Volt parts here and would soon be bringing Cruze stamps there too.  We walked by three huge presses and they were in the process of installing a fourth.  When the fourth one is up and running, our leader said that this would most likely be the biggest stamping plant in North America.  I do not know if this meant just in GM's portfolio or of all automakers.

Day 3 - Day trip to Ohio to sit through project progress meetings.  For my internship I will be going to one of these almost every week, just in different plants. On break in between morning and afternoon meetings I saw my first ever molten metal (Aluminum) and got to see some of the equipment working on the casting floor.  It was a long day though since we did all the driving in addition to the meetings - I was picked up from my place at 5:30AM and dropped back home around 6:15PM.

Day 4 - Not filled with training or driving, yesterday was a day to work on getting organized.  I sent a whole bunch of emails to get in preliminary contact with people, set up files (like starting an acronym glossary!), and went through some background PowerPoint files one of the managers shared with me.  I had lunch at my desk this time, rather than the cafeteria, but made an effort to talk to two interns that sit across the aisle from me.  They're both from Michigan and both going into their senior year in college.

Day 5 - I had lunch with LGO alum Mike Peterson, figured out how I will be getting to Indiana for another project meeting next week, and...got a set of company wheels to use for the weekend!  GM has a vehicle ambassador program where employees can borrow fleet vehicles in order to promote them to friends and family or take them for their own personal test drive.  Interns get two over the course of the summer, but also qualify for the one-a-quarter regular employee program.  Since the 2nd quarter ends at the end of June, I checked out all the weekends til then and this weekend had the best selection: a Cadillac CTS Wagon.

Grand Prix?  Temporarily replaced :-)

The guy in line behind me to pick up a company vehicle told me that the particular paint color I have, black diamond triple coat is a 5k upgrade.  Crazy!  The coolest thing about it that I've come upon so far are the air-conditioned seats.  Not bad for when it's 80+ degrees outside.

Tonight, again I also cooked.  I made burritos to freeze (super easy to heat up for work lunches) and some of my spring veggie soup (I used alphabet pasta just for fun).  See the soup below.

Lots of green stuff, plus pasta, not much broth...

In summary, since it's summer currently, I'm going to bed when the sun goes down (which admittedly is after 9:30 - hooray western edge of EST!), but I'm having a good time, seeing a lot (everything from the plants I'm visiting to just the cool cars in the parking lots), and am happy to be in Michigan.

This is a non-altered photo out my bedroom window at 9:30PM -  9:30!  How cool is that?

On my way (a retrospective post)

Note: The reason for the delay in posting this was in getting the photos onto my computer, so it's going to read a little oddly.  Pretend it's June 1st or so...

My internship with GM starts on Monday and so I'm in the process currently of moving to Michigan.  Thanks to the proximity of family, friends and people willing to lend me their car for six months (I suppose those are friends also!), the move will comprise having my stuff temporarily two places in Massachusetts, one place in Pennsylvania, one place in Indiana and then, finally, Michigan.  Luckily, GM has provided housing and so I do not have to take any furniture.  Between the mostly furnished place and buying a bed-in-a-bag when I get there, this has allowed me to move all of my stuff in...a VW Golf GTI.  Admittedly a stuffed GTI, but a GTI none the less.

The left back seat

The right back seat

And finally, the trunk

I had made a previous move in a jam packed Ford Focus, so this felt surprisingly familiar.

While the Mass Pike has been a common sight for me, and I've seen green mountains in Vermont, the rolling green hills and mountains of PA are less familiar and so I had many times when I realized I should have taken photos, but the moments were gone before I could take my camera out.  Here is one though.

So much green!

Along the way we passed the highest point on I-80 east of the Mississippi.  To honor this spot, there was a sign.  I took a photo :-)

Unfortunately, it was raining for a bunch of our drive through PA

After we left PA, we stopped in Toledo for a total of 5 hours (got in around 1AM and were on the road again by 6AM), then drove to Indiana where I was handed the keys to Kentucky Kasenga, the Pontiac Grand Prix belonging to Matt.  He's headed to Seattle for his internship and was going to borrow another student's car.  LGOs are very nice to share and swap things.

Once we picked up the car, it was time for another around five hour drive back in the direction we had come but more north - into Michigan.  One thing that was easy about basically all of this driving was once you got on a highway the GPS usually said something like, take this for X hundred miles, so other than dealing with occasional weather, the driving wasn't too challenging.

The trick was that I needed to get to the leasing office to pick up my apartment key by Saturday at 5PM.  Because we had woken up so early, I made it there by around 3:30.  Hooray!

CAT Mini Trek to Milford, MA

On Friday 10 of us and one staff member, Patty, piled into cars for a 45 minute drive to see Milton CAT, a family owner Caterpillar dealership franchise that serves most of New England and New York state.  They hosted us for a full day there, giving us a history of their branch of dealerships (three generations of Miltons have now ran the business) and tours of basically their whole facility.  They were great hosts and I'd like to thank them again for putting together such a great day Friday.

During domestic plant trek, we had gotten to learn a lot about CAT corporate, but didn't have the chance to experience the company from the dealer network perspective.  Being able to see what individual dealerships do to manage everything from inventory to customer relationships was helpful in understanding CAT as a whole business.  The dealer network actually has similar employment and revenue numbers to CAT corporate (sometimes bigger) and they regularly communicate and give feedback to headquarters.

A fun fact about CAT and their capabilities, is if you bring in a piece of their equipment they will refurbish, clean, repair, inspect and paint your entire machine in 4-5 weeks such that it will have the same warranty as it would when you bought it new.  This costs 60-70% of buying a new unit.  Remanufacturing, as well as renting, are some of the strategies CAT employs to be cost competitive to many different customers.

Turns out, because everything from repair and maintenance to parts sales is on site, this dealership felt more like a factory then a showroom, and had many things that we saw when we visited companies on our domestic plant trek.  One thing that we thought was especially awesome though, that was not included in our January trip was...getting to drive these machines!

This grader is just one of the units I drove on Friday - the blade is a six-way blade - it can go up and down, turn left and right (around the axis perpendicular to the ground) and then also tilt to the left and right (around the axis in the direction it's driving).  It's job is to level or contour the job site - it doesn't scoop - it only pushes.

This was what I drove first - digging, scooping - very cool

Took this one into and back out of a big ditch in the yard that we learned and played in

Here's our group that visited Milton CAT.  Thanks again for hosting us!

Reports of [manufacturing's] death are greatly exaggerated

The title of this post comes from the speech US Secretary of Commerce, John Bryson, gave on the second day of the Future of Manufacturing Conference held here at MIT on May 8th and 9th.  He was directing Mark Twain's quote famous quote about his death towards the state that US Manufacturing is in today.  While speakers from industry had some worrying reports about finding skilled workers interested in working for them (another story), the secretary had encouraging facts about the role of manufacturing in the US economy.  Here are a few:

Manufacturing makes up over 90% of US patents
Manufacturing makes up over 60% of US exports

That's some serious innovation and economic trade right there.

Besides the report from the US Secretary, there were panel discussions with a mix of industry and academic representatives and there were speeches from people on all sorts of issues.  The agenda from the conference can be found here.

In addition to the panels and speeches in Wong Auditorium here at Sloan, we had a few events in the new Media Lab building at MIT, mainly receptions and poster sessions.  It was nice to speak with people on a more casual basis and also to go to a building where we don't usually have class.

One theme that did consistently come up though the conference was the issue of the image of manufacturing in the mind of the public, the perception of career potential in the industry and how there are fewer people who have the complex technical trade skills to come in and do the high-tech manufacturing jobs needed.  We heard from both management and union members, and many ideas were proposed including:

Need to ensure women and minorities have STEM degrees
Need to staple green cards to immigrants with STEM degrees
Maybe implement an apprenticeship type program

STEM = Science, Technology, Engineering and Math

To some these may be controversial ideas, but the fact is that things don't seem to be working out as well as hoped if labor policies and employee demographics remain the same.  Perhaps we'll find other solutions or use other initiatives, but change is still necessary for future success.

Though we'll end up in management, that's one of the reasons the LGO program exists - to get exceptional talent working on production and distribution of tangible things - rather than in say finance which is a track many MBAs opt for.  The Sloan School of Management was originally the MIT School of Industrial Management and the pioneering program was endowed by Alfred Sloan, then president of General Motors (hence the name).  Manufacturing and industry is why Sloan was started in the first place!

At MIT, we have a great history in working in companionship with and in service of industry and I'm proud that LGO keeps this partnership strong.

Fall Flashback - working with the Pacific Puffins

As the spring semester comes to I close, I was looking back through photos I've taken this year and found this gem.  I took this photo in the fall to document our Pacific Puffins team, but I lost it in Picasa for a little while.  To give an explanation, the Pacific Puffins are my Sloan Core team, the team that I took Accounting, Economics, Organizational Processes and Communication with.  Each year, the incoming Sloan class is divided into six oceans and then each ocean is divided into ten or so groups of 6-7 (each with a max of one LGO).  So, I was in class every day and working on psets with this lovely group of individuals.  This semester I am in at least one class with three of them, but see the others less often.  Overall, we functioned well as a team and it has been fun to see the roles we have evolved into here at Sloan.

The Class of 2013 Pacific Puffins!

10,000!

Hooray!  Thanks to everyone reading this blog, in 11 months, I have reached the 10,000 hit mark!  I hope to continue producing more useful and enjoyable posts and to show even more facets of the LGO experience.  May the next 10,000 come even faster :-)

image from: http://willfulcaboose.wordpress.com/2011/02/22/happy-pegula-day/balloons-in-sky/

Just putting it out there

I find I really do enjoy writing.  I wish I had more time to do it.  When I do make the time, write a post, add some photos and see a response, it's awesome.  Even when I just write for me, it's fun.  I like rereading what I've written later, since often I try and note things I won't necessarily remember about a time, place or situation.  Yes, a picture is worth a thousand words, but sometimes I find that pictures have fewer broad associations whereas with words you can picture an active scene or a 360 degree view or conjure up other related memories more easily.

Sometimes I wonder if I should try and incorporate writing in a more formal way in my career going forward.  I've done technical procedure writing for a job, and enjoyed that, but am also slightly curious about other company writing (PR?), though that takes knowing how to say things correctly and I know more how to say them honestly.  I'm concerned that it would feel very constraining.  There must be other company writing besides procedures and PR.

After thinking about it, and others might certainly disagree with me on this one, I would prefer to be an editor than a PR person.  I've been a tutor and peer editor in many ways, since even middle and high school, and think that I bring a solid command of English language and grammar to a piece that I'm reading.  Now that I've written that sentence, I expect I'll accidentally type a glaring spelling or grammar error, but you get the point.  Hopefully from reading ::ahem:: many ::ahem:: blog posts, you'll get a feel for how I write overall.

Instead, maybe writing is something to keep for my own reference, or at least more casual pursuits.  You reading this now, of course, means it's not just for me, but blogs are in that funny sphere of something that in physical form was usually private, a diary or travelogue or something, becoming more public in it's digital reincarnation.  I'm OK with that.

While I debate sometimes about writing for fun or writing for a job (though you can do both), what I have stuck with for a while is that on my bucket list is being a published author.  Not of a journal or an article (though I suppose those could be good starts depending on where I was headed), but of a real, find at a normal bookstore (or, ok on Amazon :-) book.  Having at least one hardcover or paperback book with my name on the spine would be so cool.  I have never written a long work of fiction, so I don't expect it would come out that way, but a group of essays or non-fiction or a memoir or something I can't even imagine right now would be wonderful to have in the body of my life's work.

This post concerns neither engineering, nor really business and a job only tangentially.  Instead, it's more just learning and thinking about what I would like and like to do in the long run.  I hope you don't mind humoring me.

Product Design and Development...Developments

Today was spent on a road trip to Rhode Island School of Design (in, you guessed it - Rhode Island!).  We went down there to work with our RISD teammates on our product design and development project which is to improve the experience of using a water fountain.  Our goal is to create a faucet/bubbler spout that encourages you to drink tap water from a water fountain versus buying bottled water.

At first we thought about telling you how much money you'd saved from the amount that you drank, but through our process decided that the fact of how much CO2 you saved by not buying bottled water that had been packaged and shipped actually had more impact.  Our aim is to have a final faucet where you know how much CO2 you saved depending on how long the button was held down (roughly equivalent to how much you drank).

While we've tossed around designs for faucets, we actually ended up primarily tackling the issue of how to present the water fountain concept, in a functioning way, without being near a bathroom or faucet.  Today, between work time and an extended trip to home depot, we spent eight hours working on building a cart to hold the water fountain as well as making sure our electronics worked.

It kind of explains itself

We were in the store for probably almost two hours - going over what we needed and verbally iterating our design.  It ended up working out pretty well.

The final faucet form for the review on Tuesday (yes, this Tuesday) is still in process, though we know what we want it to look like.  From our time working at RISD, I snapped a bunch of action shots.  Hope you enjoy.

On a side note, I saw something today when we grabbed a late lunch at Wendy's that was SO COOL.  There was a soda machine with one dispenser and a screen where you could pick many different sodas, but add flavor to them!  I don't know if these versions of the sodas were ever made, but I thought it was awesome to pick almost literally, whatever you wanted.  I had peach Fanta mixed with raspberry Sprite.  Where else could you do that??

The actual dispenser (I have since learned that this thing is called a Coca Cola Freestyle machine)

The soda cup (They called this a medium?!? It was so big!) that listed all the different flavors you could add to the core soda

Open House - the beginning of transition

The '14s have come to campus!  Not for full-time yet, but with the happy knowledge that everyone they saw at this event has also been accepted (January's Interviewfest is kind of an awkward time in that respect).  Even though the afternoon weather last Thursday was not the most cooperative (it turned grey and rainy), we had a good time which continued into Friday.  Open House was my big committee push (people choose all kinds of different committees to get extra involved in) and I really wanted to make sure we gave the most helpful information and made sure the '14s had fun and could confidently make up their minds as to whether they wanted to come to MIT for full time this summer.  I should have taken photos, but unfortunately, I didn't have my camera in my bag.

Things have been ramping up the for the end of the semester.  I'm now less than one month away from finishing three straight semesters of taking more than 54 units of class per term, two straight of 60 or more (business classes usually are nine units each, and engineering classes are 12 units) and I am looking forward to the change of pace the internship with GM will bring.  I have no idea how the work loads will compare, but at least I won't have much homework for GM (though I will be taking notes and thinking about my thesis).  For reference, during undergrad, I took 60 units only one semester of the eight I was at MIT.

Working (or at least printing) in an Athena cluster, one of MIT's computer labs

At the same time, I can't believe that the 2012s will be moving on up and away and won't be here when I come back from internship - they'll have been replaced with the '14s!  Supposedly, each year the character of the class switches back and forth from more single party people to a class with more SOs, kids and stablility.  My class is in the stable relationship part of the pattern and has pretty much lived up to that - not much drama, everything has been pretty good.  At the Open House, rather than all being single and ready to mingle, the 2014s brought a bunch of SOs and kids, so it will be interesting to see if they live up to the every other year trend or start to buck it.

I'm back!

After an April 1st that lasted for 30 hours due to all the time zones I was passing through and not having slept horizontally in a bed since the night of March 31st, I have returned safely home to Cambridge after working on our Lion Team project and then touring companies in Shanghai and Tokyo with the LGO International Plant Trek.

All in all, the trip had four parts, a LGO only benchmarking excursion to Beijing at the beginning of the trip (we wanted to see if another company had similar problems to those that Sandisk wanted us to address), then time in Shanghai with just our Lion Team - the 6 LGOs and 6 CLGOs, time in Shanghai with everyone on International Plant Trek (IPT) and then time with everyone from IPT in Tokyo, Japan.  It was a whirlwind 16 days.

Highlights of the trip included getting to spend a week working closely with six CLGOs on our lion team project for Sandisk.  They were fantastic hosts and translators and very encouraging as they watched me drop many things in my attempts to master chopsticks.  I appreciated getting to have extra one on one time with them because I feel that we were able to get to know each other much better compared to if I had just come for international plant trek.  50 with 50 is much more challenging than 6 with 6.

The Sandisk Lion Team at a classroom in Shanghai Jiao Tong University

We had many types of Chinese food with them.  Just as the US has regional specialties, we tried Hong Kong style food, Shanghai style, Cantonese style, etc. - some were spicier, some were sweeter, but I would say that I found all of them better than American style Chinese food.  I even tried frog and eel which I had never had before.

Our Hot Pot dinner at Little Fat Sheep (English Translation) - two types of broth were boiling in this bowl on our table and we cooked meat and vegetables in them

Between Lion Teams and International Plant Trek I visited six companies - Sandisk, another consumer electronics company for benchmarking (I'm not writing it here since we're not giving the name to Sandisk), Nike, Cisco, Sony and Nissan.  We got to see everything from production to distribution to product showcases.  It was pretty impressive.  I'm glad I chose to both do Lion Teams and International Plant Trek, but have been happy to be back in the US also.  I can't believe it's been a week already since I returned.  More to come!

Happy Pi(e) Day!

Today, Sloan provided goodies over lunch.  Mi Pi was apple and it was pretty tasty.  This was a nice treat near the end of the last week before SIP (Sloan Innovation Period).  Pretty soon I'll be off to China and Japan!

Sloan's poster announcement

The spread - you could choose apple, cherry or blueberry

Mi Pi!

Go Tech!

Tonight MIT made it to the final four of the NCAA Division III Men's Basketball tournament by beating Franklin & Marshall College 69-54.  This is the first time ever that this has happened and it's pretty darn cool.  I know we're Division III and that's not as glamorous as Division I, but it still means something to get this far, especially considering that MIT does no sports recruiting.

In honor of the team's success, I'm posting MIT's cheer.  The only thing you need to know is that Tim (MIT backwards) the beaver is our mascot.  Why the beaver?  It's native to North America, is nature's engineer, is very industrious and is mostly nocturnal.  Without further ado, here it is:

I'm a beaver,
You're a beaver,
We are beavers all!
And when we get together,
We do the beaver call!

E to the u du dx,
E to the x dx!
Cosine secant tangent sine,
3.14159,
Integral, radical, mu, dv!
Slipstick, slide rule, M-I-T!
Go tech!

March - how did we get here already?

Three months from now I will be starting at GM.  It has been a little over nine months since this LGO adventure started and so much has happened.  Most recently, we received more information about internship logistics and thesis writing.  Eeek!  The 2012s are finishing up their theses as I write this and it's hard to believe I'll be filling their shoes a year from now.

In class, my idea to redesign a water fountain made it to the final 12 projects (out of over 100 to start with) in our product design class and so, for the rest of the semester I'll be working with six other people to make that happen.  Outside of class, I worked with another LGO, Jessica Lin, a PhD student from Harvard and an MBA from Babson in a healthcare case competition.  Even though the case competition was not as successful as our Product Design and Development class has been so far, I think I definitely still got a lot out of it.  Case competitions can sometimes be a good way to give yourself a crash course in something.  In our case, it was digital marketing (a company wanted to use these techniques to create a drug launch strategy).

Outside of class, I went to the South Asian C-Function tonight, which was a blast.  There was tasty Indian food, many people wore brightly colored clothes from the region and students danced and sang.  Hey 2014s, can we go to India for next year's International Plant Trek?  I'm not kidding on this one - a bunch of 2013s would like to do it :-)  Speaking of International Plant Trek, between that and my Lion Teams class, I will be in China and Japan for two weeks very soon.  I'm not sure how internet access (and security!) will work over there, so I might be posting about it all after the fact, but, trust me, there will be pictures and travelogues!

Besides March feeling like it came more quickly, it has continued the trend of ridiculously un-winter-y weather.  Today it hit 67 degrees (which is pretty much at if not breaking a record high temperature for this day of the year).  People were extra happy and many had lunch outside or decided to walk between buildings outdoors, rather than inside.  The photo below is real, it's not a "posed to look like we spend time outside" photo.  I can't say it happens regularly, but this is not promotional, people just went out to enjoy the sun.

Hanging out in front of E62, the newest Sloan Building, enjoying the warm weather

I hope the warm trend continues until spring when it's supposed to start getting warmer otherwise these poor flowers are going to be toast.  We've had snow as late as April before in Massachusetts.

Signs that spring has spung - little blue flowers by E62

Finally, in this festive mood I'm in, I'll post a LGO candid because it makes me smile.

Happy March everyone!

Decisions, Decisions

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

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!

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.